500 Global Closes Initial Phase Managed Fund for Southeast Asian Startups IDR 2,1 Trillion

500 Global announced the closing of its third 500 SEA III initial phase under management fund for the Southeast Asia region with a value of $143 million (approximately IDR 2,1 trillion). This managed fund is targeted to support founder Southeast Asian startups from pre-startup to pre-IPO stages.

500 SEA III is a third round of managed funds focused on early-stage investments in Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam. 500 SEA III targets investment of as many as 100 startups pre-start up to series A with an initial range of $250 thousand-$500 thousand.

This initial to advanced managed fund involves various LPs, namely sovereign Wealth Fund, public and private pension funds--including Khazanah Nasional Berhad, Kumpulan Wang Persaraan (KWAP), and Employees Provident Fund (EPF)--to university endowments, family offices of leading global investment firms, and companies valued at over $1 billion that are Global 500's first early-stage fund portfolio in Southeast Asia.

"With a global portfolio of more than 2.800 companies in more than 80 countries, we are confident founder in Southeast Asia will benefit from one of our deep expertise in the market. We believe access to insight, connections and capital can help generations founder next in Southeast Asia to build a global technology giant," said Christine Tsai, Founding Partner and CEO of 500 Global, in an official statement.

Furthermore, these funds will be focused on investing in AI-based business and technology sectors with the aim of accelerating digitalization in rural areas, cities, human productivity, health services, food security, to financial inclusion.

"We believe the next tech giant is being built today. After investing in Southeast Asia for more than a decade, we learned a thing or two in supporting the founder and companies to go 10 years ahead and generate highly competitive returns for our institutional investors and portfolio companies." Closed 500 Global Managing Partner Khailee Ng.

Strengthening the Southeast Asia region

500 Global has invested in more than 340 startups in Southeast Asia over the past decade, incl Grab and Bukalapak. In recent years, 500 Global has invested $5 million-$20 million into the region in series C and D funding, such as Carsome (2021) and eFishery (2023).

To strengthen its investment scope and growth, 500 Global recently appointed a number of partners in Southeast Asia, namely Saemin Ahn, Shahril Ibrahim and Martin Cu. The three are known to be leading the global 500 equity growth and building startup portfolios across the region.

In April 2023, 500 SEA III hooked up PT Bukalapak.com Tbk as one of the LP in Indonesia. Through this agreement, Bukalapak allocates $7,5 million (around IDR 110 billion) to invest in startups from the pre-early to early stages (early stage) by owning equity and/or equity-oriented securities from private companies operating directly or indirectly in Southeast Asia.