As the year of 2024 comes to an end, we sought insights from prominent figures across the Southeast Asian tech landscape. These leaders reflected on their triumphs throughout the year, sharing valuable perspectives on their achievements and the challenges they overcame. Furthermore, they unveiled their ambitious aspirations, meticulously outlined their strategic plans for 2025, and offered insightful predictions on the trajectory of the tech industry in the coming year.
We talked to Dan Siazon, Founder and Managing Partner of Kickstart Ventures to learn more about the company’s achievements in 2024, its plans and priorities in 2025. He also shared his views on the outlook of the tech ecosystem in the Philippines for the new year.
Kickstart Ventures manages the Philippines’ largest technology venture capital funds, investing globally in early- to growth-stage tech startups via three funds, including the Ayala Corporation Technology Innovation Venture Fund (ACTIVE Fund). Kickstart is a wholly-owned corporate venture capital firm of Globe Telecom, the Philippines’ leading mobile operator.
Kickstart Ventures was founded in 2012 as a corporate incubator of Globe Telecom with a starting fund of $2.5 million. In 2015, it fully transitioned into a Corporate Venture Capital firm with a $50 million growth fund. Today, it advises the Ayala Corporation Technology Innovation Venture (ACTIVE) Fund, the largest venture capital fund coming out of the Philippines.
The firm invests in the Philippines and globally, having funded startups in major innovation hubs like Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Canada, USA, and Israel. Kickstart Ventures is backed by Globe Telecom, Ayala Corporation, and Singtel.
1. How was Kickstart Ventures’ 2024?
2024 was, by general reckoning, the second year of a downturn in the global markets especially for the venture industry. In this turbulence, Kickstart has successfully “battened down the hatches”, and supported portfolio companies towards profitability as well as making new investments in sustainable advanced materials with SRTX and KICKS CREW, a B2B2C athletic shoe marketplace – both overseas – to smoothen our overall portfolio risk profile.
Notably, our SEA B2B commerce and logistics-related plays are performing well in this downturn (TreeDots and Eezee, which are in the food and industrial supplies spaces, respectively).
We have also made initial forays in AI: a company based in Toronto, Lydia.AI, developed a machine learning health score used to underwrite life insurance products in Asian markets, and another early-stage bet in San Francisco, which offers more affordable access to large language models so clients can develop their AI applications.
We will continue to leverage our core strengths in the Philippines as a CVC backed by Globe Telecom and Ayala Corporation to strengthen linkages throughout Southeast Asia, while simultaneously casting an eye beyond the region to seek enabling technologies relevant to our core businesses – something we’ve always done since inception.
2. What’s your expectation/aspirations for 2025?
2025 is expected to be another interesting year, with changes in global leadership already signaling a geopolitical, and therefore economic landscape in flux. However, it is in such disruptions that opportunities present themselves for the bold and the discerning.
We believe the Philippines’ young, dynamic population, rising consumer demand, and low-cost labor base make it an attractive long-term investment destination, fostering innovation and the development or adoption of new technologies.
Our mission remains the same: we look for unique enabling technologies or businesses relevant to and that could address societal challenges in our home market. Kickstart stands ready to deploy the ACTIVE Fund into relevant sectors, in particular AI tools and applications, and Consumer / Retail.
We back smart and importantly, emotionally mature founding teams with unique insights into tech-enabled opportunity gaps and defensible unit economics. To revert to nautical metaphors, we like teams who have a keen sense of direction, can anticipate storms, and keep calm in rough waters.