In 2023, East Ventures aims to focus on startup founders and discover investment potential in the agritech sector.
Heaptalk, Jakarta — Indonesia‘s agnostic-sector venture capital company, East Ventures, has distributed capital worth US$211.59 million, or approximately Rp3.3 trillion, in 2022. This capital has been allocated to around 105 business deals with startup practitioners in Indonesia and Southeast Asia, including the seed and growth levels.
In the total investment activity and the targetted industry, East Ventures admitted this venture capital company had poured the capital injection into several sectors, covering e-commerce, agricultural technology (agritech), financial technology (fintech), supply chain and logistics, Direct Consumer (DTC) and retail, as well as software and internet services.
Responding to the accomplishment, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of East Ventures, Wilson Cuaca, recognized that 2022 has become a challenging year for the technology industry, even worsened by global issues and geopolitics matters. Besides the existing problems, Wilson affirmed the company had resolved the critical phase by closing the year with numerous strategic initiatives and enriching the portfolios of the injected startups.
A prudent investment strategy amidst the uncertainty in 2023
As it is known, entering 2023, the new startup founders will experience high inflation dilemmas in the United States and Europe, impacting the investment rotation in Indonesia, ever-increasing interest rates, and declining growth expectations.
However, in encountering this crisis and economic uncertainty, East Ventures would continue to support its existing portfolios and detect the potential sector in the archipelago related to investment plans, one of which is an agricultural technology (agritech) startup.
“We will always keep our portfolios and founders in any conditions, as we have done for many years. For business sustainability, we will also talk to the founders, map and comprehend their specific situation, and provide necessary advice accordingly. We expect the founders to be more skillful with their business decisions regarding the funding winter,” added Wilson.
Moreover, this agnostic-sector investment firm perceived Southeast Asia’s rising generation, connected population, and high propensity to embrace technology had made it a source of resilience amid the global enhancement slowdown, specifically in Indonesia, with internet users elevated from 30 million to more than 200 million people for only 13 years.
These robust fundamentals have allowed the region’s top digital economy to grow faster than expected last year, with a total value of transactions anticipated to attain US$200 billion in 2023, as projected by the Google, Temasek, and Bain and Company report.
“This year, we will amplify the founders’ capability. We believe that the right startup founders could identify the business scale development by utilizing their business abilities to be more competitive during tough moments.” Wilson added.
Regarding the recession prediction, East Ventures conceded the issue would probably lead to a challenging economic situation in the coming years, as this cycle started in 2022. Thus, this venture capital looks forward to the startups that can adjust to the challenging short-term problems of 2022 and can locate a new way to longer-term opportunities, as this perspective would be the investment focus of East Ventures this year.
