New alliance aims to help angel investors collaborate across Southeast Asia

Image credit: Prachatai.

Angel investors and venture capitalists all over Southeast Asia are forming allied networks, connecting them to startups across the region.

One of these networks is AAA (ASEAN Angel Alliance), a non-profit collaboration of angel investor networks from ASEAN member countries: HATCH Ventures of Vietnam, Cambodia Investors Corporation, the Bangkok Venture Club, the Business Angel Network South East Asia (BANSEA) of Singapore, the Angel Investment Network Indonesia (ANGIN) of Indonesia and 1000 Angels of the Philippines.

AAA was established earlier this week at the Malaysian Business Angel Network (MBAN)’s second annual summit in Kuala Lumpur.

Connecting angel investors across borders

“The difficulty of transactions between angel investors and startups who live in two separate countries due to culture and language differences is the main reason why AAA was formed,” Dr. V. Sivapalan, president of MBAN, said in a statement.

He added, “In the past, collaborations between angels have been through informal and often proprietary bilateral networks. AAA’s presence in the ASEAN angel ecosystem will open up networks to a wider community of angels and champion angel investing across the region.”

With AAA formed, angel investors can expand their network, share deal opportunities, and ultimately support each other in market intelligence and market penetration.

David Soukhasing, head of ANGIN, aims to reach the final goal of AAA becoming an online platform that will eventually allow angels to back companies directly through the site, increasing the ease of investment activities across borders. “We see this partnership as an extension of our reach in terms of capital as we will be able to access the right capital from our overseas AAA network, while this also means an extension of our service to our Indonesian angel investors as they will be able to get access to cross border opportunities,” he tells Tech in Asia.

Freedom to share and replicate incentives

Members of the AAA help each other come up with methods and solutions to create a supportive ecosystem of angel investors. One of them is ANGIN’s provision of in-house educational content designated for angel investors under their wing.

David tells Tech in Asia that ANGIN invites experts and mentors like Jefrey Joe from Alpha JWC to nurture the angel investor networks through educational seminars.

“We are not limiting ourselves to tech startups – even though investors are more keen towards it; any strong or super scaleable brand will benefit from our collaborative platform.”

Other members can take a program previously shared to AAA and replicate it to better the angel investor community in their country. In ANGIN’s case, the Indonesian network is trying to implement Malaysia’s and Singapore’s tax incentive – one that encourages angels to invest in startups.

“We’re still at an early stage of discussion, but we see that by bringing in the right resources, ANGIN can convince the government to do it.”

A few months ago, venture capital firms linked up in a similar regional joint venture, the ASEAN Venture Council.