AppWorks, a Taipei-based venture capital company that focuses on Taiwan and Southeast Asia, today announced it had closed its third fund which was oversubscribed, raising $150 million. AppWorks Fund III's limited partners are Taiwan Mobile, Axiom Asian Private Capital, Fubon Life and TransGlobe Life. Hongtai Group is also a part of the fund. These LPs were also part of AppWorks $50 Million second fund in 2014.AppWorks' total assets under management (AUM), is now $212 Million. AppWorks is currently recruiting investment analysts and investment associates to help with Fund IIIs closing. They are particularly interested in sourcing deals throughout Southeast Asia.TechCrunch was told by Jamie Lin, chairman of the firm and founding partner of the firm, that Fund III originally had a target of $100,000,000, but it was exceeded due to the strong performance of AppWorks' second fund.Lalamove, 91APP and Fund II's portfolio comprise Fund II. At the end of July 2021 its total value to pay-in (TVPI), which is the return multiple net the fees, was 3.3x. According to data from Cambridge Associates, the TVPI for the top quartile global VC and private-equity funds that were launched at the same time is 2.4x. The Fund II achieved an internal rate of return (IRR), of 34.7%, as opposed to 26.1% for other funds.AppWorks was founded in 2009 and launched its accelerator program. In 2012, AppWorks also launched a $11million debut fund. AppWorks now has 414 active startups, which have raised $4.3 billion and have an overall valuation of $17.4 million. AppWorks' goal over the next 10 years is to grow that number to 1,000 active startups, with a combined value of more than 100 billion.Lin stated that AppWorks has an excellent incoming pipeline. This is because many of the startups it supports, including those run by alumni from accelerators and its mentor network, which includes about 100 seasoned entrepreneurs and mentors, have reached product market fit and are scalable. They also need funding to accelerate their growth.Fund III will be used to invest in a portfolio of approximately 40 startups. It will also split equally between seed-stage investments and investments beginning at $2 million in Series A or Series C rounds. The size of seed-stage checks can vary from $50,000 to $200,000 depending on the startup's needs. AppWorks portfolio companies will receive a portion of the funds capital as they mature.AppWorks' three major investment themes include Southeast Asia, Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence.Lin stated that AppWorks' accelerator graduates from the past three-five years have come from Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam, as well as Indonesia and the Philippines. AppWorks is also an LP in approximately 15 Southeast Asian seed funds, which allowed it to maintain strong deal flow despite restrictions on travel.AppWorks currently invests in blockchain companies such as Dapper Labs and Animoca Brands. Lin is particularly interested in NFTs and how they can bridge the physical and digital worlds. Also, blockchains potential to transform the way people play (for example, the Splinterlands model of pay-to-earn).Fund III's schedule will be spread more evenly if there are both seed- and growth-stage investments. Lin stated that this approach is more beneficial for LPs and reflects our philosophy of putting founders first. Many of our accelerator startup alumni are first-time founders. They need support all the way to seed stage. Many of our mentors have raised Series A or seed rounds and come to us when they are looking for someone to manage a Series B of $10-15 million, $20 million, or $20,000,000. This is due to our deal flow. We are primarily supporting alumni mentors and founders so we have two types of deal flows.Fund III has supported AppWorks alumni such as Pickone, WeMo Scooter and Omnichat. Its mentor network has made investments in Carousell and Dapper Labs, Tiki Labs, Dcard, Yummy Corp, and Animoca Brands.
