Venture capital (VC) firms Gobi Partners and Ozora Yatrapaktaja (PT Mega Ozora Venture) are partnering together to launch a $10 million seed fund for women start-ups in Indonesia, called the Ratu Nusa Fund.
Focusing on health tech, e-commerce/social commerce, future of work/education, prop tech, enterprise/small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) tech and fintech, the Ratu Nusa Fund will be dedicated to supporting women-led seed-stage and pre-Series A companies in Indonesia, Gobi Partners said in a statement on Thursday.
The Ratu Nusa Fund will also focus on companies that improve the livelihoods of women and girls across Indonesia; underserved companies that reside in emerging secondary and tertiary cities such as Surabaya, Bali, Denpasar, Nusantara and Medan; as well as companies that leverage technology to broaden access and have the potential to create enhanced efficiencies and scalability.
“Women entrepreneurs have long gotten a small slice of the VC funding pie mainly due to entrenched gender biases, leaving untapped potential from half of the world’s population. The Ratu Nusa Fund was designed to address this gap,” said Gobi Co-Founder, Thomas Tsao.
“There’s nowhere better to debut our first women-centric fund than in Indonesia where there are an estimated 30 million active women entrepreneurs who stand to benefit from a thriving startup ecosystem. We are also excited to partner with Ozora Venture with its strong women-led management team and their deep-rooted networks here,” he added.
Ozora Venture Founding Partner Margaret Srijaya is also looking forward to uncovering the next Indonesian startup ‘treasure’.
“Ozora means strength from God and treasure, which reflects our goal as we are on a mission to identify local treasures in Indonesia and turn them into global gold. There is a large underserved and untapped opportunity in VC support for women entrepreneurs and women-impact businesses serving 133 million Indonesian women,” said Srijaya.
“We are confident that the Ratu Nusa Fund will provide worthy women-led businesses the ability to scale its impact in this country and across neighboring markets within the Asia-Pacific region,” she added.
Ozora Venture has deep local expertise in Indonesia and a strong network with businesses, governments, organizations, and communities globally. The firm is committed to empowering the next generation of entrepreneurs to achieve Vision of Indonesia 2045.
Its Founding Partner Srijaya is also the Founder of Womenpreneurs.id, an online community empowering women, self-improvement and entrepreneurship with over 300,000 followers since 2018. Srijaya also served as the Head of VC at BPP HIPMI Indonesia, Local President Junior Chamber International (JCI) East Java in 2017, Women Lead Compartment in Chamber of Commerce Surabaya.
Founded in 2002, pan-Asian VC firm Gobi Partners has $1.5 billion in assets under management, where it supports entrepreneurs from the early to growth stages. The firm champions the underserved in emerging markets, empowering diverse leaders and gender equality. To date, Gobi has raised 15 funds across 13 locations and invested in over 310 startups (over 60 in ASEAN).
In line with its pledge to empower women, Gobi became a signatory to the United Nations Global Compact and Women’s Empowerment Principles by UN Women in 2021. The firm has also hosted multiple gender-lens centric events and forums such as She Loves Tech, Karandaaz Pakistan’s Women Ventures Programme, CodeGirls and co-founded the Asia Gender-Smart Investing Forum with UN Women.