The fund seeks to place its focus on emerging Southeast Asia web3 projects on their pre-seed to series B stage
JAKARTA, Indonesia, March 21, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Finch Asia and IndoGen Capital are forming a web3-focused investment fund, named Cydonia, onboarding seasoned profiles from the blockchain landscape as the partners, notably Teguh Kurniawan Harmanda and Chung Ying Lai, who are respectively the Co-Founder/COO and CSO of Indonesia’s largest crypto exchange, Tokocrypto, as well as the exchange’s CMO, Nanda Ivens, as an advisor to the fund. The fund will place its focus on emerging Southeast Asia web3 projects on their pre-seed to series B stage.
left to right, Chandra Firmanto – Managing Partner of IndoGen capital, Pang Xue Kai – CEO of Tokocrypto, Hans De Back – Managing Partner of Finch Asia
“We are convinced that Indonesia in particular and Southeast Asia in general has what it takes for diverse web3 startups to flourish, especially having successfully launched Indonesia’s first blockchain accelerator, Tokocrypto Sembrani Blockchain Accelerator (TSBA) with the VC arm of Indonesia’s largest government backed bank, BRI Ventures. Cydonia Fund will put its focus in growing the web3 ecosystem here and beyond, supporting the likes of TokoLabs by Tokocrypto portfolio, which is the exchange’s startup empowerment programmatic arm,” said Chung Ying Lai, CSO of Tokocrypto.
On top of their expertise, IndoGen Capital, a seasoned VC with a laser focus on SE Asia, will bring in their whole ecosystem participation to support the growth of the fund, which includes Jababeka, Mahaka Media Group, and the Japanese Trade Organization (JETRO). The venture capital has launched 2 funds with over 25 portfolios, 2 of which are now Indonesia’s leading unicorns, as well as 5 successful exits ie. Carsome, Shipper, Aruna, Evos, and Travelio. “We are confident that this collaboration will take Cydonia Fund to the world stage. The size of the fund is significant, imagine around 40-50 portfolios of diverse stages,” said Chandra Firmanto, Managing Partner of IndoGen.
On the other side of the fund, Finch Asia is an international venture capital firm which has close to USD $400 million AUM and a strong track record in the field of Fintech since 2014. The firm has an active presence in Indonesia in particular and Southeast Asia in general having made notable investments in Grab, AyoConnect, Tada, Cermati, and Jojonomics.
“By collaborating with Tokocrypto Execs, Cydonia Fund seeks to participate in the discovery of the latest web3 adoption, and in doing so, leveraging Tokocrypto Execs’ first hand experience and expertise as key figures in the development of the web3 landscape in SE Asia largest market, Indonesia. We have seen similar collaborations happening on the other side of the world, such as the one initiated by FTX, Solana Ventures, and Lightspeed Venture Partners in the United States at the end of 2021. There are still very few VCs that have built strategic relationship with leading crypto exchange as the domain expert, and we are excited to see this collaboration unfold successfully,” said Hans de Back, Managing Partner of Finch Asia.
Under the wings of Harmanda, Ivens, as well as Lai, the exchange has amassed over 2.5 million registered users since its establishment in September 2018 and had in November 2019 become Indonesia’s first ever regulated crypto asset exchange. Lai continued, “Like many other ventures, we began as a startup until we could finally stand firm and secure our position in the rapidly developing web3 sector. We’re excited to see more players appearing in the blockchain scene in the region and provide all the support we can give as experts in the field.”
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