Alpha JWC seeks $250m for third Indonesia VC fund

The firm raised $50 million for its debut fund in 2017 and $123 million for the successor vehicle, which closed in late 2019. Fund III will participate in seed through Series B rounds, primarily for start-ups focused on new consumer-oriented services and financial technology, according to a filing.

Alpha JWC was set up in 2015 by Chandra Tjan, co-founder of East Ventures, Jeffrey Joe, formerly COO of Groupon Indonesia, and Will Ongkowidjaja, who previously worked in banking and consulting. Tjan and Joe are identified as the firm’s two general partners. Two other partners, Eko Kurniadi and Erika Dianasari Go, focus on investments and value creation, respectively.

The overall team is around 25-strong and operates out Singapore and Jakarta. Half of Alpha JWC’s staff source and execute investments, while the other half is devoted to value creation.

Fund I is claimed to be Indonesia’s first independent and institutional early-stage venture capital vehicle. It was invested across 43 companies, of which 90 have gone to receive follow-on funding. As of February 2020, the fund had generated an IRR 30.4% and distributions to paid-in (DPI) of 20%.

Exits include co-working space operator Spacemob, investment news platform DealStreetAsia, and secondhand goods marketplace Jualo. Spacemob and DealStreetAsia were sold to WeWork and Nikkei, respectively, while Jualo was picked up by Carro, another Alpha JWC portfolio company.

Among the firm’s investments in the consumer space are digital credit start-up Kredivo and online tutoring platform Zenius, as well as Carro, an automotive marketplace. Within enterprise, it has backed B2B consumer goods marketplace Gudangada and tax reporting platform OnlinePajak, while agribusiness player TaniGroup straddles consumer and enterprise.

Alpha JWC describes its second fund as Southeast Asia’s largest early-stage vehicle. Openspace Ventures and Venturra Capital both raised bigger funds around the same time, but these focused on Series A and B rounds. A more recent phenomenon is the introduction of complementary growth funds that continue to support companies once they outgrow early-stage vehicles.

Openspace recently closed its third VC fund at $200 million and the firm is still in the market with a growth-stage vehicle.

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