Indonesia's Convergence Ventures agrees partnership with Baidu

The partnership will allow for both sides to trade technical resources and expertise, according to a statement. Convergence's portfolio companies can tap Baidu's knowledge and send founders to China for education, and Baidu will leverage the GP's Indonesia connections to help it expand in the country. The size of Baidu's financial contribution was not disclosed.

Baidu's Indonesia branch and Convergence will launch a joint co-working space to support early-stage companies in Indonesia. The firms expect to choose a location and begin working on the project in the next six months.

"In the past year, Convergence Ventures has seen over 1,200 ventures so we are very well-connected to entrepreneurs in the Internet and mobile startup community. We plan to work with Baidu Indonesia to launch grassroots meetups and events to share learnings and expertise to entrepreneurs," said Adrian Li, founder and managing partner of Convergence.

Convergence launched its debut $25 million fund last November, aiming for early-stage investments in Indonesian tech companies. At the time it was called Convergence Accel; it changed its name later to avoid confusion with Accel Partners.

The firm has participated in a number of deals in the country's tech space over the last year, including an $8 million Series B round for restaurant booking app Qraved in October and a $1.5 million Series A round for e-commerce portal IndoTrading in March.

It has also made investments elsewhere in Southeast Asia, having participated in a $2 million Series A round for Singapore-based personal finance portal MoneySmart in October.

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• Topics
• Greater China
• Southeast Asia
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• Early-stage
• Indonesia
• China
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• seed