East Ventures, Yahoo Japan Capital, and SMDV Establish EV Growth

The low number of local startups entering the Series B funding stage and above is one of the reasons why East Ventures, SMDV and Yahoo Japan Capital collaborate by establishing venture capital called EV Growth.

To today's media, Managing Partner and Founder of East Ventures Willson Cuaca revealed, with the presence of EV Growth, it is hoped that local startups do not have to go abroad when doing business fundraising stage B and above.

"I still see the gap for local startups looking to enter the Series B funding stage and beyond. Although EV Growth is open to markets in Southeast Asia, our focus is still on Indonesia."

Prior to launching EV Growth, representatives of East Ventures, Yahoo Japan Capital and SMDV had been meeting since last September 2017. Due to the similarity of vision and mission, finally the establishment of EV Growth was inaugurated.

"Yahoo Japan Capital itself has been struggling to find the right startup to fund. In accordance with our goal of establishing partnerships with local partners, we decided to collaborate with East Ventures and SMDV in accordance with track record so far," said Yahoo Japan Capital CEO Shinichiro Hori.

One of the focuses of EV Growth is startups that have entered the growth stages and post-revenues. Funding, networking, and the experience that East Ventures, SMDV and Yahoo Japan already have, can be utilized by startups through EV Growth.

"We at Yahoo Japan have experience in the field of internet services, C2C marketplace, online banking, credit card services, etc mobile payment services. Not only providing funding, it is hoped that this experience can be utilized by startups," said Shinichiro.

Implementation of funding for startups

EV Growth will be operational in the second quarter of 2018 and is targeting a funding round of $150 million. It is said that there has been a commitment of $100 million by the three venture capital firms.

"Later on, we will take a different approach from East Ventures in terms of selecting and providing investment to startups. Not only portfolios from East Ventures, EV Growth opens opportunities for all startups in Indonesia," said Wilson.

In the first phase of funding, EV Growth is expected to invest in startups with an initial investment value of each company starting from $5 million. The target to be achieved is funding for 20-30 startups.

"The agreement with the startup founder will be in the form of 10 years, namely the first 5 years of providing investment and the last 5 years focusing on return, adjusting to market conditions," said Shinichiro.

EV Growth's current focus is to find startups that fall into the target category. Asked whether there have been leaks of the names of startups that will receive funding, SMDV Managing Partner Roderick Purwana revealed that there are already several that are in the process of execution, but are reluctant to mention who.

"Both East Ventures, SMDV, and Yahoo Japan Capital each have the experience and investment to add startup capital in Indonesia so that they can develop their businesses, in line with the goals of EV Growth," said SMDV Senior Advisor Franky O. Widjaja.