Why ‘Indonesia-only’ Intudo Ventures believes SEA as one cohesive market is a fallacy

Intudo Ventures Founding Companions Eddy Chan (L) and Patrick Yip

When Eddy Chan and Patrick mentioned beginning an Indonesia-only enterprise capital agency in 2017, many frowned upon and laughed at them. However nothing might forestall them from launching their dream firm, Intudo Ventures, which boasts of being the primary VC agency focussing solely on the archipelago’s home-grown startups.

At present, Intudo manages three VC funds and has over two dozen investments to its credit score, of which one is a unicorn.

e27 spoke with Intudo’s Founding Accomplice Eddy Chan in regards to the VC agency’s investments, philosophy, alternatives and offers.

Edited excerpts:

What’s Intudo Ventures? What was the motivation to begin Intudo Ventures in 2017?

Intudo Ventures is the primary “Indonesia-only” unbiased VC agency with an concerned/concentrated portfolio method. 

Again in 2017, for those who had been to get on Google to seek for phrases like ‘Indonesian enterprise capital agency’, ‘Jakarta-based enterprise capital agency’, or “enterprise capital agency in Indonesia’, you’d provide you with a smattering of outcomes. There have been possibly a couple of pages representing minor snippets of exercise in an in any other case unoccupied terrain. 

Whereas there was a handful of VC companies headquartered in Indonesia, none of them took the stance of being ‘Indonesia-focused’ or ‘Indonesia-only’. As a substitute, they opted for the extra geographically numerous mandate of ‘Southeast Asia regional’, jet-setting between Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines and past to seek out founders.

So it’s no shock that many individuals noticed it as extra novelty once we determined to create the Indonesia-dedicated VC agency in 2017 that might develop into Intudo Ventures. 

Wanting again to these days, Indonesia was nonetheless a nascent market—booming with potential however missing in concrete outcomes. The nation had simply topped its first unicorn with native ride-hailing startup Gojek’s US$1.4 billion valuation. There was a scarcity of exits — nobody had the cash to show that Indonesia labored. As a substitute, buyers opted to take Southeast Asia piecemeal, believing that cross-border synergies would create an even bigger pie for each entrepreneurs and buyers.

For us, we consider that regional mandates typically compel funds to spend money on Southeast Asia as one collective market, underestimating the issue offered by fragmentation that such a technique faces hopping from market to market. 

As a substitute, we held a contrarian perception out there that Southeast Asia as one cohesive market was a fallacy and that specializing in one market –Indonesia — would result in higher funding and entrepreneurial outcomes. It was a easy matter of widespread sense for us.

Additionally Learn: Of COVID-19 and funding winter: Why these 2 VC companies are bullish about SEA amid back-to-back crises

Primarily based on the traits of the market, on the outset of making Intudo Ventures, we believed {that a} profitable Indonesian VC agency would wish to show the next traits:

Dedication to the Indonesian market: As the most important and most consequential market in Southeast Asia, success in Indonesia is paramount for achievement in Southeast Asia. By specializing in Indonesia, we are able to focus our assets to maximise worth for our founders and buyers, extra successfully supply and safe offers by way of status and community results, and develop into a go-to associate for international capital wanting publicity to Indonesia. Only a few firms could be profitable in Southeast Asia with out going by way of Indonesia.

Owned and operated independently of any exterior group: Indonesia’s VC market has historically been dominated by native conglomerates and their related households and state-owned enterprises, in every case, which exerts sway over main parts of the financial system. 

As an unbiased agency, Intudo can work with a various group of conglomerates to assist them navigate the Indonesian digital financial system and create diversified worth for founders to attach them with company companions. For this reason Indonesia’s greater than 30 most prolific households and their related conglomerates have come onboard as Intudo LPs, constructing synergies between our buyers and our founders, permitting everybody concerned to develop into extra vital than the sum of our elements.

Globally linked with entry to sensible capital and elite expertise: Indonesia has all the time been off-the-radar of world capital; even right now, it’s nonetheless thought of unique for a lot of institutional buyers. It’s nonetheless to today a non-consensus market. 

