East Ventures, is an early-stage venture fund focused on investments in Tokopedia, Traveloka, Ralali, Shopback, etc. Started in 2009 at the onset of digitalisation, the founding partners believed in the digital ecosystem and this guided their philosophy to invest in early-stages of a company. They rely on the idea “natural entrepreneurship” and feel a startup is a tipping point in this journey.
With over 170 investments in companies across Southeast Asia and Japan; they recently launched a new fund (their 8th) of US$88 million that is sector agnostic. In our recent webinar, we spoke to Melisa Irene, the first female partner at East Ventures to know more about them.
Irene joined the company in 2015 as an Associate and successfully closed multiple deals for the company. In such a short time of three years, Irene was the firm’s principal before finally promoted as the first female partner.
Also read: East Ventures forms new US$88M seed fund for startups weathering COVID-19, announces first close
Key takeaways
- East Ventures have invested in a lot of pre-seed-stage companies that have no revenue or traction. “Our philosophy is people first; then potential market. If the person is right and they have chosen the right industry market, he/she will be able to create the product to solve market problems,” said Irene.
- The key traits they look for in founders are integrity, self- awareness, and paradoxical traits (visionaries but have light ear; global knowledge with local wisdom)
- COVID has not necessarily affected growth trajectories. Because growth also depends on the sectors they are operating. Some are positively impacted; gaining traction faster; some negatively impacted by the government operating restriction. Growth at all cost model has already been challenged even before COVID.
- Exits for startups will still happen but the timeline to execute it might take longer.
- While investors are becoming more careful, the growth-stage investment might return back in 2021 as the market is still predicting a recovery post-vaccine.
- They usually go by referrals from the founder network for deal sourcing.
- Synergies among portfolio companies are of course preferred but it cannot be forced. There is ripe timing for effective partnerships. Examples are, many portfolio share offices at Cohive; or headhunting being helped by Ekrut; or collaboration between Warung Pintar and GrabKios; or how our SaaS solution is being used by most portfolio companies to support their back end operations: Xendit (payment), Mekari (Jurnal – accounting and Talenta-HR), Jojonomic (expense management).
Resources
Watch the full webinar via the recording below:
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Register for our next webinar: Meet the VC: Gobi Partners
Register now: What is corporate venture building and why this is the right time to look at capturing venture opportunities across South-east Asia.
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