Lightspeed Venture Partners Expansion to Southeast Asia, Indonesia Becomes the Main Target

In startup report released by DailySocial early 2020 it was revealed, in 2019 there were 113 startup funding announcements. Of the 59 transactions with a disclosed value, the funds raised amounted to $2,9 billion. Gojek dominate with a $2 billion investment.

Compared to previous years, the number of transactions was monitored to increase even though the value was quite dynamic. There were at least 11 venture capital who are active enough to invest. Starting from East Ventures, Alpha JWC Ventures, Skystar Capital, to Intudo Ventures.

In 2020, the startup landscape in Indonesia is also marked by various funding. Even though it was plagued by the pandemic, it did not dampen the intention of investors to provide fresh funds to logistics startups, edutech, aqua culture, Agriculture, to healthtech. This condition proves that there is great potential in the Indonesian market. No wonder investors from various countries flocked to try their luck in this ecosystem.

One of venture capital currently planning to expand in Southeast Asia is Lightspeed Venture Partners. Indonesia became the largest market which was then targeted by them.

"Indonesia, in particular, is the 4th largest internet population in the world and is a great market for our investment approach due to the sheer number of attractive technology startups. The region has a young, digitally savvy population, a fast-growing startup ecosystem, and policy and a digital-first platform that will only accelerate digitization and innovation," said Akshay Bhushan, Partner & Regional Head of Lightspeed Venture Partners. DailySocial.

Startup category and expansion plans

Previously, Lightspeed had invested in several startups from Indonesia, including platform provider startups social commerceChilibeli, B2B apps marketplace Ula, as well as a warehouse fulfillment solution provider and freight forwarder Shipper.

The company, which is headquartered in Silicon Valley, has also invested in Grab and provider for mobile devices to report the artificial intelligence for the NextBillion.ai enterprise sector.

Being agnostic, Lightspeed wants to provide support to the founder that can solve unique problems in Asia. Starting from transformative sectors such as trade, fintech, edtech, and SaaS. Lightspeed has set aside $4 billion recently raised from global funding.

"We continue to focus on our core mission of helping courageous entrepreneurs build companies that disrupt the future. Through all cycles, ups and downs, we have remained true to this mission and this is our focus. We do not comment on fundraising as our policy, ' said Akshay.

During a pandemic, it is certainly a challenge for startup founders to be able to survive running their business. According to Akshay, learning from his experience, ideally all startups should refocus on the company's original mission. Activity pivoting until diversification is better avoided. In Indonesia itself, there are currently many startups that present new services to perform services pivoting, in order to continue to run the business and maintain the welfare of employees.

"During this period of uncertainty, businesses need to get back to basics when it comes to customer love and cash flow management. Our portfolio companies are focused on financial discipline and strengthening their core businesses and as a result, most of them have become stronger. Byju is a great example that has grew significantly over the last few months. Covid-19 has accelerated the need for digitalization and innovation to ensure business continuity, so founders should aim to shift to digital shifts in their markets." close Akshay.