Indonesian conglomerate Lippo’s corporate venture arm Venturra Capital has just announced a US$15 million seed fund to invest into early-stage startups, as the firm now looks to draw on its previous experience in backing mid-stage startups to support the early-stage ones.
The seed fund, named Venturra Discovery, will invest in 30 to 40 early-stage startups over the next few years, with a ticket size ranging from US$200,000 to US$500,000. Venturra Discovery will be run by the new partner Raditya Pramana, alongside Rudy Ramawy, former Google Indonesia country manager, and John Riady, Lippo Group executive director.
Venturra Capital, says in a statement that Southeast Asia is witnessing a decrease in early-stage funding channels and the fund is making an attempt to fill the gap.
Raditya Pramana, who will run Venturra Discovery, said: “In 2014, the trend was for VC to invest between US$50,000 and US$500,000 in seed stage startups, creating a funding gap for startups in later stages. But today, as more VCs invest in later stage deals, the funding gap lies in early-stage investment instead. We want to fill in this gap by launching Venturra Discovery.”
Venturra Capital is backed by the Lippo Group, an Indonesian conglomerate which is one of the largest real estate developers in the country. The company has also invested in Carro, Kaodim, HappyFresh, and Zilingo.
Editor: Ben Jiang