Arise and Centauri Merge to Become Ascent Venture Group, Raising Managed Funds of 3 Trillion Rupiah

Two funds managed by Telkom, namely Centauri and Arise, have officially merged to become Ascent Venture Group. Ascent is targeting a third fundraising of $200 million (around Rp. 3 trillion) which will focus on investing in 25 early-stage startups over the next two years.

For your information, Centauri Fund is a fund managed by MDI Ventures together with KB Financial from South Korea which was launched at the end of 2019. The funding focus is pre-series A and series B. Meanwhile, Arise Fund is a fund managed by MDI Ventures together with Finch Capital from the Netherlands which was launched in 2020. The funding focus is also similar, namely pre-series A.

In its official statement, Ascent also announced Central Capital Ventura (CCV), BCA's investment arm, as Ascent's partner. It is said that CCV's involvement will strengthen ecosystem synergies in Indonesia and Southeast Asia.

It is known that Telkom's two managed funds have invested in 30 startups in Southeast Asia, of which 70% have raised further funds from third party investors after Ascent's initial investment - resulting in 2 M&A and 1 IPO with money on invested capital (MOIC), or rate of return on investment metrics of 3,2x and 1,75x respectively. Some of the portfolios are Agriaku, Evermos, Qoala, Paxel, and Fishlog.

"The goal of consolidating our resources and ecosystem network is to build a platform with exponential value that can strengthen based strategies thesis-driven. We provide support product-market fit to the founder when they develop their business in Indonesia," said Managing Partner of Ascent Venture Group Aldi Adrian Hartanto.

In addition, Ascent's close relationships with leading growth-stage investment firms, such as KB Investment and MDI Ventures, enable additional support for portfolios with late-stage capital as they enter the marginal profit or business-model fit.

Ascent will be managed by 4 businesses, namely Kenneth Li, Aldi Adrian Hartanto, Eric Yoo, and Hans De Back. Even though De Back comes from Finch Capital, Kenneth Li confirmed that this merger only involved the two managed funds. He did not elaborate further regarding his position at MDI and Ascent.

"Only Arise and Centauri are technically which melts. [Fourth] businesses this Dedicated for Ascent," said Kenneth when confirmed by DailySocial.id.

Separately, MDI Ventures CEO Donald Wihardja also said that fund This will stand and be managed independently by the relevant team. "We are an anchor LP to this fund," he said.

Ascent Managing Partner Eric Yoo, with investment experience in South Korea and India on behalf of KB Investment, added, "The first wave of investment has accelerated the adoption of shopping online, ride hailing, to fintech. However, Indonesia is still in the early stages of adoption, and the next wave of adoption will follow emerging markets where disruption will occur more in traditional sectors as well as new opportunities."

While managed funds were previously run separately, existing portfolios can now have access to this combined partnership to support their growth. Specifically, Ascent Venture will target investment opportunities in the MSME enabler, financial digitalization, and neo consumer verticals, including new sectors, such as climate and health