Silicon Valley VC Firm, Creative Ventures Launches $50M Fund Focused on Tech

September 29, 2017

Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm Creative Ventures announced the launch of its second fund – a $50 million vehicle dedicated to investing in deep tech startups that address global issues including population dynamics, climate change, and labor issues through investments in healthcare, agriculture tech, and industrial tech ventures.

The fund will focus its investment strategy on U.S.-based startups, but differing from most other investment vehicles, the firm helps its tech companies develop their R&D platforms and commercialization strengths, then makes connections between their portfolio companies and Asian corporations as a means to achieve scale and growth.

“Creative Ventures invests in U.S.-based startups that can that have technology not readily available in Southeast Asia. It provides companies in Southeast Asia with exclusive access to the latest technologies,” Suthipongchai told Deal Street Asia. “On the other hand, we help those deep tech startups to commercialize and scale up in Asia through partnership with corporations.”

So far the fund has $11 million in committed funds from two Thai investors – Chanond Ruangkritya, founder of real estate development company Ananda Development PCL, and Sittichai Leeswadtrakul, CEO and president of steel company Millcon, according to Deal Street Asia. However Champ Suthipongchai, managing partner and founder of the firm, told the publication that there are expectations of a $30 million close within six to nine months.

The firm launched its first fund in 2014 at $11 million, and has since deployed about a quarter of its corpus across 10 investments.

“Owing to our success from the first fund, I have decided to raise the second fund so that we can have larger ticket size (deals) and play a significant part in those deep tech startups,” said Suthipongchai.

Building Bridges

Suthipongchai and Creative Ventures are not the only venture capitalists bridging their invested technologies to emerging markets for growth.

In February 2016 Andrew Chung, former partner at Khosla Ventures, announced the launch of venture capital firm, 1955 Capital with an initial close of $200 million.

Also based in Silicon Valley, 1955 Capital plans to invest between $10 million and $15 million per investment in Series B and C rounds in technologies within the agriculture, food, energy, health, and education sectors. However, much like Creative Ventures, Chung plans to act as a bridge, helping Western technologies that may have experienced some growth in developed countries, to gain traction in developing markets where they present solutions to some of the most challenging environmental and social issues, and present themselves as unique investment opportunities.

“We believe that China, India, and other developing countries face fundamental challenges that put the future of their societies at risk and place severe pressure on governments and business leaders for solutions,” said Chung in a company statement last year. “We founded 1955 Capital because we believe disruptive technology is critical to solving these issues and can help bring nations closer together by matching the ingenuity of the West with the growing survival-driven demands of the East.”

-Lynda Kiernan

Lynda Kiernan is Editor with GAI Media and daily contributor to GAI News. If you would like to submit a contribution for consideration, please contact Ms. Kiernan at lkiernan@globalaginvesting.com.

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