11 Most Active Late Investors in Southeast Asia’s Retail Industry

Intro

As of 2020, the global retail market was predicted to expand at a CAGR of 7%, totaling USD 29361.95 billion in 2025. Like many other industries that were hit by the impact of COVID-19, the retail field is subjected to rapid digitization, improving and modernizing the ways producers of goods and services reach their customers. For instance, in Southeast Asia in particular, e-commerce increased in value by 63% over the last year. Along with connecting their offline shops to online, retailers use other technologies, such as data analysis or AR/VR, to better fulfill the customer’s needs and provide a unique experience. Apart from shopping, sectors of the retail field include vending, retail technology, and more.
Of all late funding rounds in Southeast Asia, the number of deals in the retail industry equals 12, accounting for a 6% share of this type of financing over a 3-year period. The article and the diagram feature 11 investors who took part in the highest number of late funding rounds over the mentioned time. Participating in 1 or 2 deals, they line up in the following order:

11 Most Active Late Investors in Southeast Asia’s Retail Industry
data provided by Unicorn Nest

Key takeaways

• Funds Geography – Singapore, which is home to 8 of 11 funds, appears to be the most popular country of the fund’s origin. The rest three VCs are located in Vietnam and Thailand. All eight Singapore-based firms come from the Central Region; there are also firms from Krung Thep, Hanoi, and Bangkok. The sampled funds tend to predominantly invest in startups from Singapore, also considering projects from the United States, India, and Vietnam. Mostly, the startup’s and the VC’s country of origin coincide.
• Industry Focus – Focusing primarily on the Finance industry, VCs from the sample put money into Gamification, E-Commerce Platforms, and Business Development fields.
• Important Years – Phillip Private Equity and Venturi Partners, the oldest and the newest funds from the list, were established in 1975 and 2019, respectively. From the rest of the VCs, the greater part was created four years ago, in 2017. The period between 2007 and 2020 presented the most intense activity from the sampled firms. Several of them closed the most deals in 2020.
• Investments – Most often, the funds do from 2 up to 6 rounds annually, with the maximum and minimum for this figure being 193 and 1, respectively. On average, the number of rounds rests at 49.6; its median equals 27.0. The sampled VCs also chose to lead the deal 34 times at maximum. While most of them never acted as lead investors, the average value of this type of investment equals 9.3 and has a median of 4.0. Calculated in percentage points, the standard and lead financing difference ranges from -46.0 to 29.0, averaging at 2.91. This index’s median is 3.73; hence, some firms on the list become lead investors more often than others.
• Typical Rounds – Most frequently, the rounds held by the sampled VCs involve 4 or 5 investors and have 10-50 million US dollars issued. Less often, there are up to 6 partakers with the amount of money being significantly smaller, less than 100 thousand dollars. On average, the fund’s multiplier for portfolio companies equals 1.08 and has a median of 0.28 points. Although the maximal multiple at the last known valuation is 4.52, this figure’s most common value is close to zero, coinciding with its minimum.

Typically, the top 11 investors in Southeast Asia’s retail industry participate in 2-6 deals yearly and allocate 50-100 million or less than 100 thousand dollars per round. The majority of the VCs are established in Singapour, with Vietnam and Thailand following. The most significant backing from the sampled firms comes to the Finance startups; Gamification, E-Commerce Platforms, and Business Development fields are the runners-up.