CyberAgent Ventures raises new $50M fund for startups in Southeast Asia, opens co-working space in Jakarta

Takahiro Suzuki (left) and Steven Vanada (right) of CyberAgent Ventures in Indonesia

Earlier this evening, Japan-based venture capital firm CyberAgent Ventures announced a new US$50 million fund for Southeast Asian startups, with a strong focus on the Indonesian market. In the past, the firm has only invested in series A Indonesian startups. But now, armed with a second fund, the firm will also look for Southeast Asian tech startups in the seed, series A, and series B stages.

Steven Vanada, VP of CyberAgent Ventures in Indonesia, discloses that in fact his firm is still raising some of the cash, which it hopes will come from more investors outside Japan. However, Vanada and Takahiro Suzuki, general manager of CyberAgent Ventures in Indonesia, both confirm that enough limited partners have fully boarded. This means they can safely announce the fund in public, and Vanada says the fund will be fully operational in July.

Vanada adds that CyberAgent Ventures will be looking into several different new verticals. Some of them include edtech, real estate, car listings, fintech, as well as startups that can be classified as “mobile first” or “mobile only.”

“If they have a proven model and the team is good, then we can also focus on seed,” Vanada tells Tech in Asia. “We are very bullish, especially on Indonesia. In the next few years, I think we will see a tipping point. […] For us, we want to be able to produce the next unicorn from Southeast Asia. […] We want to support the ecosystem as far as we can, and we want founders not to worry about the funding, but just focus on the product.”

See: An inside look at CyberAgent Ventures in Indonesia

“Slipicon Valley”

Additionally, the firm has opened a new office and co-working space in Jakarta. The space is located in the Dipo Business Center in the city’s Slipi district. This makes the area one of Jakarta’s most densely populated neighborhoods in terms of housing tech startups, VC firms, and co-working spaces. It is already home to Mountain Kejora Ventures as well as the Ideabox accelerator, Tokopedia, Tech in Asia, and more.

Around town, the district is becoming known as “Slipi-con Valley,” and Vanada hopes to turn the area into a place where startups, investors, corporates, and other stakeholders begin to host more events and engage in more knowledge tranfer to grow the ecosystem. Vanada and Suzuki say the space is indeed meant for CyberAgent Ventures’ portfolio companies, but other outside startups are also welcome to join for a fee.

CyberAgent Ventures is one of the early investors in Tokopedia, one of Indonesia’s local consumer-to-consumer ecommerce firms that could be worth US$1 billion today. Until recently, Vanada and Suzuki just worked out of Tokopedia’s office. Vanada says CyberAgent Ventures has not yet sold any of its shares in Tokopedia, as it still believes the firm can continue growing.