Indonesian VC funds Arise, Centauri merge to form Ascent Venture Group

(From left) Ascent partners Kenneth Li, Hans De Back, Eric Yoo, and Aldi Adrian Hartanto / Photo credit: Ascent Venture Group

Arise and Centauri, two Indonesia-based VC funds, have merged to become Ascent Venture Group. The new entity is raising US$200 million to invest in 25 early-stage startups in the country.

Ascent has also announced Central Capital Ventura – the VC arm of Indonesian bank BCA – is joining as an ecosystem partner.

“Our goal was to consolidate our resources and network of ecosystems to build a platform of exponential value that can strengthen our ‘thesis-driven’ strategy and provide significant product-market fit support,” said Aldi Adrian Hartanto, managing partner at Ascent.

Hartanto was previously a partner at Arise. Ascent has three other managing partners: Kenneth Li of Centauri, Hans De Back (previously of Finch Capital), and Eric Yoo of KB Investment.

For the new Ascent fund, the team is targeting companies in the areas of MSME enablement, financial services digitalization, and NEO consumer products focusing on sectors like climate and healthcare.

Ascent’s two predecessor funds were joint ventures between MDI Ventures, the corporate VC arm of Indonesia’s Telkom, with KB Investment (Centauri) and Finch Capital (Arise).

Hartanto added that Ascent’s relationship with the likes of MDI Ventures and KB Investment enables it to support its portfolio with later-stage capital.

Arise and Centauri, which are fully deployed, have invested in a total of 30 companies. This includes insurtech company Qoala, social commerce startup Evermos, and logistics provider Paxel.

See also: As funding drops, will Indonesian startups turn to IPOs instead?