SummaryCompanies India's Avendus to launch investment banking in Southeast AsiaKKR-backed Avendus' managing director Gupta to move to SingaporeAvendus expects Southeast Asia to grow fast in coming yearsMUMBAI, Oct 17 (Reuters) - Indian financial services firm Avendus will start offering investment banking services from Singapore to cash in on an expected technology sector dealmaking boom in the Southeast Asia region. Karan Sharma, a managing director for Avendus in India said the operations from Singapore will focus on advising technology sector funding rounds of $40-50 million in Southeast Asia. Sharma said Avendus India Managing Director Varun Gupta will lead the Southeast Asia operations and relocate to Singapore early next year. The demographics and infrastructure challenges are similar," said Sharma, who co-heads Avendus' Digital & Technology Investment Banking division in India. Dealmaking in Southeast Asia should help lift Asian mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity in the second half of the year, bankers told Reuters in June.

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Persons: Gupta, Avendus, Karan Sharma, Sharma, Varun Gupta, GoTo, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Sriram, Yantoultra Ngui, Aditya Kalra, Sharon Singleton Organizations: Asia KKR, Singapore Avendus, U.S, KKR, Avendus, & Technology Investment Banking, Tiger Global, Reuters, Asia, Accel, Lightspeed, Venture Intelligence, Thomson Locations: Asia, Singapore, Southeast Asia, MUMBAI, India