KB Investment, an affiliate of KB Financial Group, on Dec. 9 held a ceremony with Telkom Group, Indonesia's largest state-run telecommunications group, to form a joint management fund, called Centauri Fund, aimed at developing global economies and tapping into the tech companies and markets in Southeast Asia where innovation speeds are fast.
Besides major executives from both groups, including Telkom Group CEO Ririek Adriansyah and KB Financial Group CSO Lee Chang-kwon, Korean and Indonesian government officials also attended the event held at Telkom headquarters in Jakarta on the same day to pray for the formation and successful operation of the Centauri Fund and also had a meeting with local startups.
The fund will be co-operated by KB Investment under KB Financial Group and MDI Ventures, an investor under Telkom Indonesia Group, with the aim of leading the new investment ecosystem in the Southeast Asian region.
Centauri Fund is under formation by the end of the year and plans to raise up to $150 million by recruiting additional capital. Starting in the first quarter of next year, full-scale investment will be carried out.
Major investment areas are start-ups with innovative technologies such as fintech, E-commerce and big data. Pre-Series A to Series B, with an investment of between $1 million and $5 million, are the main targets.
Meanwhile, the Centauri Fund will take a step further from investing in innovation start-ups in the Southeast Asian region, and actively support startups to grow rapidly in a market with weak infrastructure, through various collaborations that can pursue both groups' business assets and synergies.
"The formation of the joint management fund is significant as it has accelerated KB Financial Group's advance into the Southeast Asian market while diversifying its strategy to advance into the global market through cooperation with Telkom, the largest local telecommunications group based on the friendly trust relationship between South Korea and Indonesia under the New Southern Policy," a KB Investment official said.