SE Asia VC Ardent gets backing from US, Japan partners

The funding round includes additional investment from the Ardent management team as well as several Southeast Asian entrepreneurs. Bangkok-based Ardent will add Paul Santos of Singaporean incubator Wavemaker Labs, and a partner at Siemer, to its board.

Ardent focuses on investments in the e-commerce and digital media space. According to a statement, the funding will be used to make additional investments though Ardent as well as fund its internal initiative, Ardent Labs. Ardent Labs is the largest part of the business with 40 staff.

Ardent commits anything from $50,000 to $3 million and has made five investments to date: Sri Lankan daily deals site Anything.lk; Indonesian travel site Burufly; game platfom Playbasis; digital marketing analytics service Syndacast; and tech blog e27.

Investors in the US and Japan are putting a greater focus on start-up and early-stage companies in Southeast Asia. Also today, accelerator 500 Startups revealed it would be launching its first Southeast Asian focused fund, while Silicon Valley-based Golden Gate Ventures has been active in the region for over a year.

Japan's interest in small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is manifested in Mizuho Corporate Bank (MHCB) and Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) signing an agreement with an agency under Singapore's Ministry of Trade and Industry to boost collaboration between small businesses in the countries. JBIC and MHCB have also launched a $150 million ASEAN-focused fund for Japanese SMEs expanding into the region.

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