Indonesia-focused venture capital (VC) firm Alpha JWC Ventures said Tuesday that it forecasts Indonesia will produce at least 10 more unicorns by 2025.
Alpha JWC said in a statement, the VC firm saw four unicorns from its portfolio in 2021, with 14 companies valued between $500 million to $1 billion, buoyed by global investors’ interests and the strong performance of Indonesia’s tech sector.
In the fourth quarter of last year, the VC firm also saw an oversubscribed $433 million Fund III from global and regional investors.
“With our biggest Fund III closing and a robust Indonesian market before us, we are better positioned than ever to back on high potential startups, while also helping founders scale their growth, close investment and take their businesses to greater heights,
“We are the first VC in Indonesia and Southeast Asia to apply a value-adding portfolio management approach and based on our achievements, it has proven to be fruitful. We are now taking it to the next level with international team expansion, stronger presence in other Southeast Asian countries, as well as a more intensive and extensive portfolio support,” said Erika Dianasari, Partner – Value Creation of Alpha JWC.
According to the statement, last year was a momentous year for Alpha JWC as the firm invested more than $80 million into 29 deals and welcomed 18 new startups in Southeast Asia to its portfolio companies.
Its new portfolio companies include Asia Pacific based e-commerce aggregator UnaBrands, Indonesia’s largest online to offline automotive aftermarket platform, and Indonesia’s largest SaaS for food and beverage (F&B) businesses ESB.
The firm also closed 2021 with its fourth unicorn of the year, Indonesia’s fastest growing coffee chain Kopi Kenangan, following its earlier unicorns Carro, Kredivo, and Ajaib.
Alpha JWC said that its primary focus for 2022 will be continuing helping founders to build scalable, sustainable, and successful companies.
“In 2021, we saw the fintech and consumer sector flourish in the region, also proven by the two unicorns we have partnered with from each sector. This year, we believe these two sectors will continue to grow, and we will continue to invest in those sectors, while also remaining opportunistic to other tech and tech-enabled sectors,
“With our flexibility to invest in various sectors as we are sector agnostic, and in various funding stages and ticket sizes – from as low as $100,000 up to $60 million in multistage funding, we aim to back more strong companies and brilliant founders in 2022,” said Chandra Tjan, Co-Founder and General Partner of Alpha JWC.
In Alpha JWC’s continued commitment to support startup founders in their growth, it has recently appointed seasoned marketer Cheryl Ng as its Vice President, Marketing and Value Creation, based in Singapore. Previously, Ng held strong leadership roles as Asia Pacific Head of Marketing and Innovation at data-driven digital marketing firm Xaxis, and Global Head of Marketing and Brand Strategy at artificial intelligence (AI) and Computer Software firm ViSenze.
“I am very excited to take on the role because it not only requires me to build up Alpha JWC’s brand, but more importantly to provide marketing support and counsel to our stable of portfolio companies and their founders who are changing the world. The firm’s focus and passion to help founders realise their dreams is a big driver for me,” said Cheryl Ng, Vice President, Marketing and Value Creation of Alpha JWC.
Alpha JWC is an early to growth-stage Southeast Asian venture capital firm. Its debut fund was launched in 2016 as Indonesia’s first independent and institutional early-stage venture capital fund.
The firm currently manages around $630 million assets under management (AUM) – the largest early-stage fund in Southeast Asia – and 57 active portfolio companies across Southeast Asia.