Arise Partners
Arise, a joint venture by Finch Capital and MDI Ventures, has announced the first close of its US$40-million debut fund.
Multiple third-party corporate investors, family offices, and high-net-worth backers joined the fund. Notable among these is Indonesia’s publicly traded ICT giant Metrodata Electronics.
With ticket sizes ranging from US$250,000 to US$3 million, the Indonesia-based fund plans to invest in 25 tech startups in the post-seed to pre-Series A stages in Southeast Asia for the next three years.
Startups funded by Arise are given a path to receive investments at later stages of their development, all the way up to exit (IPO or M&A).
Also read: Blibli is the latest Indonesian tech company to confirm unicorn status
Arise is currently in the process of executing new investments. The fund targets at least five closed deals by the end of 2021.
Established in late 2020, Arise goes beyond writing cheques to invest in startups early — even before the founders fully solidify their ideas and teams.
In addition, it provides access to strategic go-to-market partners via its corporate LP network. It also empowers long-term capital through its affiliated sister funds, such as MDI Ventures and Centauri Fund.
Before receiving capital from Arise, startups will also have an option to enter Telkom’s Indigo Nation incubator. They can also benefit from a broad network of Arise’s corporate LPs and tech ecosystems in Europe, Asia, and Silicon Valley.
According to Arise Partner Aldi Adrian Hartanto, despite the significant influx of high-quality founders over the last decade, a disproportionate capital allocation makes the situation more challenging for promising entrepreneurs to secure investments during the region’s economic slowdown.
“Many of these ‘next generation’ founders, who often come with experience from established local tech ‘unicorns’ and ‘centaurs,’ already know how to grow and scale tech ventures in the local market. But they have yet to really get their names out there and still require further support in accelerating product-market fit, validating ideas, and raising proper series A rounds after that,” he said.
“Startups backed by Arise should ideally go on to receive investment from Centauri at the series A stage, MDI Ventures at series B and later stages. Finally, in some cases, they should see a meaningful exit via acquisition with Telkom Group as one of the potential buyers or IPO,” added Hartanto.
“We’ve seen many seed-stage companies struggling to access the right markets, which is reflected by a lack of traction,” says Hans De Back, Managing Partner at Finch Capital. “Our role is to solve this problem with immediate go-to-market avenues by collaborating with our network of enterprise partners such as Metrodata and portfolio companies. In this way, we can enable companies to grow much faster and set them up stronger for series A.”
Also Read: Bukalapak raises US$1.5B on the first day of its IDX debut, shares jump 25 per cent
Earlier this year, Finch Capital, which focuses on European and ASEAN markets, announced the first close of its third European Fund (EUR150M) in high-growth fintech and AI startups.
Meanwhile, MDI Ventures, with US$830 million in assets under management, provides startups with a wide range of opportunities to get plugged into Indonesia’s Telkom Group of businesses in telecoms, multimedia, property, financial services, and a network of other state-owned enterprises.
In recent years, with the tremendous rise of tech-based unicorns like Gojek, Traveloka, and recently Blibli, Indonesia is considered the most prominent startup hub in Southeast Asia. Today, the country’s e-commerce platform Bukalapak also announced its debut on the Indonesia stock exchange, the first unicorn in Southeast Asia to go public.
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Image credit: Telkom
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