Goodwater raises $1b across two funds
Goodwater Capital, a US-based VC firm with a presence in Korea and significant Asia exposure, has raised USD 1bn across two funds. It brings assets under management to USD 3.3bn.
The two funds are the fifth vintage under the flagship Goodwater series and the third vintage from the firm’s Infinity series. LPs reportedly include Colorado Fire & Police Pension Association, New Mexico State Investment Council, California Public Employees' Retirement System, and Alaska Permanent Fund.
The funds were launched in tandem last year with a combined target of USD 1bn. Goodwater V was intended to take up USD 600m of the capital raised, according to a filing.
Goodwater was founded in 2014 by Eric Kim, formerly of Maverick Capital and McKinsey & Company, and Chi-Hua Chien, formerly of Keiner Perkins and Accel (pictured, left to right). It claims to be the largest VC firm solely focused on consumer technology globally.
Goodwater has invested in several high-profile tech companies in Asia, including Chinese social media platform Musical.ly, which was acquired by industry giant Bytedance in 2017. There is also Vietnamese mobile wallet Momo, which raised a USD 200m Series E round at a USD 2bn valuation last year, and Indonesian payments player Xendit, which was valued at USD 3bn in a USD 300m Series D last year.
Korean investments include Viva Republica, operator of payments app Toss, and Danggeun Market, operator of flea market app Karrot. Danggeun Market was valued at USD 2.7bn in its latest round in 2021, while Viva Republica was valued at around USD 6.4bn as of its Series G last year.
It is unclear to what extent the new funds will support this stratum of the portfolio. Kim validated a report by TechCrunch noting that 60% of the newly raised capital will be invested in seed and early-stage start-ups. However, he emphasised in a social media post that its core funds invest between Series A and Series D, leaving seed investments to a separate programme called Genesis.
Globally, Goodwater has invested in 79 early and growth companies, plus more than 600 seed-stage companies to date. It claims to leverage a proprietary software-enabled approach to identifying targets and understanding how consumers adopt new technologies.
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