Singapore-headquartered venture capital firm EV Growth has announced the close of its first fund at US$250 million, exceeding the firm’s initial target of US$150 million.
The VC firm’s new Limited Partners (LPs) include several Asia-based family offices and two of Asia’s largest sovereign wealth funds, including Temasek.
EV Growth was launched in March 2018. A joint venture among East Ventures, SMDV and Yahoo! Japan Capital, the fund focusses on providing growth capital to startups in Indonesia and the rest of Southeast Asia with an industry agnostic focus.
EV Growth aims to bridge the gap in VC growth funding with the goal of creating a diversified portfolio of Southeast Asia early growth tech stage leaders.
The firm is led by three partners — Willson Cuaca from East Ventures, Roderick Purwana from SMDV, and Shinichiro Hori from Yahoo! Japan Capital.
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To date, EV Growth has invested across different sectors in Southeast Asia. Its portfolio firms include Ruangguru (US$150 million Series C round with General Atlantic and GGV Capital); Sociolla (US$40 million Series D round with Temasek), Shopback (US$45 million round with Rakuten and EDBI), Sendo (US$61 million Series C round with Softbank Ventures Asia and Thailand’s Kasikornbank), Koinworks (US$16.5 million round), and Warung Pintar (US$27.5 million Series B round with Vertex and Pavilion Capital).
Other major follow-on rounds that the VC firm is involved included the latest round of two Indonesian unicorns Tokopedia and Traveloka, insurtech startup Fuse, Indonesia’s on-demand coffee chain Fore Coffee, Indonesian SME Saas Mekari, regional prop-tech 99.co, Indonesia’s online media company IDN Media, and payment company Xendit.
EV Growth claimed that it has deployed more than 50 per cent of its total funds in 20 deals. About 80 per cent of its portfolio companies are Indonesian.
Also Read: East Ventures, Yahoo! Japan Capital, and SMDV launch EV Growth
Cuaca of East VC said: “The inflection point in Southeast Asia is now and we are lucky to be here early. Our firm’s operating experience, deal velocity, local knowledge, and regional networks have helped us capture some of the best deals in the region. We plan to deploy US$325 Million for Southeast Asian startups combining active funds size, for both seed and growth stage.”
Just this year, East Ventures was named the most consistent top performing VC fund globally by Preqin and the most active investor in SEA and Indonesia.
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Image credit: EV Growth
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