SeaX wins Thai corporate support for $60m second fund
SeaX Ventures – or Southeast Asia Exponential Ventures – has closed its second early-stage fund on USD 60m, surpassing the USD 50m target.
Several Thai corporates came in a LPs, including oil and gas supplier PTT, property developer Central Pattana, hospital chain operator Ramkhamhaeng Hospital, clothing and apparel player MC Group, newspaper publisher The Vacharaphol Company, printing solutions business TKS Technologies, and furniture manufacturer Modernform.
Additional contributions came from venture capital units of brewing giant Singha Corporation and digital service provider Benchachinda Group. Numerous individuals feature in the LP as well, among them senior executives from the likes of Kiatnakin Phatra Financial Group, Thai Union Group, Toyota Tsusho Thai Holding, and Veranda Resort Group.
Rise, a consulting firm based in Southeast Asia that claims to work closely with Fortune 500 companies, family groups, and government agencies, is also described as an investor. Part of SeaX’s value creation proposition involves connecting start-ups to Rise clients.
The new fund will make investments of USD 500,000 to USD 5m in pre-seed, seed, and Series A rounds. Focus areas include blockchain and web3, food technology, biotech and life sciences, artificial intelligence, robotics, and the internet of things and hardware.
Existing portfolio companies include Apollo Neuro, a wearable therapeutic devices manufacturer, NFTGo, a data aggregation platform for the web3, non-fungible token (NFT), and gaming communities, Solana, a blockchain protocol, Band Protocol, a protocol for decentralised governance, Nirvamed, a biotech specialist, and AIFI, a store automation technology developer.
SeaX claims to have participated in seed rounds for three companies that went on to achieve unicorn status. It did not identify them by name.
"Southeast Asia is a region of 650m people with a combined GDP of USD 3trn. We can help innovative start-ups from across the world grow exponentially in this large and dynamic area through our relationship with over 400 corporates,” said Supachai "Kid" Parchariyanon, founder and managing partner of SeaX, in a statement.
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