Singapore — International early-stage VC fund, Accelerating Asia, has announced its latest round of investments including nine new companies joining Cohort 6 of the flagship program and additional capital into four existing portfolio companies.
The new investments take Accelerating Asia’s portfolio to 52 startups that have raised a total of over US$42m. Cohort 6 continues the portfolio’s trend of attracting early investor interest with US$1.5m in soft commitments received during the first month of the program when access is reserved for Accelerating Asia’s network, adding to the $2.5m raised prior to joining the program. The new investments in Cohort 6 also have market traction and grow revenue with an average GMV of $100k per month and an average monthly recurring revenue of over $25k.
Cohort 6 startups have a market presence in more than ten countries in Southeast Asia, South Asia, North America and Europe and cover verticals such as marketplace, fintech, logistics, e-commerce and health tech. The nine new startups also include 40% female co-founded startups.
Amra Naidoo, general partner at Accelerating Asia, said, “With the 9 new portfolio startups selected from 600 applicants and 4 follow-on investments, Accelerating Asia is excited to continue to invest in highly scalable pre-Series A startups that also have a positive impact on respective operating markets. Since 2019, we’ve built up our portfolio of startups with investors coming to Accelerating Asia to gain early access to a pipeline of startups that combine profit with purpose.”
Naidoo added, “Our VC accelerator model ensures high potential founders have greater access to needed capital financing, mentoring and skill sets to enhance their growth trajectory and quickly become leaders in their respective verticals while also lowering the overall risk for our investors at an early stage.”
In quarter 1 of 2022, Accelerating Asia also made follow-on investments into Shuttle, Transtrack.ID, Numu and Giftpack, adding to the additional investments into ProjectPro and iFarmer made last year. Accelerating Asia first invested in these six companies in 2020 and 2021, since then average monthly revenue has grown 332 per cent and is projected to grow revenue to an average of over $16m this financial year. Since joining the portfolio, the startups have also launched new product offerings, signed new clients and optimised operations to sustain revenue growth and develop new income streams.
Craig Bristol Dixon, general partner at Accelerating Asia, said that they’re excited to continue to invest in their portfolio companies as they grow alongside leading institutional investors. Dixon added that there is a significant market and investor demand for the portfolio, especially in the digitisation of transport and logistics networks with the industry at an inflexion point in emerging economies like Bangladesh and Indonesia.
