Shanghai- and Kuala Lumpur-based venture capital firm Gobi Partners announced that it has partnered with Malaysia Venture Capital Management Berhad (MAVCAP) and the Sunway Group to launch an early stage fund. The USD 10 million Malaysia SuperSeed Fund II will focus on seed to pre-Series A startups in Malaysia.
SuperSeed Fund II will target startups that develop new products in the sectors of artificial intelligence, cloud services, e-commerce, fintech, Internet-of-Things, marketplaces, the circular economy, as well as shariah-compliant digital services.
Gobi Partners is looking to fund 25 to 30 investments with the median ticket size being around USD 250,000.
This tripartite partnership is aimed at building local startups and facilitating the digital transformation of the Malaysian economy. They will do so by capitalizing on Sunway’s extensive network that cuts across industries like real estate, construction, malls, education, and healthcare, as well as MAVCAP’s position as the Malaysian government’s venture capital arm.
SuperSeed Fund II flows from the success of Gobi’s ASEAN SuperSeed Fund launched in 2016. The USD 14.5 million fund was used to invest in 21 regional startups, including consumer-to-business car trading platform Carsome, fintech startup Jirnexu, social commerce platform Avana, and on-demand logistics startup Zoom. According to Gobi, more than half of the invested startups raised up-rounds in the past two years.
The new fund is also part of Gobi’s series of early stage funds launched in Southeast Asia. Before SuperSeed Fund II, Gobi set up a USD 10 million Gobi-Core Philippine Fund that targets seed and Series A investments in the Philippines, as well as a USD 10 million Gobi-Agung Fund in Indonesia. Other venture capital firms in the region with early stage funds are East Ventures, Kejora Ventures, Alpha JWC, and Kolibra Capital.