Horizons Ventures Prioritizes Indonesia in Expansion to Southeast Asia

Horizons Ventures Ltd., otherwise known as the private investment firm of Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing, will make Southeast Asia, particularly Indonesia, a priority for the next funding disbursement. They see that the pandemic has succeeded in encouraging and strengthening the internet economy in the region.

This initiative was first mentioned by one of the co-founder they are Solina Chau, as reported Bloomberg. So far, they have invested in three startups in Indonesia, namely in the Series A round Wonderful, series A bobobox, and series B funding Memories Coffee -- raised more than $210 million.

In Indonesia, Richard Li, one of Li Ka-shing's relatives, is also one of the board member at Tokopedia.

In Indonesia, they work together Alpha JWC Ventures, a sector agnostic venture capitalist who is quite active in providing funding for local startups. In the future, both are committed to identifying startups that have the opportunity to become the next market leader.

Previously, Horizons Ventures focused more on North America, Europe, and Israel ecosystems. Some of his well-known portfolios include Zoom, Facebook, Slack, Waze, to Spotify. "In the past, we saw more innovation, opportunity and science and technology founders in the US, Europe and Israel; but now we are looking at Indonesia and more Southeast Asia in general," said Frances Kang, Director of Horizons Ventures.

He also said that the company would deploy more capital funds to the region. And has formed a local team to start looking for opportunities there.

Pandemic becomes validation

Another venture capitalist who decided to expand into Southeast Asia and make Indonesia the main focus is Lightspeed Venture Partners. In an interview, the main investment firm based in the United States mentioned the large market potential and founders in Indonesia to be the main basis for their expansion. Previously they had participated in funding several startups including Shipper, Chilibeli, Ula, and Grab.

In a presentation of research results by Alpha JWC Ventures with Kearney, Co-Founder & General Partner of Alpha JWC Ventures Jeffrey Joe says more foreign venture capitalists will invest in Indonesia's startup ecosystem. "Investing in the technology sector is tempting for investors, as evidenced by the number that continues to grow and even doubles even during the pandemic," he said.

There are several reasons why during the pandemic there were still many venture capitalists who then poured their funds into Indonesian startups. Starting from positive macroeconomic developments, increasing the quality of startups and founder, faster digital adoption during a pandemic, to government efforts to promote ecosystems in cities tier-2 and 3 and of course the digital infrastructure is getting better.

In addition, several regional investors also said they were paying more attention to the Indonesian startup ecosystem, including Monk's Hill Ventures, Jungle Ventures, Beenext, Accelerating Asia, Sequoia Capital, and others.