Viki founders look to back 100 SG startups through new venture

Jiwon Moon and Changseong Ho, the founders of the global video service Viki, have announced the launch of a new Singapore-based venture builder, which will look to invest in 100 startups in the city-state within the next five years.

TheVentures Singapore’s Changseong Ho (left) and Jiwon Moon / Photo credit: TheVentures Singapore

Branded TheVentures Singapore, the new venture entity aims to replicate the success of TheVentures in South Korea, which is backed by investors such as Kakao, NCSoft, and Com2uS. Since 2014, the Seoul-based venture builder has invested in over 100 startups, with a portfolio valued at over US$1 billion.

“We are planning to set up a venture builder fund next year. However, TVSG will start operating with our own capital at this stage,” Moon told Tech in Asia. 

TheVentures Singapore will follow the blueprint by focusing on early-stage, high-growth tech businesses in Southeast Asia. It will look for opportunities in spaces like ecommerce, fintech, biotech, healthcare, foodtech, sustainability, and online to offline services.

“Business models which were successful in Korea may be successfully replicated in other parts of the world if the right local team executes in the right way,” Moon shared.

Additionally, TheVentures Singapore will also run a cohort-based programs in partnership with accelerators across the region.

It will also be relocating multiple projects to the city-state and provide a launchpad for startups to commercialize their tech and scale their business to the global market.

“Over the past year, our portfolio of Southeast and South Asian startups has increased to 57% in 2021, up from 21% in 2020,” said Ho. The launch would mark the founders’ return to Singapore after having established Viki in the country over 10 years ago, Moon noted.

Founded in 2007, the community-driven video platform has grown to have over 25 million monthly active users. It was reportedly bought by Japanese ecommerce giant Rakuten in 2013 in a US$200 million deal.

See also: Viki Mafia: The team that keeps building more startups

Regarding their future plans, the pair said they plan to expand Community Alliance Network (CAN), their latest software-as-a-service (SaaS) project, which serves startups that do not have an in-house tech team to Southeast Asia.

They also aim to extend CANnovate, a SaaS-powered startup-incubation program for entrepreneurs in the community, education, and commerce sectors, by the first half of 2022.