10 Startups Get Pre-Series A Funds from Accelerating Asia Cohort 8, One of them is Lister

Lister, an edtech startup from Indonesia, was included in the 10 participants accelerator program Cohort 8 which secured pre-series A investment from early stage venture capitalist Accelerating Asia.

Lister is the only local startup from Yogyakarta that made it into the competition cohort the. Operating since 2019, Lister is an online learning platform for languages ​​and test preparation targeting both individual and corporate users.

In addition, Lister is the 8th startup funded by Accelerating Asia throughout its work in Southeast Asia. A number of other startup names from Indonesia who have joined the Accelerating Asia portfolio include Datanest, HealthPro, IZY.ai, KaryaKarsa, Tokban, TransTRACK.ID, and MyBrand.

The value of the investment received by each startup is not explained. Based on previous reports, Accelerating Asia is injecting pre-series A funds of up to SGD200 thousand per startup. What is certain is that the source of the funds will come from a managed fund of Fund II worth $20 million which will be launched at the end of 2021. The funds are used for pre-series A investments in Southeast Asia and South Asia.

Cohorts 8

In an official statement, Co-Founder and General Partner of Accelerating Asia Craig Dixon said that the participating startups from Cohort 8 represented seven countries across Southeast Asia (Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines), South Asia (India, Bangladesh and Pakistan), and the region. Middle East and North Africa (United Arab Emirates). They come from various industries, including education, e-commerce, logistics, insurtech, agritech, and many more.

From this diversity, these 10 startups have an important thing in common: they have significant market traction. Claimed to date, they have collectively raised $5,8 million in funding. While all were successful in raising funds, there was an overall decline in nominal value due to the strength of revenue growth. It said the collective GMV was over $57k per month and the average monthly revenue was over $27k.

"Cohort New arrivals to the portfolio have strong initial earnings and fundraising appeal in their respective local markets. Accelerating Asia looks forward to helping them leverage this early success to scale larger geographic areas and raise funds from a larger set of investors around the world," said Dixon.

In carrying out Accelerating Asia's mission of leveraging entrepreneurship to catalyze change, startups are encouraged to make a social impact in their communities. The reason is, his party is considering investing in startups with an embedded impact (embedded impact) in their core business model with the SDGs as the framework.

Mentioned, portfolio companies have created more than 1.000 jobs and gender lens investment reached 50% of all startups in the portfolio. Accumulated from all cohort, Accelerating Asia has nurtured 70 startups in more than 20 verticals, led by more than 100 founders. The startup has an average monthly revenue of over $285k and 520% ​​annual revenue growth.

Beyond the investments made by Accelerating Asia, the portfolio has attracted top investors not only from Asia Pacific, but around the world. In total, they have raised over $63,8 million in venture capital bringing their total portfolio valuation to $600 million. This figure is also not influenced by a handful outlier: 100% of the portfolio has increased outside capital.

The names of the investors range from Sequoia Capital, Cocoon Capital, MDI Ventures, Wavemaker Partners, and the Indonesia Women Empowerment Fund as their supporters, apart from angel investors and top network. Some of these investors also chose to work with Accelerating Asia directly as limited partners.

According to Accelerating Asia Co-Founder and General Partner Amra Naidoo, these investors chose to partner with the organization for three main reasons.

"Given the size and scale of Accelerating Asia's portfolio, investors can gain immediate diversification across industries and markets. They also gain access to the highest quality startups, as the selectivity rate for each group is less than 2%. Lastly, they can leverage the portfolio as a source of flow. transactions for startups that are relevant to the thesis for their own funds," said Naidoo.

The Demo Day for Cohort 8 will be held on August 3.