Accelerating Asia, a leading early-stage accelerator VC fund, announced it is increasing its overall investment amount, with startups now eligible to receive up to US$250,000 up from US$150,000. Since 2019, the VC has accelerated 36 high growth, pre-series A startups in the region’s fastest-growing digital economies, including Singapore, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Vietnam, and India. To date, Accelerating Asia’s portfolio startups have collectively raised US$27M, 65% of which was raised after joining the Accelerating Asia network.
“We’re so excited by the traction, results and growth of our portfolio startups so far. And, with the increasing investor interest they're receiving, it’s early signals for us that our accelerator VC model is working. We’ve decided the time is right to increase our investment amount and take bigger bets on the startups coming through our program.” said Accelerating Asia General Partner and Co-Founder Amra Naidoo.
In 2021, Accelerating Asia welcomed 11 new startups to the portfolio and injected follow-on funding into portfolio companies, including India-based, ProjectPro, agritech/fintech company iFarmer and Numu. Since joining Accelerating Asia in September 2020, ProjectPro’s monthly recurring revenue has grown 5x while iFarmer has increased the amount of financing processed through the platform 5x – up from US$1 million in June 2020 to US$6 million. Numu’s monthly revenue has grown 10x since it joined Accelerating Asia in January 2020, and they have recently closed out deals with Unilever and Lola MullenLowe. Numu’s most recent bridge round of over US$300,000 closed with investment from Accelerating Asia, HH Investments and Endeavour Ventures and will be used to attract talent in preparation for a Series A in 2021.
“Numu, iFarmer and ProjectPro have extremely solid Founders and possess considerable market traction at the early stage. We worked closely with each startup on their product strategy, fundraising and growth during and after the 100-day program. Their potential for continued growth and expansion is evidenced by their ability to raise capital from highly respected investors that Accelerating Asia introduced them to.” Accelerating Asia Co-Founder and General Partner Craig Bristol Dixon said.
Across the portfolio, startups who completed the flagship accelerator programme in 2019 and 2020 have almost tripled monthly recurring revenue, up from over US$9,000 at the start of the Accelerating Asia programme to US$27,000 in 2021. A number have also closed investment rounds, including Shuttle, a Bangladeshi mass transit provider, which closed a US$750,000 seed round, led by Accelerating Asia with investment from partners including Bangladesh Angels Network, Robi Axiata Ltd and Impact Collective.
The graduating startups in Cohort 4 are also on track to deliver impressive results, with startups gaining market share and traction among investors. Cohort 4 startups raised US$5 million plus an additional US$1 million in soft commitments. The total capital of over US$6 million brings the amount raised to 70% of the startups’ collective fundraising goals in the past 100 days and half the cohort, including SWAP, TransTRACK.ID, AmarLab, Doctor Koi and Drive lah are on track to close fundraising rounds this month. The 11 pre-Series A startups have also grown their user base more than 35% in the past 100 days and have an average monthly recurring revenue of US$35,000 and an average monthly GMV of over US$320,000.
The traction of these startups highlights the pivotal role that startup accelerators such as Accelerating Asia plays in grooming game-changing tech leaders and innovators of today.
Accelerating Asia offers investors early and exclusive access to portfolio startups, providing them with qualified deal-flow, pro-rata rights, and a first option for investment. Moving forward in 2021 and beyond, Accelerating Asia will expand its partnership and investment opportunities. Accelerating Asia is planning to launch Fund II in the second half of 2021 and will continue to invest and accelerate high-growth pre-Series A startups from across Southeast and South Asia.
Applications for cohort 5 are also currently open and will close on 30 June 2021. Beyond its flagship accelerator program, Accelerating Asia also supports the startup ecosystem by offering Amplify, a 6-module virtual accelerator that gives startups access to top-level resources to grow their business.
