EV Growth closes oversubscribed US$200mil Fund 1

• Fund is supported by SoftBank Group Corp, Pavilion CapitaI, Indies Capital and others
• Deployed 40% of total funds to over 12 deals of which 90% come from Indonesia

SINGAPORE-headquartered venture capital firm, EV Growth, has hit the final close of its first fund at US$200 million (RM837.24 million), exceeding the firm’s initial US$150 million (RM627.93 million) target.

This oversubscribed fund is supported by a diverse set of partners including SoftBank Group Corp, Pavilion CapitaI, Indies Capital and other regional investors.

Launched in March last year, EV Growth is a joint venture between East Ventures, SMDV and YJ Capital Inc that focused on providing growth capital to startups in Indonesia and the rest of Southeast Asia with an agnostic industry focus. SMDV (Sinar Mas Digital Ventures) is the 2014 founded, corporate venture arm of Indonesian conglomerate Sinar Mas while YJ Capital is the corporate venture capital arm of Yahoo Japan, which, according to Crunchbase, has enjoyed nine exits so far.

The company is led by three partners – Willson Cuaca from East Ventures, Roderick Purwana from SMDV, and Shinichiro Hori from YJ Capital Inc.

EV Growth has a multitude of portfolio companies encompassing different sectors including beauty tech player Sociolla, multi-platform online media company IDN Media, mobile point-of-sale player Moka, micro-retail tech player Warung Pintar and the region's number one edutech player, Ruangguru.

To date, the VC has deployed 40% of total funds to more than 12 deals out of which 90% comes from Indonesia.

According to Willson, they set up EV Growth to capture some of the best startups from Indonesia, including but not limited to portfolios of East Ventures. The timing, fund size and fund deployment pace were right and they were able to attract smart money within a short period of fundraising. “We believe EV Growth will quickly make its mark into Southeast Asia digital economy.”

For his part Hori is excited to have YJ Capital Inc’s parent company, SoftBank Group Corp, as well as many of the key regional investors onboard. As a joint venture fund, he says they aim to bring value to their portfolio companies by leveraging on the network and capabilities of the partners, their parent companies and affiliates, and their investors with experience in global markets.

Roderick, added, “For SMDV, this collaboration marks the next evolution of what we’ve been doing in the tech space in the region for the past five years. We’ve been very fortunate to have partnered with East Ventures early on and are delighted to add another great partner in YJ Capital Inc.

“The combination of the three firms, allows us to leverage further on the network of Sinar Mas group to support a growing ecosystem of tech companies in Indonesia and the region. We believe we have the right setup and team to tackle the growing opportunity of tech growth funding in Southeast Asia.”