AC Ventures Books 823 Billion Funds Under Management, Targets 30 Early Stage Startups in Indonesia

AC Ventures (ACV) today (12/10) officially announced the first closing of ACV III Capital LP. At the first closing, funds worth $56 million or equivalent to 823 billion Rupiah have been raised and will be invested in 30 potential startups over the next three years. ACV III is targeted to reach $80 million or equivalent to 1,1 trillion Rupiah for early-stage startup investment in Indonesia.

In particular, ACV is interested in seeking investment opportunities in the startup sector e-commerce, fintech, supporting SMEs, and digital media. Some of their previous portfolios include Shipper, Cargo, Stockbit, BukuWarung, ESB, CoLearn, KitaBeli, Aruna, and Soul Parking.

"Our fund LP includes leading digital and strategic companies, local Indonesian conglomerates and technology entrepreneurs who have grown billion-dollar businesses," said Managing Partner Adrian Li.

ACV is a partnership venture capital company, consisting of 3 partners, 6 professional investors and a support team. Prior to joining ACV, Convergence Ventures and Agaeti Ventures had managed funds through CVI ('15) and AVI ('18) with returns of 31% and 48%, respectively.

Investing during a pandemic

Indonesia's digital economy is growing at an unprecedented rate in 2020 due to the "disruption" of the Covid-19 pandemic. Then, many venture capitalists have to re-look at the state of the ecosystem. In this regard, to DailySocial the ACV team said they are witnessing some interesting trends developing across the startup portfolio. This certainly raises its own spirit to continue to invest in sectors that are in its investment thesis.

"[Due to Covid-19] we are not tightening investment criteria, because for each company, business model and sector we require a different approach in doing business. due diligence. We evaluate companies based on market potential, founder, and attractiveness/proof product-market fit. We not only want to see a company that can perform scalability, but also has a path to a positive economic unit," Adrian added.

Looking at various conditions, including demographics, ACV is quite confident that the startup ecosystem in Indonesia will be promising. The market will continue to accelerate in adopting technology support. For this reason, it is an opportunity for digital startups to become billion-dollar companies, especially in critical sectors such as fintech, logistics and does not rule out the possibility of education, health, agriculture, and supporting SMEs.

"We're looking for founders who demonstrate resilience and a willingness to adapt the business in the face of adversity. When it comes to competition, it's not uncommon to see multiple players in a given space, as it reaffirms the sector's opportunities. The markets we invest in tend to be large enough to accommodate several players. Not always winners take all the results. We believe our founders have tremendous potential to succeed in their respective fields," added Adrian.

Apart from Adrian Li, as Founder Partner ACV contains Michael Soerijadji and Pandu Sjahrir representing Indies Capital. It said ACV's ambition is to leverage industry insights on founders, provide support and a global network to empower partners founder in building a business capable of democratizing various fields in Indonesia and Southeast Asia.