Philippines conglomerate Ayala to launch $150m VC fund

It is being touted as the largest effort of its kind in the Philippines and the country’s first conglomerate-wide strategic VC fund. Ayala said it would seek LP commitments from its affiliates including Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI), AC Energy, and Globe Telecom, the parent of Kickstart.

The launch is part of a comprehensive innovation initiative aimed at future-proofing Ayala’s brick-and-mortar portfolio and broadening the digital services available to Filipinos. Focus areas will include data, artificial intelligence, cloud computing, financial technology, automation, real estate, retail, transport, energy, water, health and wellness, and food.

“We spend significant time studying other markets that are in the advanced stages of digital maturity and we have teams constantly looking at emerging trends and technologies,” Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala, chairman and CEO of Ayala, said in a statement. “Absorbing and learning from these experiences, we have become more deliberate in our own digital transformation journey.”

Ayala began making large commitments to the Philippines venture market in 2017 alongside Kickstart and BPI Capital with the acquisition of a 49% stake in the local operations of regional online fashion retailer Zalora for an undisclosed sum. As of end-2018, the e-commerce company had recorded 100 million page views and seven million mobile app downloads.

Ayala has also marked significant traction in the fintech space through investments in BPI, which has recorded 1.6 million downloads for its mobile app, and GCash, a mobile micropayments wallet with 20 million users in the Philippines. Ayala claims to have invested more than PHP18.5 billion ($355 million) in fintech during the past three years.

Kickstart has invested 39 early-stage digital start-ups around the region since 2012, including Manila-based real estate marketplace ZipMatch, Singapore fintech services provider C88, and Indonesian marketing data researcher Snapcart. The VC firm has raised two previous funds, that most recent of which received $50 million from Globe in 2015.

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• Topics
• Southeast Asia
• Fundraising
• Technology
• Venture
• Philippines
• Ayala Corporation