Forbes Indonesia - July 2019

14 | FORBES INDONESIA JULY 2019

Updates

GROWTH-STAGE startups fo-

cused venture capital EV Growth

announced it has closed its first fund

at $200 million, passing the initial

$150m target set since its establish-

ment. Partners participating in the

fund include SoftBank Group Corp.,

Pavilion Capital, and Indies Capital.

EV Growth is a joint venture be-

tween three venture capitals: East

Ve n t u re s, I n d o n e s i a n c o n g l o m e r-

ate group Sinar Mas' SMDV, and

internet company Yahoo! Japan's

YJ Capital Inc, that targets growth

stage startups of all industry. Estab-

lished March last year and head-

quartered in Singapore, EV Growth

has been filling the gap on lacking

series B funding in the region. So

far it has invested 40% of its total

funds to 12 startups, with 90% of in-

vestees being Indonesian-based.

EV GROWTH CLOSED FIRST FUND AT $200 MILLION

ESTER C. NATALIA & MARELLA PUTRI

In late June, EV Growth and Quona Capital led a $12 million series B

funding for Koinworks, Indonesian P2P SME lending platform, which claims

that majority of the lender in the platform is millennials. The funding is said

to be used for system and technology development to reach a wider financial

inclusion in Indonesia. EV Growth’s previous investees include ShopBack,

Wa r u n g P i n t a r, Mo k a , a n d s e r i e s C f o r I D N Me d i a a n d S o c i o l l a.

The country’s largest private lender PT Bank Central Asia (BCA) announced it has

selected eight startups for its accelerator program, Synrgy. These startups are: Crowde, In-

doGold, Amalan, AgenKan, Bizhare, Kendi, Bamms and Jari, which will join a three-month

program that was set by Digitaraya Powered by Google Developers Launchpad. At the

end of the program, the startups will be

given a chance to present their products

in front of potential investors and BCA.

Started in March, Synrgy is a part

of BCA’s effort to help support the

digitalization in Indonesia through

collaborative platform and accelerator

for startup community that aims to

encourage growth and innovation in

the digital sector.

“We aim to help startups evolve

faster, better and healthier,” said Ar-

mand Hartono, deputy president direc-

tor of BCA. Armand added that, as part

of BCA, Synrgy will always support the

promising growth of fintech startups.

Besides Synrgy, BCA also has Cen-

tral Capital Ventura (CCV). Founded

in 2017, CCV has raised its first fund as

much as $15 million and already dis-

burse it to 14 startups in its portfolio.

BCA’S SYNRGY GROOMS STARTUPS

COURTESY OF SYNRGY ACCELERATOR; COURTESY OF EAST VENTURES