Iterative co-founder Hsu Ken Ooi (left) and Brian Ma (right)
Iterative, a Y Combinator style accelerator focused exclusively on Southeast Asia, recently hits close of its US$10 million Iterative Fund I to invest in early-stage startups in Southeast Asia.
Fund I was led by Village Global, Cendana, Facebook, with participation from experienced Silicon Valley insiders like Andrew Chen (partner at a16z), Qasar Younis (co-founder of Applied Intuition and former COO of Y Combinator), Chi-Hua Chien (managing partner of Goodwater Capital), Tushar Garg (CEO of Flyhomes), Moses Lo (co-founder of Xendit), Kum Hong Siew (COO of Airbnb China) and more.
According to the official statement, the Singapore-based accelerator is looking to raise Fund II next year.
Iterative plans to utilise Fund I capital to invest and accelerate 50 seed-stage companies in Southeast Asia, aiming to make entrepreneurship more accessible to more people.
So far, Fund I has invested US$3.6 million in 26 companies over three batches, presenting a 6.5x return after 18 months of operations, claims the firm.
The accelerator also intends to launch a series of new programmes and initiatives, increase the number of investments annually by 50 per cent, and triple the size of its team to support the growth.
Also Read: Roundup: Singaporean accelerator Iterative debuts 8 startups in first cohort
Iterative was founded in 2018 by Brian Ma, co-founder and former CEO of San Francisco-based proptech unicorn Divvy Homes, and Hsu Ken Ooi, ex-CPO of workforce management platform Workmate, which recently secured a US$10 million loan to expand in Thailand and Indonesia.
The Singapore-based startup accelerator follows the Y Combinator style and invests US$150,000 each in a batch of startups twice a year. Upon admission, Iterative deploys the full amount upfront then work hand-in-hand with the founders on their idea development for three months.
The accelerator programme includes 1:1 office hours with general partners, group office hours, speaker series, and a fundraising boot camp. Iterative also leverages its community of alumni, whereby founders from various batches and stages assist one another.
Iterative also connects the startup with a select group of investors for follow-on investment opportunities.
Starting in June 2020, Fund I has graduated 16 startups, which are said to have collectively raised US$45 million from investors such as Monk’s Hill, Wavemaker Partners, Insight Partners, Addition and more. In September alone, five Iterative portfolio companies have announced new fundings. They are Spenmo, a Singapore-based fintech firm; CoderSchool, a Vietnam-based online coding school startup; Go Zayaan, an online travel agency (OTA) startup in Bangladesh; 1Export, a tech-enabled exporting company headquartered in the Philippines; and Friz, a Singapore-located fintech startup.
With a combination of personal ties to the region, Iterative founders shared that they are “ready for the prime time” as they believe Southeast Asia is “the next big opportunity”.
According to Google and Temasek report, Southeast Asia’s population of 676 million people today has 440 million internet users. In the year 2021 alone, 40 million people were added, bringing the internet penetration in SEA to 75 per cent. In addition, Google forecasted that the region is ushering into a “Digital Decade” and on its way towards US$1 trillion gross merchandise value (GMV) by 2030.
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Image Credit: Iterative
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