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East Ventures announces new funding round for SEA startups
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An illustration of a startup business. (Shutterstock/File)
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ingapore-based venture capital firm East Ventures announced it started a new US$27.5 million investment fund for early-stage technology startups in Southeast Asia on Wednesday.
This is the fifth East Ventures investment fund to date, and they plan to deploy the capital to further their thematic investment thesis as the startup ecosystem matures in the market.
East Ventures has backed several prominent Indonesian startups, such as Tokopedia, Traveloka, Kudo and Shopback.
(Read also:Fintech startups flourish in 2016, mostly in lending)
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.
Albert Lucius, co-founder of Kudo, attests to East Ventures’ support in scaling up startups and mentioned that “both potential investors and entrepreneurs respect their pro-founder’s philosophy”.
Kudo itself has been successfully building a platform to address unbanked populations in Indonesia and working toward bringing financial inclusion products through its network of 300,000 agents.
According to Singapore state-investment firm Temasek Holdings, Southeast Asia's internet economy is projected to grow more than US$200 billion by 2025.
Previously, Financial Services Authority (OJK) commissioner Firdaus Djaelani welcomed the fast-growing investment environment that venture capital money had brought to support startup companies in Indonesia but was concerned about the limited market that local venture capital funds could win. (bbn)
