Sun SEA Capital Ready to Invest in Southeast Asian Startups

Malaysian conglomerate Sunway Berhad announced its collaboration with founder KK Fund to establish Sun SEA Capital. Expected to raise $50 million (over 700 billion Rupiah) under management, the available funds will be allocated to invest in Series A for Southeast Asian and Hong Kong startups. Sunway itself invested $5 million in initial capital.

Targeted startups, especially those working in the field of online-to-offline convergence, enterprise solutions, Logistics, digital media/entertainment, financial technology (fintech), and digital health (healthtech). The investment given per startup ranges from a nominal $1-2 million.

This venture capital formation will enable Sunway Group to accelerate its digital transformation through investment into digital startup synergies.

"This signing is a testament to Sunway Group to accelerate our digital move as part of regional expansion Sun SEA Capital can attract new talent across the region to grow with us," said President of Sunway Group Dato' Chew Chee Kin.

Supported by experienced investors

As one of the initiators responsible for leading Sun SEA Capital, Koichi Saito (formerly with IMJ Investment, now known as Spiral Ventures) and Kuan Hsu (formerly with GREE Ventures), founded a Singapore-based VC called KK Fund in 2015. In Indonesia KK Fund invested in online furniture service Fabelio.

"Sun SEA Capital will help Sunway Group to create new innovations by investing in technologies, such as IoT, AI and blockchain in order to build a stable business," said Koichi.

Sun SEA Capital will also provide scenarios plug-and-play to the selected startup by including the startup in the ecosystem that has been owned by the Sunway Group.

"We have long experience in Southeast Asia. We will combine the resources of the Sunway Group with our experience while working as investors in Southeast Asia," concluded Koichi.