iSeed SEA has already invested in two companies and it plans to make 20-30 deals in total, with an average cheque size of US$100K
AngelList’s India CEO Utsav Somani and its former top executive Wing Vasiksiri have joined hands together to launch a new micro-fund, targeting tech startups in Southeast Asia.
Christened iSeed SEA, the fund is an extension of iSeed India and counts a clutch of renowned investors and entrepreneurs among its backers, including Naval Ravikant (Founder & Chairman of AngelList), Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal (Co-founders of Snapdeal), and Jonathan Swanson (Founder & Chairman of Thumbtack).
Also Read: East Ventures forms new US$88M seed fund for startups weathering COVID-19, announces first close
“We have already hit the first close and are actively investing,” Managing Partner Vasiksiri told e27, without divulging more details. “We are sector-agnostic and primarily focusing on Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam, and Thailand.”
So far, iSeed SEA has invested in two companies and committed to making four more investments. In total, the micro-fund plans to make 20-30 deals, with an average cheque size of US$100,000 per deal.
Knowledge Council
iSeed SEA has created a Knowledge Council of world-class operators to help its portfolio founders, said Vasiksiri. The council has Sriram Krishnan (ex-Product at Twitter), Prasanna Sankar (Co-founder of Rippling), Sahil Lavingia (Founder of Gumroad), and Anne Dwane (Founder of Village Global), amongst others. “They’ve committed to working with our portfolio founders to bring best practices from the US to India and Southeast Asia.”
Southeast Asia is emerging as the fastest-growing tech ecosystem. With a population of over 670 million across 11 countries, 13 unicorns have emerged and many more will be built in the coming years.
In Vasiksiri’s opinion, however, there are still gaps in the seed-stage tech investment industry in Southeast Asia. “Most of the seed funds that have done well in the region have moved on to raise larger funds. I believe that your fund size is your strategy and these larger funds can’t be pure seed funds anymore. They have to shift their attention and strategy to deploy larger amounts of capital in Series A rounds which is why you see this space getting more competitive.”
“You see the same pattern in the US where every four to five years a new crop of seed funds emerge. We see the same thing happening in Southeast Asia now. I believe that more capital in the ecosystem is a net positive for everyone. It allows founders to start new companies and run more experiments, innovation is driven by startups not large corporations,” he noted.
iSeed SEA, claims Vasiksiri, is differentiated in a way that it is bridging the tech ecosystems of the US, India, and SEA. “In Southeast Asia, capital doesn’t always come with expertise so we want to change that and bring our network to serve founders. We want to innovate on the VC side of the ecosystem to give founders the same level of service that founders get from funds in Silicon Valley.”
To a question on how seed-stage funds have performed in the the first half of 2020 amid the COVID-19 crisis, he said. “From my perspective, seed-stage funding hasn’t seemed to have slowed down. The funds we work with are still actively investing and deals are closing. I can’t say the same for Series A and beyond rounds though, with a larger cheque, it’s hard to fund a founder you haven’t met in person so that has stalled with insiders leading bridge rounds for their portfolio to extend their runway.”
“We’re also seeing more global attention on SEA, Sequoia India raising new funds to invest in the region, Lightspeed Venture Partners officially launching their SEA practice, and even new special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) targeting the ecosystem. Overall I think it is an exciting time and expect this momentum to continue post-COVID-19,” he concluded.
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Image credit: iSeed SEA
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