Indonesia-focused venture capital firm Alpha JWC closed its second fund at USD 123 million, the firm announced today. This second fund was oversubscribed with investors from Southeast Asia, Korea, China, Japan, and Europe.
This second fund was launched in 2018 and it has invested in 14 companies so far. Its biggest investment, amounted to USD 8 million, went to coffee startup Kopi Kenangan in November 2018. The startup has gained much popularity since then as it is one of the biggest digital coffee companies that has adopted Luckin Coffee’s grab-and-go model.
Alpha’s first fund of USD 50 million was launched back in 2016. The firm now has 33 companies under its portfolio. Other notable Alpha companies are peer-to-peer lending platform Funding Societies, digital credit card startup Kredivo, and agritech startup TaniHub.
Alpha has made two exits so far, namely Spacemob that was acquired by WeWork in 2017, and DealStreetAsia that was acquired by Nikkei in 2019.
“With the new fund, we can be more active and cover more sectors and regions than before. However, we notice that the digital economy’s landscape, trend, and behavior have changed, especially in the past year. Hence, we have to be optimistic, active, yet cautious,” said co-founder and managing partner Chandra Tjan in an official statement.
Alpha JWC is currently eyeing opportunities to expand into more countries in Southeast Asia. The firm has set up an office in Singapore and it also wants to build a significant presence in Vietnam. The firm was founded in 2015 by Jefrey Joe, Will Ongkowidjaja, and Chandra Tjan, hence the name JWC. Ongkowidjaja is currently building Honestbank while still holding a founding partner role and will continue working together with the rest of the team.
Earlier this year, Alpha JWC on-boarded three partners; former SEA group chief strategy officer Alan Hellawell, the firm’s first hire and previous principal Erika Dianasari, and former VP of Investment at Creador Eko Kurniadi.
