(L-R) AC Ventures founding partners Adrian Li, Pandu Sjahrir, and Michael Soerijadji.
Indonesia’s AC Ventures announced today it has hit the final close of its oversubscribed third fund III at US$205 million in committed capital.
Global and regional institutional investors, including IFC and Abu Dhabi Developmental Holdings’s innovation platform, Disrupt AD, invested.
This brings AC Ventures’s total assets under management (AUM) to over US$380 million across its funds.
Fund III will back early-stage local technology startups, mainly in the pre-Series A stage.
Since its first closure in March 2020, Fund III has completed 30 out of the 35 target investments, said a statement. AC Ventures expects to deploy a total of US$100 million by the end of 2021.
With this fund, AC Ventures also plans to develop its value creation team, comprising functional experts with deep industry expertise to support its portfolio startups in talent operations, business development and regulatory, growth and capital formation.
Also read: Will Indonesia’s startup economy lose its ’emerging’ title in 2021?
AC Ventures was formed in 2019 as a merger between Agaeti Venture Capital and Convergence Ventures and is led by founding partners Adrian Li, Michael Soerijadji, and Pandu Sjahrir. With offices in Jakarta and Singapore and a team of 25 professionals, ACV employs a thematic and disciplined approach with a strong focus on founders.
The firm also uses comparable market and business model research to develop sector knowledge, enabling a quick decision-making process to identify the best deals.
“At ACV, we leverage our reach to connect our entrepreneurs to the broader ecosystem of local platforms and companies, as well as global domain experts,” said Soerijadji.
Since 2012, ACV partners have invested in more than 100 technology startups in Indonesia and Southeast Asia, including unicorns such as Xendit (Jakarta-based payment gateway) and Carsome (Malaysia-headquartered online used car platform).
Other prominent deals include Shipper (fulfilment and delivery service platform), Stockbit (social platform for Indonesian investors and traders); Ula (B2B e-commerce marketplace), Aruna (fishery and marine platform), Bukuwarung(accounting app for small merchants), and CoLearn (edutech platform for tuition centres and tutors). These companies are worth over US$100 million in valuation with some approaching unicorn status.
Over the past 18 months, AC Ventures’s portfolio has grown, resulting in over US$500 million in follow-on funding from global investors such as Sequoia Capital, Tiger Global, and Prosus Ventures.
This momentum stimulated the firm to double down on regional startups as it witnessed potential public exits in the coming future.
Also read: Exit Strategies: Ways to get your money back besides IPOs and M&A
As stated by Datareportal, Indonesia is considered Southeast Asia’s largest online economy with a population of over 274 million people and an internet penetration rate standing at around 70 per cent. According to the e-Conomy SEA 2021 report, the archipelago’s internet economy is expected to treble to US$146 billion by 2025 from an anticipated US$70 billion in gross merchandising value (GMV) in 2021.
—
Ready to meet new startups to invest in? We have more than hundreds of startups ready to connect with potential investors on our platform. Create or claim your Investor profile today and turn on e27 Connect to receive requests and fundraising information from them.
Image Credit: AC Ventures
The post AC Ventures hits final close of Fund III at US$205M to back early-stage Indonesian startups appeared first on e27.