Indonesia's Kejora targets $100m for growth fund

Kejora closed its second early-stage vehicle on $80 million a couple of months ago. The firm opted to raise a growth fund next to address the funding gap that sees start-ups secure seed and Series A funding with relative ease but then struggle to get follow-on rounds. It is a common theme across Southeast Asia and has prompted the likes of Gobi Ventures, B Capital Group, and Monk’s Hill Ventures to launch pan-regional growth strategies.

Four LPs have so far contributed $80 million to the new fund including Korea Development Bank and KB Investment (KBIC), and a final close has been penciled in for the end of the year. Barito Pacific Group, an Indonesian company primarily involved in heavy industry, is another investor.

Barito has a longstanding relationship with Kejora, having backed the firm’s debut fund of $12 million in 2013. It also came in as an anchor investor for Fund II, participating in the $25 million first close in February 2017 alongside Germany’s Hubert Burda Media. Additional commitments came from high net worth individuals as well as a few Thai families, such as the Chareon Pokphand family, which controls local conglomerate CP Group, and the Bhirombhakdis, owners of Singha Group.

These Thai connections prompted Kejora to open an office in the country, complementing its existing local operations in Indonesia, Singapore, and the Philippines.

The Kejora platform was established by Sebastian Togelang and fellow serial entrepreneur Andy Zain in 2014. They initially created an incubator – Ideabox – in conjunction with local telecom provider Indosat Ooredoo, and then expanded their facilities to provide co-working spaces for a variety of start-ups. The resulting ecosystem is the source of most of the firm’s investments.

The combination of incubation services, early-stage funds (writing checks of $200,000 to $3 million) and the new growth fund (which makes commitments of $5-10 million) are seen as an end-to-end solution for start-ups. “We can support companies from early to later stage – it’s all about creating winners,” Togelang said. “If a company has a sustainable business model and a market leadership position, it will receive backing from other investors and build a bigger gap between itself and its competitors.”

The growth fund has already backed several companies that appear in the early-stage portfolio, but not as lead investor so as to avoid potential conflicts of interest. Kejora’s network of international financial and strategic investors typically feature in these rounds.

For example, C88 Fintech Group, an operator of financial e-commerce websites in Southeast Asia, closed a $28 million Series C round in July led by Experian and featuring a string of backers from development finance institutions to foreign VCs. Kejora re-upped alongside several other early investors.

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• Topics
• Southeast Asia
• Fundraising
• Venture
• Technology
• Indonesia
• Kejora Ventures
• TMT