This early-stage VC talks about SEA opportunities and how to plan an exit strategy

Charles Rim, general and founding partner at Access Ventures

This article is part of Tech in Asia’s partnership with Asia VC Cast hosted by Daniel Song where we publish the revised transcripts from the podcast’s interviews with inspiring entrepreneurs and experienced VCs. This is heavily revised from the show’s original transcript. For the full interview, go here.

Charles Rim is the general and founding partner at Access Ventures, an early-stage VC fund with offices in South Korea and Hong Kong. The firm is also looking to expand in Vietnam soon.

Having worked at Google and Yahoo, Rim has been immersed in the expansion of the internet in Asia Pacific. In this interview, he talks about how investors should approach Southeast Asia, why Access Ventures focuses on Indonesia and Vietnam, and why an exit strategy beyond IPO is important.

How did you go from working at Google and Yahoo to founding a VC fund?

I started my career as a corporate lawyer, then I went into investment banking before I got into early tech investments with Yahoo and Google.

Before I started Access Ventures, I spent some time with DFJ Athena as a venture partner for software investments. I also led Tapjoy and its expansion into Asia, which gave me a chance to really see the latest developments that were happening in Southeast Asia.

Since my time at Yahoo and Google, I’ve been personally investing in a lot of startups, so I thought it was the perfect time to launch a fund that covers Korea and Southeast Asia.

I also recognized that my Yahoo and Google networks would be very important bridges for our fund. Many that I worked with and knew personally have entered the arena as startup founders, investors, and strategists. In fact, this network helped us in four of our first 10 investments. We are also fortunate to have the international lead at Google’s corporate development team as a close fund advisor.

All of this led me to make the decision in 2016 to start working on Access Ventures.

Why do you think this is the right time to invest heavily in Southeast Asia?

Investing in Southeast Asia a decade ago was too early for many reasons. But I think we’re seeing significant improvements now in infrastructure, especially in terms of mobile network and people’s engagement online. We’re also seeing founders with global experience going back to their home markets. There’s also strong demographics in terms of GDP growth per market and consumer spending.

The last factor is exits. One of the problems with VCs is that there hasn’t been enough acquirers. But that’s changing because we are seeing a lot of interest from established players in North Asia (Japan, Korea, China) who are looking to expand. And they’re all taking an acquisition strategy along with organic growth.

The global players are also starting to come in. We saw for the first time how Google has gotten fairly active in investing in Southeast Asia. Its competitors, such as Facebook and Amazon, are also expected to increase their activities in the region.

Why do you focus on Indonesia and Vietnam? What are the key differences between the two?

Southeast Asia as a whole is one of the key growth areas for the whole tech business sector. And Indonesia and Vietnam enjoy some of the best demographics—a relatively young population, expected GDP growth, and rising consumer spending.

I also have very strong personal relationships in these markets, and that’s a very important part of our investment theme. Rather than spreading our investments wide across every country, we want to focus on markets where we have a strong network.

What do you look for when evaluating an early-stage startup?

How important is following a trend when making an early-stage investment?

What should founders consider when planning an exit strategy? Any advice for them?