Singaporean Investment Giant Temasek Joins Facebook’s Libra Project

Temasek, the state-owned investment firm of Singapore has joined the Libra project by Facebook. The sovereign wealth fund has more than $330 billion under management.

A history with large tech companies

Temasek has been investing in several technology companies. It invested in Dell Technologies and helped it acquire EMC too. It is also an investor in Tencent and Alibaba. Apart from its fair share of blue-chip companies, it has invested in several startups as well.

In a tweet, the fund announced its involvement with Libra and said,

“Looking forward to the potential of this #blockchain-based digital currency, and how it can help create a regulated global network for cost-effective retail payments”.

Now, Libra is saying that it sees innovative technology like blockchain enabling growth. It also aims to support and help advance the use of blockchains to more use cases, sectors, and asset classes. Eventually, they focus on creating a smarter and more sustainable world.

Not much noise about the involvement

Even though Temasek and Facebook are giants of their respective sectors, both aim to keep their new participation low-key. For Facebook, this is an opportune moment to gather support from a large investor in Libra, which has sustained consistent criticism from around the globe. The Libra project recently pivoted from a global cryptocurrency to a less-ambitious model. It now aims to create several stablecoins backed by a fiat each. Their new plans weren’t received with as much enthusiasm this time as the company caved in under regulatory pressure.

None of the current backers of Libra have the credibility or size that Temasek enjoys. The fund focuses extensively on Asia and has stakes in some of the biggest Chinese e-commerce companies. This would help Facebook create a sustainable ecosystem for its products.