MDI Ventures, KB Investment launch $150m fund for Southeast Asia startups

Telkom Indonesia’s corporate venture capital arm MDI Ventures announced on Wednesday that it is collaborating with South Korea’s KB Investment to launch Centauri Fund, a VC fund backed by both investment firms.

Photo credit: MDI Ventures

Based on a filing by Telkom to the Indonesian stock exchange, Centauri Fund targets US$150 million, which will be collected from a few investors, including MDI and KB Investment.

Telkom intends to invest at the maximum amount of 10% of the fund collected and will begin investing in January 2020. The fund is to facilitate investment in tech startups across Southeast Asia, where Indonesia, which has the largest digital infrastructure and a big data startup market, will be the priority.

“With the launch of Centauri Fund, we hope to expand our horizons deeper into the Southeast Asian tech ecosystem, and also help Telkom to reach its vision to be a digital telco company,” said Dewi, the acting VP of investor relations at Telkom in the filing.

MDI Ventures is backed and owned by Indonesian state-owned telco Telkom. It has several portfolios in Southeast Asia, including fintech lending firm Kredivo and AI-driven startup Qlue. Meanwhile, KB Investment is a subsidiary of KB Financial Group.

This report was first published on KrAsia.