Kaya Founders raised $18 M in second close to boost Southeast Asia startups
Kaya Founders, a venture capital firm based in the Philippines, has announced the second close of its two most recent funds, which are intended to support the next wave of technology start-ups in Southeast Asia.
This raises the firm’s total assets under management (AUM) to PHP1.25 billion ($22.5 million) and the total committed capital of its new funds to PHP1 billion ($18 million), according to a statement released by the firm on Wednesday.
In addition to family offices, wealthy individuals, and seasoned business owners, the statement lists investors who took part in the funding round, including Singapore’s Pavilion Capital, Gabriel and Geraldine Sunshine of Boston-based hedge fund Bracebridge Capital, and Concentric Equity Partners.
In order to invest in early-stage start-ups in the Philippines and Southeast Asia, the company is aiming to raise PHP1.4 billion ($25 million) through two new funds.
Kaya Founders was established in 2021 and currently manages 44 companies across various industries such as financial services, software as a service, eCommerce, healthcare, and agriculture.
Over the next four years, the firm hopes to support another 30 to 40 start-ups in the Philippines and Southeast Asia with the new funds, which are aptly named the “Zero to One” and “One to Ten” funds, referring to the respective stages each one is focused on.
Venture capital has made noteworthy investments in cloud logistics platform Locad (which raised $11 million in January 2023), eCommerce enabler Etaily (which announced a $17.8 million Series A funding round last November), salary on-demand provider Advance, global plastic credits marketplace Plastic Credit Exchange, and microinsurance platform RuralNet.
Several prominent figures in the Philippine technology industry, including Paulo Campos (co-founder and former CEO of ZALORA Philippines), Ray Alimurung (former CEO of Lazada Philippines), and Lisa Gokongwei-Cheng (founder and CEO of Summit Media), are the people behind Kaya Founders.
Dominic Hernandez, a director of Union Digital Bank and a former chief operating officer of Potato Corner, as well as Accent Micro Technologies Inc. (AMTI), a provider of technology solutions, have recently joined the venture capital to further strengthen the leadership team.
“We see Kaya as a vehicle to capitalize on the unique window of opportunity we are in, with the defining companies of the country and the broader region to be built over the next decade,
“Above all, we see Kaya as an avenue to solve the most pressing challenges of our times, be it financial exclusion, climate change, or limited healthcare access,” Its Managing General Partner Paulo Campos said.
