The Kaya Founders team
Filipino VC firm Kaya Founders has announced the second close of its two latest funds for Southeast Asia.
Pavilion Capital; Gabriel and Geraldine Sunshine of Boston-based Bracebridge Capital; Concentric Equity Partners; and unnamed family offices, high net-worth individuals and established entrepreneurs invested in the funds, called ‘Zero to One’ and ‘One to Ten’.
Also Read: Founders are pessimistic about Philippines’ funding climate in 2024: study
This brings the total committed capital of its new funds to PHP1 billion (US$18 million) and the total assets under management to PHP1.25 billion (US$22.5 million).
With the new funds, Kaya Founders is looking to back 30-40 startups in the Philippines and Southeast Asia over the next four years.
“If you look at the amount of venture funding that has gone into the ecosystem—relative to our GDP and population—it’s clear that the Philippines has long been underinvested and underlooked as a market. Through our funds, we hope to catalyze capital into one of the most exciting economies in the world,” said Founding Managing General Partner Paulo Campos.
Founded in 2021, Kaya Founders are led by Campos (co-founder & former CEO of ZALORA Philippines), Ray Alimurung (former CEO of Lazada Philippines), and Lisa Gokongwei-Cheng (founder & CEO of Summit Media).
Kaya invests in the next generation of tech-enabled companies in the Philippines and Southeast Asia. It invests in pre-seed to Series A companies, with the cheque size ranging between US$100,000 and US$500,000.
The VC firm has invested in 44 companies, spanning e-commerce, SaaS, healthcare, financial services, and agriculture. Its noteworthy investments include Etaily (announced a US$17.8 million Series A funding round last November), cloud logistics platform Locad (raised its own US$11 million Series A round in January 2023), salary on-demand provider Advance; global plastic credits marketplace Plastic Credit Exchange; and microinsurance platform RuralNet.
Also Read: Brankas, Kaya Founders launch Open PHinance Challenge for SEA startups
The fund closing coincides with the appointment of Kaya Founders as an official co-investment partner of the Startup Venture Fund (SVF), a PHP500 million fund focused on local startups managed by the National Development Company (NDC), the investment arm of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).
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