Nevertheless, in 2017, we believed Indonesia could possibly be the subsequent rising market success story primarily based on historic developments and on-the-ground dynamics. By build up consciousness of Indonesia amongst worldwide buyers and performing as a beachhead for international capital, Intudo might present international capital for our founders and create unfair benefits inside our portfolio for future financing. 

Primarily based on this technique, 30-plus main international funds and managing companions, together with ten international Forbes Midas Listing VC buyers, have joined us as LPs to achieve publicity to Indonesia. 

Furthermore, practically a 3rd of our founders had been sourced from abroad by way of our Pulkam S.E.A. Turtle founder recruitment technique. To this date, we’re the only real Indonesian homegrown VC agency with a worldwide presence in 1) Silicon Valley and Indonesia.

Capable of make concentrated bets on a small steady of firms at an early stage: To have a seat on the desk and supply significant worth to founders, we knew that we must focus our efforts on a choose group of firms. Indexing offers is nice for accumulating logos, but it surely implies that efforts are stretched out amongst many firms, and returns are diluted after a number of financing rounds. We needed to be a trusted associate for Indonesian entrepreneurs from the primary examine all through IPO.

These 4 traits would make for a robust mandate and is a improbable technical technique to construct a agency. 

Nevertheless, we’re operating a enterprise pushed by individuals and character. We needed to construct one thing that might be each unapologetically Indonesian. Extra importantly, we symbolize the spirit of our core values not solely as buyers but in addition as individuals. We determined upon the amalgamated phrase ‘Intudo’. It’s a stitched-together mixture of the Bahasa Indonesian phrases representing the agency’s core values of integrity (integritas), sincerity (tulus), and serendipity (jodoh). 

These three beliefs embody the spirit we aspire to attain in all the things we do — from the managing companions, workforce members, advisors, and advocates. We additionally search for these traits within the founders that we again.

Why is there an emphasis on ‘Indonesia-only’? Why don’t you increase to different SEA markets?

“Indonesia-only” is a commonsense proposition; we solely again Indonesian homegrown firms. Once we speak about Southeast Asia’s financial development and market potential, what we’re speaking about is Indonesia is pure and easy. It’s the elephant within the room for a lot of companies and funding managers working within the area as a consequence of its sheer market dimension, vibrant client base, and alternative for producing outsized funding returns.

Additionally Learn: Indonesia-only Intudo Ventures hits ultimate shut of Fund III at US$115M, to again 12-14 companies

From a macro perspective, the numbers say all of it. Irrespective of the way you slice it, Indonesia makes up greater than 35 per cent of the area’s GDP, 35 per cent of financial development, and 35 per cent of the area’s inhabitants. 

With no different market in Southeast Asia even coming shut when it comes to market share, companies and buyers can not declare to be overlaying Southeast Asia as a area and not using a vital dedication to Indonesia.

It’s a market with each scale and momentum. With its younger inhabitants of 270 million and rising, Indonesia has a home client market dwarfed solely by China, India, and the US. Over the previous few a long time, Indonesia has skilled a large poverty discount, dramatic urbanisation, sturdy revenue development, and an more and more prosperous center class. Alongside vital regulatory reforms, this has created snug circumstances for cultivating startups and the digital financial system.

Non-Indonesian homegrown offers within the area should not in our mandate. Usually talking, we’ve the flexibleness to cowl firms that develop into regional over time. Nevertheless, our baseline is derived from the corporate’s headquarters in Indonesia. As we take comparatively concentrated positions amongst our portfolio firms, we need to ensure that we’re creating the best doable worth for our founders and buyers by specializing in what we do finest, Indonesia.

Who’re your LPs?

Black Kite Capital: Singapore-based household workplace of Koh Boon Hwee;

Wasson Enterprise: US-based household workplace of former Walgreens Boots Alliance CEO Greg Wasson;

PIDC, the funding arm of Taiwan-based worldwide meals/beverage and retail conglomerate Uni-President Enterprises Corp;

30+ of Indonesia’s most prolific households and their related conglomerates;

30+ main international funds and managing companions—together with ten international Midas Listing buyers; and

20+ tech unicorn founders.

