East Ventures seeks $88m for post-pandemic startup fund

Early-stage VC firm East Ventures announced it has reached the first close of its new seed fund for companies aiming to transform the region’s post-lockdown landscape.

(Disclosure: East Ventures is an investor in Tech in Asia.)

Willson Cuaca of East Ventures / Photo credit: East Ventures

The company said it looks to raise no more than US$88 million for the new fund, which is its eighth investment vehicle to date.

The capital is being raised from institutional investors, global funds, and family offices, according to a statement. East Ventures said its latest fund has already attracted global and regional institutional investors, including Pavilion Capital and Adams Street Partners.

“The pandemic has created a chance for a new breed of entrepreneurs to think about new problems and how to solve them in efficient ways via technology,” said East Ventures’ managing partner and co-founder Willson Cuaca.

Cuaca added that the company remains optimistic about the future of the digital economy in Southeast Asia, especially in Indonesia, despite the current situation.

East Ventures said it will also work closely with its existing portfolio companies to advise startups during the crisis.

“We realized that the majority of our CEOs have never been in crisis before,” Cuaca noted. This has led the company to do regular health checks with its portfolio firms to gauge how severely the Covid-19 pandemic has affected their businesses.

“Only after founders understand these things can they begin to cultivate their own strategy and implement it tactically,” Cuaca added.

Since being founded in 2009, East Ventures has already supported more than 170 startups in the region that are present across Indonesia, Singapore, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam.

The company is one of the first investors in now Indonesian unicorns Tokopedia and Traveloka. Other notable companies in its portfolio include Ruangguru, Warung Pintar, Fore Coffee, ShopBack, CoHive, and Koinworks.