BRI Ventures, Fundnel launch fund for growth-stage firms

BRI Ventures (BVI), the corporate venture capital arm of Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI), has partnered with Singapore-based Fundnel Group to launch the Fundnel Secondaries Fund for investments in growth-stage startups in Indonesia.

BRI Ventures CEO Nicko Widjaja / Photo credit: BRI Ventures

Fundnel Group provides a marketplace for alternative assets as well as a private digital securities exchange called Hg Exchange. To date, the group has handled over US$12 billion worth of private alternative assets.

The new fund aims to build a portfolio of high-growth Indonesian startups through a “non-traditional” route of investment.

Fundnel and BVI expect to attract investments of at least US$50 million with their new strategic partnership. The duo will work with startups to identify and standardize processes for employees to find secondary liquidity for their stock options.

The two firms are also looking to ride on Indonesia’s flourishing digital economy, which is estimated to hit US$124 billion by 2025.

See also: How BRI went from late adopter to frontrunner in Indonesia’s tech scene

“Together with BRI Ventures’ strong track record of investments and huge ecosystem and Fundnel’s extensive pipeline of secondary opportunities, this partnership will also serve as an attractive entry point for larger foreign funds to enter Indonesian growing tech startups,” Nicko Widjaja, CEO of BVI, said in a statement.