Indonesia-Focused Intudo Ventures Closes $20 Million Debut Fund

(Bloomberg) -- Intudo Ventures, an Indonesia-focused venture capital firm, raised $20 million in its debut fund as it seeks to capitalize on rising consumption in the world’s fourth most-populous nation.

The fund closed after doubling its initial target of $10 million, said Patrick Yip, a Jakarta-based founding partner of Intudo. Its strategy is to take equity and a board seat in about a dozen startups in the consumer, health, financial services and education sectors.

While Southeast Asia is home to 620 million people, Intudo is keeping its focus on Indonesia because the region that includes Vietnam and Malaysia is fragmented by language, culture and demographics. Deals in Indonesia reached $3 billion in the first eight months of last year, compared with $1.4 billion for all of 2016 and $44 million in 2012, according to a joint study by Google Inc. and AT Kearney Inc.

“The notion that Southeast Asia is one cohesive market is a fallacy,” Yip said. “We are an Indonesia only fund.”

Yip said Indonesia is entering a stage where U.S. investors are showing more interest, buoyed by the success of startups such as Go-Jek that have now become unicorns, or companies with valuations of more than $1 billion.

Intudo has already backed used car marketplace BeliMobilgue.co.id, indoor cycling and fitness studio Ride Jakarta and co-working space operator EV Hive.

To contact the reporter on this story: Yoolim Lee in Singapore at yoolim@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Robert Fenner at rfenner@bloomberg.net, Edwin Chan

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