Ex-Gobi Partners exec on his investment thesis and industry trends

This article is from an episode of Asia VC Cast, a podcast hosted by Daniel Song. This is heavily revised from the original show transcript. For the full interview, go here.

Victor Chua is the managing partner at Vynn Capital. He was formerly the vice president of investments at Gobi Partners and managed two Southeast Asia-focused early-stage funds. Prior to that, he was with the venture capital arm of Malaysia’s Ministry of Finance, managing direct and indirect investments.

Chua has invested in over 20 companies in Southeast Asia, particularly in Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia. Some of his most notable deals include Carsome, Travelio, Triip, Hermo, and Jirnexu.

Tell us a bit about yourself and how you found Vynn Capital

I officially started Vynn Capital last year in February. Before I founded the firm, I was with Gobi Partners, managing Southeast Asia portfolios.

Before officially becoming a venture capitalist, I was actually running a startup. I don’t talk too much about it because it’s kind of like a battle scar from a time when Malaysians knew nothing about VCs, or the term startup wasn’t really a common thing.

That was my first taste of technology. My first foray into startups, however, was when I was with a consulting firm. There, I learned about startups as I talked with clients and got my experience in building strategies for venture capital.

What’s Vynn Capital’s investment thesis and strategy?

First of all, we are more thematic in a sense that we focus on certain industries: travel, property, fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), and female economics. That’s the first difference compared to others in the VC industry as well.

Second, we focus on how we actually create synergy between our portfolio companies, and at the end of the day, we also hope to build the bridge between our limited partners (LPs) and the companies we invest in.

How do you make sure that your LPs and portfolio companies work together?

The first thing that we do is to introduce a potential investee to a portfolio company they might be able to synergize with. We do this before deciding on whether we should invest in that company or not. If you put them side by side in the early days – even before having a formal relationship – that helps a lot in building rapport.

Of course, consciously and subconsciously we do work with a particular type of entrepreneur as well. With that kind of filter, our founders are more likely to collaborate.

What we also actively do is look at the business segments that startups are in and connect them.

For example, we invested in Dropee. It’s a Malaysian business-to-business marketplace focusing on the FMCG market. We also invested in Pomona, an Indonesian company that operates in the same industry.