ZWC Ventures to pour US$150M fund to Southeast Asia and China
Chinese venture capital firm ZWC Ventures announced that it has closed its first fund for Southeast Asia and China at US$ 150 million, as reported by KrAsia.
Jason Jiang, who’s among ZWC’s largest limited partners (LPs), is the founder and chairman of Focus Media, which is one of China’s largest private media and advertising companies. ZWC’s other LPs include corporates, fund of funds, family offices, and high net worth individuals in mainland China and Hong Kong.
ZWC Ventures plans to invest in early to late-stage startups in the e-commerce, social commerce, fintech, and AI sectors. The amount of investment to be made will have an average size of US$500,000 to US$10 million for early-stage investments and US$10 million to US$60 million for growth-stage investments.
It plans to add another US$300 million into the region in the next three years, which will be a part of the US$500 million second fund ZWC wants to start putting together in Q3 this year.
So far, ZWC Ventures said it has directed a total of US$100 million to five investments in the region so far, including Singapore-based online tuition startup Tenopy and Indonesian media company Target Media Indonesia. The firm also confirmed that it invested in an unnamed Indonesian e-commerce platform and is currently examining potential investments in an Indonesian logistics first-mile provider and Singapore-based AI startup.
In an official statement, co-founder and partner of ZWC Ventures Terrance Lok said that the firm is also interested in sub-sectors, including those that enable e-commerce, like first-mile fulfillment logistics and supply chain fintech.
The firm has a partnership with a venture builder arm, Zynergy, who allocates US$500,000 to US$1 million initial seed funding for each selected startup which will have access to Zynergy’s network of entrepreneurs and investors in China. The firm plans to work with at least five Southeast Asian startups through Zynergy program this year.