Lippo-Backed Venturra Capital Launches $150m Fund for SE Asia Tech Investments
Jakarta. Venturra Capital, an independent venture capital fund sponsored by the Lippo Group, launched a $150 million fund on Thursday with the intention of investing in early-growth technology companies in the Southeast Asian region.
Venturra Capital's first funded investment project, dubbed Venturra Capital Fund I, will focus on early-growth-stage consumer technology companies, offering a variety of services including eCommerce, financial services, healthcare and education sectors, it said in a statement.
The move marks the Lippo Group's latest attempt to venture into new market technologies for the service and retail sectors.
The venture capital group plans to draw relevant experience from three managing partners Rudy Ramawy, Stefan Jung and John Riady, who successfully developed well-known startups such as GrabTaxi, Traveloka, Bridestory, Munchery, HappyFresh and MatahariMall.com.
"Our vision at Venturra is to partner with the best entrepreneurs for generations to come, and in doing so, over time create a culture and an institution that will allow us to be a leading venture capital fund," said John, who is also a director of the Lippo Group, with which the Jakarta Globe is affiliated.
"Eighty years from now, we want to look back, point to some of the most transformative companies in the region, and say that we played a part in contributing to their successes,” John said. "The Southeast Asian markets are some of the most promising economies in the world with some of the best entrepreneurs globally."
As a sponsoring limited partner of the fund, Lippo will provide access to a broad range of industries, a regional network of business, and an array of corporate leaders, Venturra said in the statement. That would allow "companies to scale quickly and gain traction, thus generating consistently strong returns for our investors," the venture capital company said.
Lippo’s portfolio of technology investments under Lippo Digital Ventures (LDV) will also merge with Venturra Fund I.
“We are extremely excited to work with great entrepreneurs at Venturra and to contribute towards a dynamic and rapidly growing digital ecosystem in the region,” said Rudy, who also serves on the board of MatahariMall.com.
Jung, the founder & managing partner of Rocket Internet Southeast Asia, the company behind Zalora, Lazada and FoodPanda, said that the technology industry has developed drastically across Southeast Asia over the last years.
"The quality of entrepreneurs and investors is increasing at a fast pace. We want to work with outstanding entrepreneurs to create defining market leaders across the region and bring in our experience and expertise in scaling companies internationally," Jung said.
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