What’s your common ticket dimension? Has it elevated over time?

Seed/pre-Collection A: US$1-3 million; 

Collection A: US$3-8 million; 

Collection B and past: US$8-25 million.

Our ticket dimension has steadily elevated over time with the maturation of Indonesia’s enterprise panorama. Bigger tickets have allowed us to place extra pores and skin within the recreation for our founders and improve focus amongst breakout offers.

What are your key focus verticals? What number of investments have Intudo made thus far? Has any of your portfolio firms develop into unicorns?

Intudo Ventures is investing in industries poised to outline the way forward for Indonesia, pushed by the twin financial engines of personal consumption and digitisation. We actively search alternatives in agriculture, B2B & enterprise, training, finance & insurance coverage, healthcare, logistics, and new retail & leisure.

Additionally Learn: Funding winter: VCs ask startups to give attention to company funds from developed international locations

In six years, we’ve invested in a complete of 25 firms, as we usually attempt to undertake a fair keel method and spend money on 4-6 new firms a 12 months in bull (greed) and bear (concern) market cycles.

Xendit is an Intudo portfolio firm that has develop into a unicorn.

What number of funds have you ever launched thus far? Are you able to share the sizes and their respective investments in Indonesia?

Intudo manages three Indonesia-dedicated enterprise funds.

Fund I – US$20 million (2017 classic)

Choose offers embody: Xendit, Pintu, and BeliMobilgue (acquired by OLX Autos), Kargo.

Fund II – US$50 million (2019 classic):

Choose offers embody: Xendit, Pintu, Kargo, PasarPolis, and Halodoc.

Fund III – US$144 million (2021 classic):

Choose offers embody: Xendit, Pintu, Pinhome, Nalagenetics, Populix, and Andalin.

How does Intudo choose startups for potential investments? What are the totally different standards that you just search for in them?

Intudo is just not a trend-driven funding agency; we consider firms make developments moderately than developments make firms. That is mirrored in our backing of many non-consensus ignored firms over time. 

We give attention to sectors that we and our LP community can ship tangible worth earlier than and following the funding course of. Firms that function in non-consensus, ignored and underfunded sectors can develop a number of moats as a consequence of their distinctive enterprise fashions, entry to specialised assets and networks, leverage technical benefits to draw expertise and clients, and have stronger operational and financial fundamentals that result in profitability. What could also be non-consensus or ignored right now will possible create new firm classes and business leaders—and we see that already in our portfolio.

Indonesia’s regulatory and enterprise panorama stays extremely dynamic as an rising market. It presents alternatives for firms to alter how individuals do enterprise and stay their lives by filling vital unmet wants and making a reliance on their services by way of compelling value-add. On this spirit, Intudo Ventures goals to spend money on firms that construct highly effective “moats”—companies that leverage unfair benefits to amass market place and acquire class management.

Some forms of moats we search for embody:

Business distribution: Firms that develop choices with immense “stickiness” or mental property benefits, inflicting clients to be operationally dependent upon their services.

Regulatory: Firms that function in closely regulated areas and have acquired or are quickly to obtain official licensing to develop into important companions for personal and public sector clients.

Deeptech specialisations: Firms that undertake deep-tech as a core part for his or her enterprise, permitting them to draw the distinctive human capital to hitch the workforce and making their choices troublesome for others to duplicate.

With our give attention to moat-driven companies, Intudo Ventures aspires to spend money on three classes of firms. They embody non-consensus firms early in ignored and underfunded sectors; rising class leaders demonstrating breakout potential and establishing sturdy moats and profitability, and undisputed class winners on a trajectory to outline whole segments of the financial system.

Globally, Intudo Ventures aspires to deliver Indonesia to the world—whereas bringing the world to Indonesia. The agency is extremely energetic within the US by way of Intudo’s Pulkam S.E.A. Turtle Fellowship, carefully mentoring aspiring Indonesian founders, sponsoring and internet hosting main college and business occasions, such because the annual Harvard Asia Enterprise Convention, MIT Asia Enterprise Convention, Southeast Asia MBA Weekend, weekly discussions with Indonesian skilled and scholar associations, and visits with Indonesians at high tech firms in Silicon Valley. 

