Lippo Group-backed Venturra Capital Announces $150 Million Fund for Tech Investment in Southeast Asia

Independent VC Venturra Capital, sponsored by Lippo Group, announces the availability of $150 million fund under Venturra Capital Fund I. Stefan Jung, Rudy Ramawy, and John Riady will serve as Venturra's Managing Partners. Lippo's portfolios under Lippo Digital Ventures (LDV) will be merged into this fund.

Venturra Capital will focus on Indonesia and other countries in Southeast Asia, to invest in early stage growth consumer driven tech companies (especially in e-commerce, financial services, healthcare, and education sectors), Internet of Things (IoT), and B2B. Beside those already invested within LDV, Venturra has closed 10 investment deals within last several weeks, which are yet to be announced.

The main difference between Venturra Capital and LDV is additional investors beside Lippo Group as the main sponsor. Stefan Jung described, "The difference is that Lippo Digital Ventures sole LP before was Lippo, which invested out of the balance sheet. Now we have added more investors to our investor base and set up an independent VC fund with a GP-LP structure. Also, the fund size is three times what is was before. Lippo is still the largest LP in the fund and we can benefit from the unique access to the group to leverage synergies in retail, media, real estate, financial services, healthcare, hospitality, etc."

Jung further stated, "We have seen tremendous progress in the technology industry across SEA over the last years -- the quality of entrepreneurs and investors is increasing at a fast pace. We want to work with outstanding entrepreneurs to create defining market leaders across the region and bring in our experience and expertise in scaling companies internationally".

Both John Riady and Rudy Ramawy are involved in MatahariMall and Lippo Group operation, while Stefan Jung was previously Partner of Singapore-based Monk's Hill Ventures and one of key-person in Rocket Internet's early operation in Southeast Asia. Ramawy, as we all know, was Google Indonesia's Country Director.

Riady in his statement commented, "Our vision at Venturra is to partner with the best entrepreneurs for generations to come -- and in doing so, over time create a culture and an institution that will allow us to be a leading venture capital fund. 80 years from now, we want to look back, point to some of the most transformative companies in the region, and say that we played a part in contributing to their successes. The Southeast Asian markets are some of the most promising economies in the world with some of the best entrepreneurs globally.”