Southeast Asia–focused Go-Ventures closes $240M second fund, rebrands as Argor Capital

Go-Ventures, backed by Indonesia's GoTo, announced Tuesday it has raised a second fund at $240 million and rebranded as Argor Capital "to reinforce the investment firm's independence and expanded capabilities to drive growth" for its portfolios.

Argor Capital started in 2018 with GoTo backing to invest in startups in Southeast Asia. Though GoTo will remain one of the investors in Argor's latest fund, Argor's investment decisions will continue to be independent of GoTo and other limited partners, according to the VC firm. The limited partners for Argo's second fund include sovereign wealth funds, institutional investors, corporations, and family offices across the globe, from Asia to the Middle East, Australia, Europe and the U.S.

"While we are rebranding at a time of expansion, the word 'Go' embedded in our name is an important reminder for us of the strong support we have received from GoTo and our other investors since we started this journey back in 2018," said Aditya Kamath, partner of Argor Capital.

The VC, which will continue to invest in early-stage and midstage companies in Southeast Asia, plans to construct a portfolio of 15 to 20 companies in its second fund. Argor's initial investments are typically $2 million -$10 million, according to a spokesperson of Argor Capital. So far, Argor has invested from the second fund in sectors such as B2B marketplaces, consumer, environmental tech, fintech and digital transformation platforms for SMEs.

"Argor focuses on companies that operate in or are expanding into Southeast Asia, with an emphasis on Indonesia and Vietnam as the key countries of focus," the spokesperson of Argo told TechCrunch. In addition, the company will continue to make investments in countries such as the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, the spokesperson said.

In 2020, Argor closed on its Fund I with $175 million invested in 19 companies in Southeast Asia. Two partners, Siddharth Pisharody and Adrian Foo, have joined the VC outfit, which has expanded its team size threefold over the last two years.

The firm has made investments from the first fund in companies such as Vara, a Singapore-based staff management platform for small businesses; KitaBeli, an Indonesian social commerce app; Food Market Hub, a Malaysian cloud-based platform that connects food and beverage (F&B) outlets directly to suppliers; Juragan Material, a construction tech platform in Indonesia; eFishery, an Indonesian agtech startup; and SafeBoda, an Uganda-based ride-hailing app.

"Despite the challenging macro environment globally, we remain excited about the potential of Southeast Asia's technology ecosystem, which is underpinned by secular consumption and technology adoption across both consumers and businesses," said Kamath.

(Updates with Argor Capital's spokesperson comment in fourth and fifth paragraphs.)