Gobi's Victor Chua leaves to launch SE Asia VC firm

Vynn will focus on seed to Series A-stage companies in Southeast Asia. It aims to raise $40 million for its debut fund within the next 12-18 months. Chua (pictured) declined to confirm the amount raised to date but identified the LP base as predominantly Southeast Asian family offices.

The firm's core strategy will be to help regional family offices, as well as family-run corporations in traditional brick-and-mortar industries, modernize their businesses through closer collaboration with start-ups. This effort will include a focus on promoting synergies between LPs and start-ups that support both individual company growth and overall industry expansion.

“At this point in time, I think it’s a bit early for families and corporations to actually do their own investments,” Chua told AVCJ. “That’s why Vynn Capital exists – we’re positioning ourselves to bridge the cultural and technical gaps between families, corporations, and founders.” 

Vynn will initially comprise four partners, including Chua and Darren Chua (no relation), who has previously worked with Temasek Holdings and the Singapore government on various start-up and investment-related projects. Target sectors will include property, travel, logistics and consumer goods, with a focus on complete production-to-delivery value chains.    

“We want our portfolio companies to form an ecosystem on their own where they can work with each other,” Victor Cua added. “In VC, people talk about disruption and how to directly overthrow the incumbents, whereas for us, we focus more on collaborative opportunities where start-ups will be able to help the incumbent players grow even larger. That will create much better opportunities for us to exit as well.”

The fund aims to make about 15-20 investments, with deal flow supported by the team’s existing contacts in the region. Two deals are expected to be confirmed as early as this month, including a commitment to an Indonesian start-up. Other geographies being prioritized in the region include Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore, as well as, to a less extent, Myanmar and the Philippines.

• Tweet  
• Facebook  
• LinkedIn  
• Google plus  
• Save this article  
• Send to  

• Topics
• Southeast Asia
• Venture
• Fundraising
• Technology
• Malaysia
• seed
• Gobi Partners
• Logistics
• Consumer
• TMT