Singapore-headquartered venture capital joint venture EV Growth announced today that its first Southeast Asia-focused fund has closed at USD 200 million, exceeding its original target by USD 50 million. SoftBank, Pavilion Capital, Indies Capital, and other regional investors were among EV Growth’s backers.
EV Growth was set up by East Ventures, Sinar Mas’ venture arm SMDV, and Yahoo Japan’s YJ Capital Inc in March 2018. The fund looks to provide expansion capital for startups in various sectors across the region. Already, 40% of the funds have been deployed to more than 12 startups, 90% of which are from Indonesia, including beauty-focused platform Sociolla, edtech startup Ruangguru, and point-of-sale operator Moka.
With this new development, EV Growth joins a growing list of venture capital firms that are raising funds to cultivate an ever-growing network of startups in Southeast Asia, like Vertex Ventures. US private equity firm Warburg Pincus recently pooled USD 4.25 billion to invest in the region and China. Chinese venture capital company ZWC Venture has also introduced its USD 150 million fund for the same two markets.