Co-founder of The-Wolfpack, Toh Jin Wei says the newly launched venture capital firm aims to help early-stage Asia Pacific startups reach customers with smarter media and experience-first strategies.
The co-founder and managing partner of the Singapore based firm says The-Wolfpack hopes to become the venture partner of choice for startups in the consumer goods, leisure and media sectors, who need strategic capital to drive growth in nuanced markets across Southeast Asia and Australia.
The firm’s debut fund, ‘The Wolfpack Pioneer VCC’ is now fully subscribed and will focus on early-stage investments in the direct-to-consumer sector, and is in a stage of deployment with an eye on up to ten companies.
The launch comes following strong third quarter figures for Asia’s venture capital market, which rebounded after two soft quarters of investment, led by a $US1.5 billion raise by Shanghai-based automotive company Weltmeister and a $US1.3 billion raise by India based internet retailer Flipkart.
The-Wolfpack founders say they are now looking to raise a second fund targeted at S$20 million and above.
“Most VCs will tell you to focus on one thing and do that really well, but we’ve built enough major consumer brands to know that’s not enough to succeed in complex markets across APAC,” says Toh Jin Wei.
“Products and services need to deliver experiences, inspire community advocates and create media ecosystems.
“That’s why we’ve launched The-Wolfpack – to help startup founders close this critical gap.”
The team says it will work closely with founders to scale strategically with impact by leveraging on their industry network with key C-suite decision-makers in the region.
They say investments are made with portfolio synergy in mind to give companies opportunities to collaborate and cross-sell with others.
“We’re in this for the long-haul with our founders and plan to grow The-Wolfpack to support their journey,” says Simon Nichols, co-founder and managing partner.
“Our portfolio companies will know that our rolodex will never be closed to them.”