Ant Financial-backed VC firm raises $100m to fund startups from Southeast Asia, India

BAce Capital, a venture capital firm targeting early-stage startups from India and Southeast Asia, has announced the raising of US$100 million from Alibaba-affiliated fintech giant Ant Financial as well as institutional investors and high net-worth individuals from the US, China, India, and Southeast Asia.

Ant Financial is the largest limited partner for the fund. BAce Capital is aiming to raise up to US$150 million.

The investment team comprises three former Alibaba and Ant Financial executives. There’s Benny Chen, former managing director of Ant Financial India and director of strategic alliance for India and Southeast Asia; Kshitij Karundia, former senior director of India and Southeast Asia strategic investment at Alibaba Group; and Mulyono Xu, former chief international officer of Lazada Indonesia and deputy director of Alibaba Group.

The firm seeks to invest in series A and B startups with check sizes ranging from US$500,000 to US$15 million. Indonesia and India will be the biggest focus area, taking up 70 to 80% of the fund.

BAce Capital will back mobile-first, consumer internet startups. It believes that mobile penetration rates, online time spent, and online transactions are still low in Southeast Asia and India compared to the US and China. The level of “stickiness” for Southeast Asian internet businesses is also relatively weaker.

The fund has made its first investment. It was part of Bangalore-based pregnancy and parenting platform Healofy’s US$8 million series A round, which also saw participation from Chinese parenting social network BabyTree group and existing investor Omidyar Network India.