Allianz Malaysia joins Gobi Partners' SuperSeed II Fund

• Other LPs backing Gobi SSII Fund are MAVCAP and Sunway Group
• Focus on early-stage startups focusing on AI, big data, cloud, fintech

Venture capital (VC) firm Gobi Partners announced the closing of its US$10 million (RM45.6 million) Gobi SuperSeed II (Gobi SSII) Fund following the participation of Allianz Malaysia Berhad (Allianz Malaysia) as a Limited Partner (LP).

In a statement, the pan-Asian VC said other LPs backing the Gobi SSII Fund are institutional investors Malaysia Venture Capital Management Bhd (MAVCAP) and Sunway Group.

It added that the Gobi SSII Fund targets early-stage (Seed, Series Pre-A and Series A) technology-enabled local startups operating within artificial intelligence, big data, cloud, e-commerce, fintech, Internet of Things, and halal-economy-focused segments, which have the capability to scale up and bring sizeable returns to the Malaysian economy.

Gobi’s co-founder and chairman, Thomas G. Tsao said Allianz Malaysia is one of the very few corporations that has been at the forefront in driving digital innovation in Malaysia. 

“As one of the earliest regional VCs to set up shop in Malaysia, Gobi is very proud to have them on board as one of our key LPs,” he added.

“We believe that both the fund and the portfolio companies will benefit substantially from Allianz's ecosystem locally here in Malaysia as well as globally,” Tsao said.

Allianz Malaysia Berhad chief executive officer, Sean Wang (pic, above) said Allianz Malaysia’s appetite for digital change has allowed it to capitalise on tremendous new opportunities and explore innovation-led collaborations for the last couple of years. 

“Our general insurance arm, Allianz General Insurance Company (Malaysia) Berhad, was an early partner of insurance technology firm PolicyStreet and online property rental platform Speedhome (both established in 2017), which are two of Gobi’s portfolio companies,” he added.

“So, we are delighted to join Gobi Partners as one of their LPs. This is our first investment in a VC, and we look forward to the milestones we can accomplish together,” said Wang.

Since its launch in late 2020, the Gobi SSII Fund has already invested in four Malaysian startups namely the innovation arm of Sunway Group and Sunway University, Sunway Innovation Labs; technology news platform TechNode; Speedhome and PolicyStreet.

Gobi said given the early-stage nature of the fund, the Gobi SSII Fund can invest in up to 25 portfolio companies.

The firm, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary, has raised 15 funds to date with US$1.5 billion (RM6.85 billion) in assets under management, claimed to have invested in over 320 startups and nurtured nine unicorns.