Philippines VC firm Kaya raises $12m across two funds
Philippines-based VC investor and venture studio Kaya Founders has achieved a first close of USD 12m across two early-stage funds. The target - for both vehicles - is USD 25m.
The Gokongwei family is participating as the anchor investor. There were also contributions from institutional investors, family offices, high-net-worth individuals, and prominent entrepreneurs. It brings total capital under management to USD 16.5m.
The two vehicles are the pre-seed-focused Zero to One Fund and the seed to Series A-focused One to Ten Fund. Their launch follows closely on the appointment of Ray Alimurung, previously CEO of Lazada Philippines, as a general partner of Zero to One.
Cheques will range from USD 150,000 to USD 500,000, with One to Ten providing follow-on rounds for Zero to One. The target corpus for each fund was not specified, although the later-stage vehicle will be larger. Sectors of interest include D2C e-commerce, B2B marketplaces, future-of-work, climate tech, and generative artificial intelligence.
The funds will invest across Southeast Asia with a strong focus on the Philippines, which Kaya describes as one of the fastest-growing tech ecosystems globally. The firm highlighted the market’s favourable demographics, supportive government policies, and emerging digital entrepreneur base.
“The burgeoning tech scene in the Philippines is reminiscent of previous growth narratives seen in markets such as India in the 2000s and Indonesia over the past decade,” Paulo Campos, a managing general partner at Kaya, said in a statement.
Kaya was founded in 2021 by Campos and Lisa Gokongwei-Cheng (pictured, centre and right with Alimurung left) alongside Constantin Robertz. It writes first cheques for idea-stage founders and helps them scale through follow-on rounds.
Campos previously served as CEO of Zalora Philippines. Gokongwei-Cheng is president of Summit Media and a digital transformation executive at JG Summit Holdings. Robertz is co-founder and CEO of Locad, a Singapore logistics company backed by JG Summit, the Gokongwei family, and Sequoia Capital India among others.
Campos, Gokongwei, and Robertz are among the most prolific angel investors in the Philippines. Some of their standout investments as individuals include beauty e-commerce unicorn MyGlamm, supermarket chain Dali, and social media app Kumu. Summit Media is also an investor in Kumu.
They have backed 31 companies as Kaya, including salary-on-demand start-up Advance, e-commerce enabler Etaily, and small business point-of-sale app Peddlr. Last March, Kaya joined a USD 16m pre-Series A round for Advance featuring global investors such as Wavemaker Partners and Accion Venture Lab.
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