Singapore-based venture capital fund East Ventures has announced that it has closed its 5th VC fund. The firm has closed a $ 27.5 mn fund that will be used for making investments in early-stage start-ups belonging to the South East Asia region.
This makes it the fifth East Ventures investment fund, and the firm plan to use it to rapidly expand their footprint in the maturing Asian markets.
With 80 active portfolio companies in Southeast Asia, East Ventures is among one of the most active tech startup investors in Asia. From 2015 to 2016, the firm’s inbound deal leads increased 133 percent from 331 to 774. It invested in 2.5 percent of incoming leads in 2016. It’s notable investments include Indonesian startups, such as Tokopedia, Traveloka, Kudo and Shopback and media firm TechinAsia. A majority of its investments are centered in Indonesia, which is logical considering that it is the country with the highest population in the region.
The policy will remain to focus on and nurture the young start-ups. The company will initially pump in $500,000 and subsequent rounds could go up to $1 million as well.
When asked about the firm’s rapid rise as a prolific investor, Managing Partner Cuaca told Tehcrunch
We have very close engagement with all of our founders,” Cuaca said. “We’re hands-on with strategic matters but hands-off operations-wise. The co-working space is creating another layer of community, it isn’t there to make money.
Set to be the fastest growing regional economy in the next century, Southeast Asia’s 600 million people are building booming entrepreneurial ecosystems and have already achieved multiple US$1 billion start-up valuations. The governments too are helping the young innovators succeed by providing thriving start-up ecosystems, and East Ventures is poised to tap into the very same economy in a big way.