Consequently, Intudo has sourced one-thirds of its offers from college campuses and tech neighborhood engagement in america by way of the agency’s three funds.

What’s extra important for a startup to get your consideration or funding — the workforce, product, market or one thing else?

For the seed to pre-Collection A investments, we’re investing primarily within the expertise of the founding workforce and the preliminary stage of traction. A few of these investments could also be thought of ‘non-consensus’, that means they’re constructing fashions completely new or distinctive to the Indonesian context. 

Working with Intudo, firms at this stage (even earlier than time period sheet discussions) can obtain hands-on mentorship, signal enterprise contracts with Intudo-sourced companions, and construct fundamentals to assist them elevate future financing rounds. We’ve got subsequently co-led the Collection A rounds of a number of of our early performs as they’ve confirmed their enterprise fashions.

As we get into Collection A investments, our focus shifts to firms the place we consider of their potential to develop into class leaders, the place they’ve the chance in the future to dominate their respective verticals or remodel whole industries. We will increase these companies by sourcing key expertise, serving to them in distribution and enterprise improvement alternatives with home and worldwide company companions, and having access to international capital.

For Collection B and past, we’re solely searching for confirmed consensus winners who’re already attaining escape velocity and are on a trajectory to say dominance in a number of sectors. As we do for our Collection A firms, we are able to increase these companies by sourcing key expertise, serving to them in distribution and enterprise improvement alternatives with home and worldwide company companions, or having access to international capital.

What alternatives do you see in Indonesia? How has the market grown over time?

Indonesia’s startup business is coming into a maturation stage, the place capital, expertise, and concepts are extra plentiful than ever. The inflow of world capital has modified the sport, with extra buyers wanting on the market. We’re seeing extra capital and expertise being recycled into the ecosystem, creating new firms and alternatives for development.

For Indonesia, the underlying dynamic is digitisation and transformation of conventional industries—a course of that has solely accelerated with the pandemic and correlating financial fallout. Whereas know-how enablement was traditionally a nice-to-have for firms of all sizes, post-pandemic, it has develop into vital. There shall be a continuation within the scaling of pick-and-shovel foundational companies similar to funds, logistics, and enterprise providers to assist e-commerce and key conventional financial sectors.

Digitisation is occurring throughout the Indonesian financial system, starting from conglomerates, the federal government, SMEs, and small mother & pop companies. We’ve got witnessed this all through our portfolio within the sectors by which they function. Customers have additionally flocked to digital choices all through the disaster, and lots of will proceed to undertake know-how to fulfill day by day wants. This dominant development will proceed to be the driving pressure for the Indonesian enterprise marketplace for the foreseeable future.

Nevertheless, as optimistic as we’re about the way forward for Indonesia, it has been an extended journey to get right here. Over the previous decade, Indonesia has gone from a enterprise capital backwater to turning into one of the vital compelling rising markets for buyers. 

For fundraising, founders had few choices, with just a few mainstay companies to select from on the early stage and even thinner in development. From an investor panorama perspective, Indonesia has advanced from a market dominated by company enterprise capital companies (CVCs) and regional fly-in buyers to at least one the place native buyers have begun to dominate the panorama and gatekeep entry to the market. Expertise, nonetheless cited as a problem right now, was much more scarce.

Consciousness of Indonesia amongst buyers has grown dramatically. Once we began as a agency, some buyers even laughed at us for the notion of establishing a agency to take a position solely in Indonesia. We needed to spend hours educating potential buyers on Indonesia, together with what now appears like primary market information. These days are gone.

Founders are actually blessed with an abundance of choices. Capital has develop into a commodity by way of the maturation of Indonesia’s enterprise market. With the market flush with capital, founders now need extra than simply cash. Until it’s a international agency with vital model energy and know-how, founders count on their buyers to supply concrete value-add deliverables—particularly in-country assets, entry to clients and regulators and hands-on steerage. Gone are the times of fly-in fund managers.

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