The founders of Iterative Capital say that Southeast Asia's early-stage startups are still doing well despite global challenges. The Singapore-based venture capital firm has raised $55 million for its second fund.
Some of the other backers include a group of founders and executives.
More than 65 companies have been supported by Iterative's Fund I since it was launched. The portfolio companies have raised over a hundred million dollars in follow-on funding. Insight Partners, Tiger Global, Monk's Hill and Wavemaker have invested in Iterative's portfolio companies.
The new funding will allow Iterative to increase its check sizes to $500,000 and add more programs for founders in different stages, including ones for earlier-stage founders who aren't ready for an acceleration yet and later-stage founders who have already gained strong traction Iterative has a plan to have about 30 startup each. It wants to invest in more than 100 companies at more stages. The first fund did not perform follow-on investments, but the firm is now in a position to do so.
Iterative co-founder and general partner Brian Ma said Fund II was raised in four weeks. In Southeast Asia, many of the first fund'sLPs returned and attractive return profiles attracted new ones.
The 80 venture partners and visiting partners of the Iterative program are all previous or current operating founders.
We run weekly office hours, group office hours, speakers and workshops with our visiting partners, have a scaled-out fundraise bootcamp program, a built-out network to automate white-gloved introductions to investors, and 450+ investors engage with our startup at our demo days.
Post-cohort, we help alumni companies negotiate their A's or B's, deal with scaling their organizations, and help coach them through co-founder issues and other growing pains.
Spenmo, which closed an $85 million Series B round led by Tiger Global, is one of the companies in Iterative's portfolio. Property guru acquired Sendhelper in October.
The founders of Iterative are still positive about the startup scene. There aren't as many startup exiting there, but early-stage investments are still increasing. Southeast Asia is less impacted by global economic trends than other parts of the world, according to a report by Bain & Co. Southeast Asia's digital economy is expected to reach $200 billion this year, while Indonesia's online spending is expected to hit $130 billion by the end of the decade. Vietnam is expected to more than double its online GMV over the next three years.
Southeast Asian startups are more likely to benefit from reasonable valuations. More capital is flowing into Southeast Asia due to depressed economies and lofty priced companies in the U.S. The best returns will come from this area in the next seven to ten years.
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