EV Growth, a Singapore headquartered venture capital firm, has hit the hard cap of its first fund at US$250 Million, exceeding the firm’s initial US$150 Million target. This milestone is the result of the firm’s admission of new Limited Partners (LPs) which include several Asian based family offices and two of Asia’s largest sovereign wealth funds.
Launched in March 2018, EV Growth is a joint venture between East Ventures, SMDV and Yahoo! Japan Capital that focuses on providing growth capital to startups in Indonesia and the rest of Southeast Asia with an industry agnostic focus. The company is led by three partners – Willson Cuaca from East Ventures, Roderick Purwana from SMDV, and Shinichiro Hori from Yahoo! Japan Capital.
EV Growth has invested across different sectors in Southeast Asia. Some of its recent investments included:
Indonesia leading Edutech Ruangguru US$150 Million Series C round
Indonesia leading Beauty-tech Sociolla US$40 Million Series D round
Regional cashback startup Shopback US$45 Million round
Indonesia supply chain logistic Warung Pintar US$27.5 Million Series B
Indonesia trucking and warehousing platform Waresix US$14.5 Million Series A
Other major follow on rounds included the latest round of two Indonesian unicorns Tokopedia and Traveloka, Indonesia SME lending Koinworks, Indonesia premium online-to-offline coffe chain Fore Coffee, and Indonesia leading media company IDN Media.
Presently, EV Growth has deployed more than 50 per cent of its total funds in 20 deals. 80 per cent of EV Growth’s portfolio companies are Indonesian, where the fund’s IRR stands at 36 per cent.
Willson Cuaca, Managing Partner of EV Growth and co-founder of East Ventures 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.”
By having two funds, East Ventures supports the start-up ecosystem and has been consistent, long term and founder friendly. In example, East Ventures has been a long-time supporter of Ruangguru where Willson Cuaca was a board member since the initial stage and participated in the company’s seed round in 2014. East Ventures assisted with the follow-on round and supported further through EV Growth fund by investing in its recent US$150 Million series C round.
“We are proud to have East Ventures as our partner. Willson Cuaca from EV Growth believed in us from the very beginning and gave us our first seed funding in 2014. We are thankful that EV Growth supported us and participated in our latest US$150 Million round. We continue to demonstrate a strong commitment to East Ventures and look forward to working together with them to reach even greater heights,” added Adamas Belva Syah Devara, CEO and co-founder of Ruangguru.
About EV Growth
EV Growth is a joint venture between East Ventures, SMDV, and Yahoo! Japan Capital that is focused on providing growth capital to startups in Indonesia and the rest of Southeast Asia with an agnostic industry focus. EV Growth has one of the largest networks of companies and partners in the region and has invested in more than 20 portfolio companies since its first close in April 2018.
EV Growth aims to bridge the gap in VC growth funding with the ultimate goal of creating a well-diversified portfolio of Southeast Asia early growth tech stage leaders. Leveraging Sinar Mas’ deep business knowledge and combined with East Ventures’ reputation as one of the leading VCs with the largest seed and Series A portfolios in the region as well as Yahoo! Japan Capital’s long experience in the Internet industry, EV Growth has unrivaled access and insight into upcoming trends and opportunities in the industry.
About East Ventures
Founded in 2009, East Ventures is an early-stage sector-agnostic venture capital firm. The firm has supported more than 170 companies in the Southeast Asian region that are present across Indonesia, Singapore, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam.
An early believer in the startup ecosystem in Indonesia, East Ventures is the first investor of Indonesia’s unicorn companies, namely Tokopedia and Traveloka. Other notable companies in the portfolio include Mercari, Warung Pintar, Fore Coffee, Disdus (acquired by Groupon), Kudo (acquired by Grab), Loket (acquired by Gojek), Tech in Asia, Omise, IDN Media, Ruangguru, MokaPOS, ShopBack, and CoHive.
In 2018, to further support and capitalize on the development of their ecosystem, East Ventures set up a growth stage fund named EV Growth. The following year, East Ventures was named the most consistent top performing VC fund globally by Preqin and the most active investor in SEA and Indonesia.