Kaya Founders backs Philippines startups from “Day 0”

The Philippines’ startup ecosystem is poised for robust progress, due to the nation’s rising GDP, quick adoption of on-line companies and a brand new era of founders. Launched by tech and funding veterans, Kaya Founders desires to again essentially the most promising startups from the very starting. The enterprise agency introduced at the moment that it has closed $12 million in funding throughout two new funds, bringing its complete dedicated capital to $16.5 million, with a goal of $25 million. The brand new funding was led by the Gokongwei household.

Kaya (which implies “can do” in Tagalog) was based in 2021 by former Zalora Philippines CEO Paulo Campos, Summit Media president Lisa Gokongwei-Cheng and Locad CEO Constantin Robertz. Each Gokongwei-Cheng and Robertz are prolific angel buyers, and have backed startups like Good Glamm Group, Kumu, Dali and Edamama.

The agency now has 32 firms in its portfolio, together with e-commerce enabler Etaily, on-demand wage startup Advance, on-line clinic Kindred and MSME point-of-sale app Peddlr. Kaya’s Zero to One fund focuses on pre-seed firms, typically earlier than they’ve gone to market. Its One to Ten Fund invests in additional mature firms, from seed to Sequence A, which have already discovered product-market match and are on their option to profitability.

Zero to One will make investments $$150,000 to $250,000 checks into 20 to 30 pre-seed firms, whereas One to Ten’s checks will vary from $250,000 to $500,000 and go towards 30 to 40 startups.

Kaya’s funding thesis facilities across the Philippines’ younger inhabitants, financial progress (the nation’s GDP is predicted to double to $6,500 by 2030) and excessive adoption of on-line companies.

Its founders level to a report by Foxmont Capital, one other enterprise agency targeted on early-stage Philippines startups, that present funding within the nation grew to $1.03 billion in 2021 and $1.1 billion in 2022, regardless of the worldwide slowdown in deal exercise. Based mostly on Kaya’s calculations, $4 billion in capital has been closed by native and regional funds over the previous two years, which implies Kaya’s portfolio firms have loads of alternatives for follow-on funding.

Loads of funding within the Philippines comes from company enterprise capital, however new gamers are rising, says Campos. These embrace regional and international buyers who’re investing for the primary time within the Philippines, like Sequoia Surge in Locad; KKR in GrowSari; A16z in Yield Guild Video games; Tiger International in PDAX; and Cecano and SoftBank in Sprout Options, plus native funds like Kaya, Foxmont Capital and Core Capital.

Kaya Founders’ group

Campos in contrast the expansion of the Philippines’ startup ecosystem to India within the 2000s and Indonesia over the previous decade. One of many fundamental causes is founders who’ve expertise working at massive tech firms like Seize, Lazada and Zalora, in addition to Filipinos who have been educated overseas returning to start out firms of their house nation. Campos informed TechCrunch that Kaya has seen 4 founder archetypes emerge due to a confluence of the Philippines’ financial, enterprise and cultural improvement.

The primary is “second era tech expertise,” or former workers of huge tech firms that “had their eyes opened to how rapidly a unicorn may be born once you hit product-market match,” mentioned Campos. The second is company executives who left their jobs to start out firms and produce area experience to their new roles. Peddlr founder Nel Laygo is one instance—he labored at Unilever and Proctor and Gamble earlier than launching the corporate to offer a POS system for sari-sari, or nook shops.

The third section are founders who’ve expertise working overseas, together with Filipino expats and members of the Filipino diaspora, and the fourth are non-Filipinos who determined to start out firms within the Philippines, benefiting from the truth that English is the primary language of enterprise (Kaya’s portfolio consists of founders from nations like Germany, the U.S., Singapore and India).

An instance of the third section is Kindred founder Jessica de Mesa, who was chief industrial officer at Zalora and spent half a decade working at its guardian firm, International Style Group, in Singapore and London. De Mesa returned to the Philippines to guide Zalora Philippines’ industrial group, however needed to return to healthcare (de Mesa is a registered nurse). Kaya had beforehand developed Kindred as an idea below its healthcare-focused three way partnership, Pulse-63, and backed de Mesa as a “institutional co-founder” from its starting.

“We’re actually seeing an acceleration of the flywheel of startups seeing buyer traction and adoption, attracting buyers each regionally and internationally, and people success tales and fundraising spherical bulletins inspiring a brand new breed of founders to throw their hat within the ring as effectively,” mentioned Campos. “We see this as being similar to what has emerged in Indonesia the previous six to seven years, with the Philippines being on the cusp of the inflection level, simply earlier than the rocket takes off.”

Some challenges the Philippines’ startup ecosystem nonetheless should take care of embrace a reasonably nascent enterprise ecosystem, dominated by native CVCs, and issues sourcing tech expertise and discovering strategic companions with expertise in go-to-market methods, Campos mentioned. Kaya was based to assist bridge the hole, giving founders entry to folks like former Lazada Philippines CEO Ray Alimurung, who was just lately appointed as basic associate of the Zero to One Fund, and Gokongwei-Cheng, for mentoring and strategizing.

Different assist founders can get from Kaya embrace recruitment, authorized companies, academic materials, workplace house and product improvement assist, and a community of downstream buyers, strategic companions, beta testers and pilot prospects.

“We really feel strongly that from now till the tip of the last decade, we might be residing by way of the ‘golden age’ of startups within the Philippines,” Campos mentioned. “That chance can be not only for native homegrown ventures, but additionally regional SEA or international startups that focus on the Philippines as a progress market.”