Gobi-Core named partner for Philippines start-up fund

The Gobi-Core Philippine Fund (Gobi-Core) was launched in 2018 by Gobi and Core Capital, a newly established local VC firm, with a corpus of USD 10m. Its first investments came later the same year in online healthcare services provider Maria Health and student portal operator Edukasyon. It has gone on to back the likes of livestreaming app Kumu, which has received significant follow-on funding.

SVF was conceived under the 2019 Innovative Startup Act and made joint responsibility of the Department of Trade & Industry (DTI) and the state-owned National Development Company. It has an allocation of USD 10m and backs start-ups through the seed to Series B stage by matching commitments from selected third-party investors.

Gobi-Core said in a statement that the partnership with SVF would enable it to support "Philippine-based high-potential start-ups while bridging these investees to the rest of the region via the firm's 15 countries ASEAN presence and track record of performance."

Gobi has USD 1.5bn in assets under management and has raised 15 funds since its inception in 2002. The firm has multiple offices across Thailand, China, Egypt, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Pakistan, Malaysia, India, the Philippines, and Singapore.

"We strongly believe in the effectiveness of public-private partnerships in the tech ecosystem and with this endeavour we emphasize both locally and internationally that the Philippines is bound for an inflection point," said Jason Gaisano, a managing partner at Core Capital.

"From our success in the past four years in creating opportunities, jobs, and empowering brilliant founders, we are excited about what's to come and are assured that by working together, we can bring our country's talented entrepreneurs to new heights."

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• Topics
• Southeast Asia
• Fundraising
• Early-stage
• Venture
• Technology
• Philippines
• Gobi Partners