The Ambition of Venture Capital Veterans Helen Wong Accompanies AC Ventures to the Next Stage

AC Ventures announces that Helen Wong, a venture capitalist with more than 20 years of experience in China and developing countries, has joined as Senior Advisor and Venture Partner. Helen will be tasked with supporting AC Ventures in various fields, including company development, team training, investment, to portfolio advisory.

The entry of Helen, marks a strategy that AC Ventures will continue to do massive investment to strengthen their team (investment team and value creation teams) and plans to increase the number of teams by more than 50% this year.

In the official statement submitted, Helen has an unquestionable track record in identifying strong teams and high potential sectors in China and Southeast Asia. Starting his career working in various regions around the world, he has led investments in Akulaku and Reddoorz, as well as holding positions at a number of leading technology companies from China, such as Tudou/Youku, and Mobike.

Helen's relationship with senior officials at AC Ventures, such as Adrian Li, Michael Soerijadji, and Pandu Sjahrir had been awake for some time and knew them quite well. Helen was previously an individual LP at AC Ventures. They often interact related to the flow of agreement (deal flow) and investment trends in Southeast Asia, including representing some of the internal deals in his former companies, such as Carsome and Payfazz.

“I have personally invested in Indonesian startups which are also being reviewed by AC Ventures. We both (Helen and Adrian) think very much about the founder and the area of ​​the company. As an individual LP, I started mentoring several companies that were part of the portfolio AC Ventures, sharing experiences from Chinese companies with similar business models,” explained Helen.

AC Ventures Founder & Managing Partner Adrian Li said, “We are very pleased to be working with Helen to accelerate AC Ventures' growth going forward. His vast experience from China and the long-standing relationship he has in North Asia will perfectly complement our focus and execution in Southeast Asia, adding a unique dimension to our offering to entrepreneurs.”

Helen believes her global experience can help entrepreneurs in Southeast Asia discover investment trends across the region, and work closely with portfolio companies to optimize their value creation. From his view on various investment cycles, it is undeniable that the company must experience ups and downs. In some difficult times, he also provided advice and guidance to companies regarding what steps and strategies they should take, fundraising, HR issues, and others.

“I believe, the combination of my global experience, especially in China, and the strong local connections of the founders of AC Ventures in Southeast Asia and Indonesia can be a very good added value for entrepreneurs and can generate a return on investment (return) which is good for the LPs,” said Helen.

He continued, what entrepreneurs in Southeast Asia can learn about the development of the internet in China, is that the Chinese internet market actually has a longer history. Therefore, several business models have emerged and been repeated several times. He also believes that certain elements are actually similar and some are not transferable.

“Chinese companies have learned several things, including scaling and speed of development which I believe are important lessons for any startup. I believe that entrepreneurs can learn to take advantage of the capital market to develop their companies further and even make acquisitions.”

However, digitalization in Southeast Asia has been accelerated by Covid-19. The issue of educating users, which was originally one of the most difficult parts faced by startups, has now become easier. Therefore, the monetization issue should ideally also become easier. The long-term trend that makes him optimistic is the demographics in the region.

A young workforce and growing urbanization are driving economic growth, and the US/China separation creates more opportunities for Southeast Asia. The main challenge faced, precisely regarding talent. “However, Southeast Asia attracts talent from other parts of the world, and the option of working remotely can be an alternative to reduce those barriers.”

However, at a more macro level, the challenge for Southeast Asia from the past to the present day has been the fragmented nature of the market. This means, by starting to focus on Indonesia, the largest market to test the suitability of the product market and then expand to various countries is a good strategy.

AC Ventures Fund III

On the end of last December, AC Ventures closed its third fund under management (Fund III) worth more than $205 million from leading investors. Among them, the World's Bank International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Abu Dhabi Developmental Holdings (ADQ) venture platform Disrupt AD, which bring the company's total AUM to over $380 million across its assets under management.

Some of the funds from Fund III have been actively invested since the closing of the first round in March 2020. These funds have been invested in 30 companies out of 35 targeted. Several of these companies, all invested in the pre-series A stage, have thrived during the pandemic. The names are Shipper, Stockbit, Ula, Aruna, BukuWarung, and CoLearn which are listed as Centaur, some have even reached valuations close to Unicorn. Funding interests in the portfolio has also continued to strengthen, with more than $100 million of announced funding for the other four portfolio companies since early 2022.

With over 35 investments completed in Fund III, the expansion of the local team based in Jakarta allows greater support from the founders of AC Ventures' portfolio of companies without disrupting their scale-up process. In line with AC Ventures' commitment to provide added value for entrepreneurs, AC Ventures will invest to strengthen their team (investment and value creation teams).

In particular, AC Ventures will be bringing in additional functional experts in talent management, marketing, business development and capital formation to support their growing portfolio of companies in the coming months.