MDI launches healthcare fund with Indonesian strategic
MDI Ventures, the corporate VC arm of state-controlled Telkom Indonesia, has launched a USD 20m fund with domestic vaccine manufacturer Bio Farma that will pursue early and growth-stage healthcare investments.
State-owned Bio Farma will serve as LP and provide the entire corpus. It will also provide strategic support to portfolio companies, leveraging its resources to act as a go-to-market channel. To this end, the fund is not limited to investments in Indonesia; it may back global start-ups where there is a domestic application opportunity.
Honesti Basyir, president director of Bio Farma, said the goal is to increase the company’s capabilities in life sciences and healthcare technology with a view to forming a national health ecosystem.
“Bio Farma, as the parent company of state-owned pharmaceutical enterprises, will add to its portfolio more than vaccines and serums, as during the COVID-19 pandemic we’ve innovated to produce diagnostic kits such as mBio-Cov and Biosaliva,” he added in a statement. “This was the result of collaboration with start-ups.”
Healthcare forms part of the remit for MDI’s core venture funds, the second of which closed on USD 500m in 2020. Telkom is the sole LP. The Bio-Health Fund may also capture opportunities identified under that strategy, co-investing in companies and offering strategic input via Bio Farma.
Pahala Nugraha Mansury, Indonesia’s vice minister of state-owned enterprises, noted that other companies should be looking to partner with MDI to gain access to technology and accelerate the development of their sectors. He called on Perkebunan Nusantara (PTPN), ID Food, and Perhutani in food and Pertamina in energy to pursue similar initiatives.
MDI Ventures claims five strategies – an accelerator plus four funds – that span the entire start-up journey. Some of these funds are collaborative efforts with third parties. For example, Arise is a seed investment unit established with financial technology specialist Finch Capital and Centauri Fund was launched with Korea’s KB Investments to participate in Series A and B rounds.
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