USD 50 million new fund for startups in Greater Southeast Asia which can “plug and play” with Sunway’s businesses

Sunway Berhad, via it’s wholly-owned subsidiary Sunway City Sdn Bhd, has today, signed an Initial Exempted Limited Partner Agreement (LPA) which establishes a new venture capital fund, Sun SEA Capital LP (as an exempted limited partnership) with a proposed investment of USD 5 million.

The establishment of the new venture capital fund as well as the subsequent investment will enable Sunway to accelerate its digital transformation through investments into synergistic digital startups, and conduct external fund-raising to grow the startups.

With the initial investment, Sun SEA Capital LP, which has a planned fund size of USD 50 million, will seek to provide scalable startups in Greater Southeast Asia (Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam) and Hong Kong specialising in online-to-offline convergence, enterprise solutions, logistics, digital media/entertainment, financial technology and digital health sectors access to Series A investments worth USD 1-3 million per ticket size.

Sun SEA Capital LP combines the expertise and resources of the diversified Sunway Group, as well as the vast network, experience and intuition of seasoned venture capitalists - Koichi Saito and Kuan Hsu who act as the fund’s consultants and directors as well as member of the fund’s investment committee.

Koichi Saito, formerly with IMJ Investment (currently Spiral Ventures); and Kuan Hsu, formerly of GREE Ventures; had founded Singapore-based KK Fund in 2015. KK Fund has invested in 20 deals since its set-up, amongst them Malaysia’s online marketplace for home services, Kaodim; Indonesia’s marketplace for furniture and designers, Fabelio; a Thailand-based logistics marketplace, Gixtix; and a Philippines-based micro lending service, Venteny.

President of Sunway Group, Dato’ Chew Chee Kin, said, “Today’s signing marks the acceleration of our digitalisation efforts and the extension of our reach in the region. We hope to see Sun SEA Capital attract great talents from around the region to pursue sustainable growth with us. Koichi and Kuan’s experience and networks will help us widen our footprint in the region especially in Japan and Taiwan.”

Koichi Saito said that, with the initial funding, Sun SEA Capital will create a win-win situation for Sunway Group and startups in the region.

“Sun SEA Capital will help Sunway Group pursue new innovations by looking to invest in startups with technologies such IoT, artificial intelligence and blockchain towards the sustainability of its businesses. Essentially, Sun SEA Capital will provide a “plug-and-play” scenario for the startups we invest in – they can plug into the powerful all-in-one ecosystem that Sunway has established and immediately play to grow. In addition, having the support of a conglomerate with financial strength also means that they have a clear and visible exit strategy.”

On the collaboration with Sunway, Koichi said, “We have been operating in the South East Asia for some years now where we have built a vast network with corporations and potential investors. We were pleasantly surprised with Sunway’s corporate culture. From the top management, down to the working teams, Sunway’s will to embrace digitalisation is clearly evident. They have a very open mindset and have already been working and investing in startups.”

Sun SEA Capital is the latest addition to Sunway Group’s digitalisation strategy. Sunway Group had launched its own incubator and accelerator, Sunway Innovation Lab last year; as well as a corporate venture capital arm, Sunway Ventures, launched two years ago which focuses on early stage funding. Besides financing, Sunway Education Group’s 12 education institutions and its global academic partners provide a ready talent pool for employment as well as research facilities and capabilities.

For more information about Sun SEA Capital, please log on to : http://sunseacapital.com/