Reflections from a Busy H1 2024

Dear reader,

Six months have flown by, and we are now well past the mid-year mark of 2024. Like many of us, you might have started the year with high hopes that the funding winter would begin to thaw, and inflation and interest rates would return to more palatable levels. The hard truth is that while inflation has indeed fallen, interest rates have remained steady. Well, it is not the most rosy picture but it is a step in the right direction.

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As my colleague, Ben Mathias has pointed out the start-up ecosystem correction is still ongoing as compared to three years ago when many start-ups were given money excessively and unjustifiably. (Read his interview with Business Standard here). It is good to see that companies are back on track building sustainable businesses and focusing on the path to profitability.?Let’s hope this discipline will continue even when the market picks up.?We have seen in so many cycles where “short-term memory” and FOMO prevailed over discipline when the market gets hot.

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At Vertex, we know that as the going gets tough, it is the tough founders who get going. We salute our incredible portfolio founders who are able to achieve greater heights and go on to build champions. And thanks to them, we’ve had an incredibly busy first half of the year with 5 deals closed and many portfolio companies marking operational milestones. Here are some of our highlights:

• We opened the year by hosting Jack Selby, a member of the PayPal mafia at our Singapore office and we thank over 100 attendees who came to join us. Tatler Asia also wrote a refreshing summary of the takeaways.

Our portfolio has made incredible strides:

• Patsnap Surpasses $100 M in Annual Recurring Revenue?
• NIUM raised $50 M in Series E Round
• CNBC Names NIUM among World's top Fintech Companies 2024
• The Parentinc’s Acquisition of Mothersworks
• Karkhana.io Raised Series A Funding of $ 6.3 M
• Sunday Acquires General Insurer in Indonesia

We invested in several promising new startups and are excited about supporting their next stage of business growth:

• Attentive Raised US$7 m in Series A Funding Led by Vertex Ventures SEA and India
• Koppiku Raised US$2.5 m in Funding
• Matsuri Technologies Raised US$8.5 m in Series D Funding, Led by Vertex Ventures SEA and India

The Big Read - featuring our colleagues in Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia & India:

• Our 2024 Impact Framework
• The Business Times: Where South-east Asian contenders can carve a niche in the GenAI landscape
• Ben Mathias on Forbes: India's Tech Renaissance: Emerging Trends and the $100 Billion Ambition of the Ecosystem
• Carmen Yuen on Tech in Asia: Do VCs get caught in hype? This Vertex Ventures Partner Shares Her Hot Takes
• Piyush Kharbanda on Financial Express: VC funding at Normal Levels
• Kanika Mayar on YourStory: Why Vertex Ventures is So Bullish About the Indian Startup Ecosystem
• Tuyet Vu on Techinasia: This VC Firm has Vietnam on its Radar

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With just five more months of the year to go, we look forward to supporting more founders in their endeavours to become regional and global champions. Our team will be in Ho Chi Minh City in the third week of August. If you are interested to chat, please drop us a note!

Joo Hock Chua

Managing Partner

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