At Least Seven Regional VCs Made Their First Investment in the Philippines in 2022

At least seven regional VCs made their first investment in the Philippines in 2022

Mars W. Mosqueda Jr.

23 March 2023

At least seven regional venture capital firms entered the Philippines in 2022, validating the ripeness of the local startup ecosystem, according to a report jointly released by early-stage VC Foxmont Capital Partners and Boston Consulting Group.

According to the Philippine Venture Capital Report 2023, Do Ventures, Reefknot Investments, Alpha JWC Ventures, East Ventures, TNB Aura, Quest Ventures, and January Capital explored the country's potential by investin in local startups for the first time last year.

Vietnamese VC first Do Ventures anchored the $6-million funding of salary-on-demand platform operator Advance in December while Singapore's Reefknot Investments invested $4 million in the Series A round of logistics and supply chain management integrator Locad.

Alpha JWC Ventures also forayed into the Philippines last year by anchoring the Series A funding round in Edamama, a local parenting-focused e-commerce platform. East Ventures, meanwhile, backed the $5.1-million funding round in Lista, a financial management startup.

TNB Aura, on the other hand, invested in stock trading app Ztock, while Quest Ventures led the $3-million Series A funding in cloud kitchen startup Kraver's Canteen.

January Capital, meanwhile, participated in the see funding round for Peddlr, a Filipino inventory and company financial mangement firm.

As of February this year, the Philippines has already seen 17 investments, with Q1 projected to hit 23 deals, despite a global slowdown in deal activity last year, according to the report.

The Foxmont and BCG report also noted that investments below $5 million have taken the biggest share of the country's deals. That data, according to the report, emphasises the fact that the Philippine market is "agile and fresh with new ideas and startups".

"On the other hand, there has been a tremendous growth in later-stage investments, reflecting the overall maturing state of the Philippine startup ecosystem," the report noted.

The report highlighted the Philippine startups' performance in 2022, where funds raised by privately-held tech firms exceeded $1 billion for the second year in a row, to reach an all-time high of $1.1 billion. The growth in 2022 deal value was 7% from the previous year.

Source: Philippine Venyutr Capital Report 2023

"This outlines the resilience of the Philippine market, highlighting the immense potential for growth despite a global downturn in investment," the report said.

Foxmont Capital Partners, the co-author of the report, raised $21.3 million for its second investment vehicle in February, exceeding its $20 million target.

Established in 208, Foxmount Capital Partners is an independent, Philippine-focused venture capital fund that invests in scalable startups in rapidly digitising areas.

Its three general partners Jesse Maxwell, Mark Kooijman, and Franco Varona, ser up Grab in the Philippines.

Edited by: Pramod Mathew