Months after launching their angel investor network, Kenangan Brands co-founder James Prananto and Fandy Cendrajaya, who manages Kenangan Capital, have decided to take the network up a notch into a full-blown venture capital (VC) business.
Called Kopital Ventures, the newly launched sector-agnostic VC received an overwhelming response from the market as it managed to raise $12 million in its first close. That, according to the firm’s statement, was more than double its initial target of $5 million.
“Kopital Ventures originally started as an informal group of angel investors called the Kopital Network. Amidst the tech winter, Fandy and I thought we would be able to add more value to founders by setting up a venture capital firm to invest in early-stage companies,” Prananto said in the statement.
Prananto saw his experience building one of the country’s largest coffee chains and Cendrajaya’s network in the tech ecosystem as valuable for early-stage founders who often struggle to locate and exchange ideas with fellow operators.
“Kopital Ventures’ role as an investor is not only in injecting funds into target companies but also in connecting early-stage founders with mentors who are leaders in their respective fields and access to global and regional investors for later-stage funding. We hope to be the first investors in the next wave of unicorns,” Cendrajaya said.
Kopital Ventures managed to attract strategic investors from international VCs and family offices such as Saison Capital, Trihill Capital, Impact Ventures, and Alto Partners Multi-Family Office.
The new VC seeks to invest between $50,000 and $300,000 per startup, Cendrajaya told DealStreetAsia in a recent interaction. It expects to invest in around 30 to 40 companies within the next three years, hoping to sign the first cheque for the next wave of unicorns.
“We like to come in on day one because we want to help build a more patient culture, focusing on sustainable growth with solid business fundamentals,” Cendrajaya said.
The VC has roped in Christian Sutardi, a co-founder of the Indonesian furniture e-commerce company Fabelio and a well-known angel investor, as a venture partner. Sutardi was an early investor in Kenangan Brands, Hypefast, Ayoconnect, and Broom.