Ficus Venture Capital onboards its first batch of limited partners and look to invest RM10 Million into Malaysian startups via its flagship Ficus Fund 1 during Malaysia Tech Week 2019
Kuala Lumpur, 17th June 2019 – Ficus Venture Capital (“FVC”) announces that its maiden flagship ASEAN venture fund, the Ficus Fund 1 (“Ficus 1”), has to date secured investment commitments totalling RM25 Million from a combination of Malaysian and international investors. These commitments brings Ficus 1 halfway towards its targeted first closing of RM50 million.
Commenting on the recent onboarding of its first batch of limited partners, Baiza Bain, Managing Partner of Ficus Venture Capital said “We are excited to have the opportunity to work with a diversified group of limited partners. The fact that we have secured limited partners from places as far away as Japan validates our thesis on the potential of technology investment in the ASEAN region”.
Ficus 1’s overall strategy focuses on investing into Shariah compliant tech start-ups with high potential growth across the ASEAN region. This region is expected to maintain its 2017 growth rate of 5.2% in 2018 and 2019 underpinned by the region's strong fundamentals, which include favourable demographics, rising consumption, foreign investment inflows and increased infrastructure spending. Looking at ASEAN's demographics, its combined population of approximately 634 million is the third-largest in the world, only after China and India. Its growing middle class and increasingly skilled workforce are also key to the region's vast economic potential.
In its bid to support the Malaysian tech ecosystem, FVC will be allocating a sum of RM10 Million from the total amount raised thus far to be invested into selected Malaysian startup companies at this week’s Malaysia Tech Week 2019. “As a Malaysian VC, we are proud to support our local startups. We believe that the tremendous effort put in by the Malaysian government via MDEC that created one of the best tech ecosystem in the region has made Malaysia the ideal place for startups to be created and thrive” said Baiza.
Final close for Ficus 1 is expected to be at the end of 2019. FVC targets a total investor commitment of RM100 million for the fund.
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About Ficus Venture Capital:
Ficus Venture Capital is the first fully Shariah Compliant Venture Capital company in the world. It was co-founded by five partners with a combined experience of over 90 years in the startup ecosystem, Islamic finance, Shariah investments, private equity and asset management. Prior to founding Ficus Venture Capital, the partners have accumulated a stellar combined track record in angel investing, private equity investment and fund management. As the frontrunner for the Islamic Digital Economy (“IDE”) ecosystem, Ficus Venture Capital is a strategic partner to the Malaysian Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) in accelerating the IDE initiative by playing a vital role in providing funding for IDE start-ups .
For further information, please contact:
Baiza Bain
Co-Founder, Managing Partner
Email: baiza@ficusvc.com
Abdullah Hidayat
Co-Founder, Business Development
Email: hidayat@ficusvc.com
Rina Neoh
Co-Founder, Investments
Email: rina@ficusvc.com
Ficus Venture Capital
Web: www.ficusvc.com
The Hub@HLX, Level 15, 3, Jalan Kia Peng, Kuala Lumpur, 50450 Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
