The Kaya Founders team
Manila-based early-stage VC firm Kaya Founders has announced a series of new and follow-on investments at the start of 2025, demonstrating a strong belief in the potential of the Philippine tech startup ecosystem despite a more subdued funding environment across Southeast Asia in recent quarters.
The latest additions to Kaya Founders’s portfolio include fintech company LenderLink, an alternative credit data provider for consumer lenders; insurtech ProTech, which offers device insurance for emerging markets; and Foodoo, an F&B startup streamlining transactions within the B2B food industry. These investments were made through its ‘Zero to One Fund’ and seed to Series A-focused’ One to Ten Fund’.
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In addition, Kaya Founders has participated in follow-on pre-Series A funding rounds for two existing portfolio companies: Sourcy, a B2B AI product recommendation engine, and EDGE Tutor, an online tutoring outsourcing company.
Ray Alimurung, General Partner at Kaya Founders, stated, “We believe in investing in the foundational rails for key industries in the Philippines, such as lending and food service. Like the Meta’s and the Amazon’s of the world have previously enabled, we see a future where new business models can be unlocked and built on top of the infrastructure and technology created by our latest portfolio companies.”
Founded in 2021, Kaya Founders is led by Campos (co-founder and former CEO of ZALORA Philippines), Ray Alimurung (former CEO of Lazada Philippines), and Lisa Gokongwei-Cheng (founder and 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 cheque sizes ranging between US$100,000 and US$500,000.
Earlier in 2025, Kaya Founders outlined its investment themes for the year, which centre on three key areas: (1) AI-powered B2B platforms transforming the Philippines’s largest industries, (2) tech-enabled B2C models for the country’s emerging middle class, and (3) embedded credit solutions fuelling SME growth and empowering consumers.
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The VC firm has made 50 investments, spanning e-commerce, SaaS, healthcare, financial services, and agriculture. Its noteworthy investments include Etaily (announced a US$17.8 million Series A funding round in November 2023), 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.
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