Indonesia's Alpha JWC Ventures closes second fund at $123m

Investors came from Southeast Asia, Korea, China, Japan, and Europe, with most of the LPs from the firm's first fund re-upping. The fund, which initially targeted $100 million, reached a first close of $70 million last year with support from Japanese IT services provider NS Solutions.

Alpha JWC raised $50 million for its first fund closed in 2017. It has now been fully deployed across 23 portfolio companies in Southeast Asia, mostly Indonesia. The VC firm claims that about 90% of these companies have received follow-on funding. The fund is therefore said to have grown 3.2x in net asset value.

Standout investments include Singapore-based P2P lending platform Funding Societies and auto marketplace Carro. There have been two exits, including Singaporean co-working space operator Spacemob, which was acquired by US-based sector leader WeWork in 2017, and investment news platform DealStreetAsia, which was bought by Nikkei earlier this year.

Fund II began investing in late 2018. Following a similar strategy, it has backed 14 companies to date, including Logivan, a Vietnamese logistics technology provider that has also received funding from VinaCapital Ventures, Insignia Ventures, and Ethos Partners. Alpha JWC made its largest-ever investment via Fund II last year when it provided $8 million to Indonesia-based grab-and-go coffee chain Kopi Kenangan.

"With the new fund, we can be more active and cover more sectors and regions than before. However, we do notice that the digital economy's landscape, trend, and behavior have been changing, especially in the past year," Chandra Tjan, a co-founder and managing partner at Alpha JWC, said in a statement. "Hence, we have to be optimistic, active, yet cautious. Our portfolio companies' success so far has to be attributed to our team's close support in the companies' journey and our focus on their fundamentals."

Alpha JWC describes its style as hands-on in terms of portfolio management, with more than half of the 20-strong team working primarily on value creation work. It claims to have the largest team among Indonesian VCs, with three partners hired during 2019. These include Alan Hellawell, formerly chief strategy officer at Singapore e-commerce start-up Sea; Erika Dianasari, who was promoted from the role of principal; and Eko Kurniadi, a former vice president of investment at private equity firm Creador.

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• Topics
• Southeast Asia
• Fundraising
• Venture
• Technology
• Indonesia
• Alpha JWC Ventures
• TMT