Business development and technology in Southeast Asia, including Indonesia seems increasingly attractive for companies and investors to participate for developing their business in the region. Following East Ventures and CyberAgent there’s another foreign venture company interested to invest in the Southeast Asia region, Ru-Net.
Ru-Net is a Russian venture company based in Moscow focusing their investments on the internet and information technology. Some examples of successful companies with their investments are Big Lion (Russian daily deals site), Ozon.ru (often referred to as Russia’s Amazon), IVI (online provider for video entertainment) and iMobilco (content provider). In Southeast Asia they have invested in MJ Group, an e-commerce platform provider from Vietnam.
In an interview with Penn-Olson, Ru-Net investment director, Alexander Pavlov has announced plan to invest USD 50 million for startup from the Southeast Asia region. According to him, Southeast Asia region has a potential market for e-commerce. In this area, there are still spaces for the untapped e-commerce.
When he was asked about the criteria for a targeted startup (as quoted from Penn-Olson), Pavlov said that Ru-Net prioritizes startup specializing in e-commerce, online travel, online entertainment and social gaming. In addition, Ru-Net also prefers to invest in a startup that has received (some) funding from other investors.
On their website, Ru-Net also explains some basic criteria of a chosen company to be invested:
- Led by a professional management with experience in the startup.
- Leading the market or show great potential to lead the market.
- Have followed the company’s development strategy and the business models are well defined.
- Able to realize success in another market area by applying an attractive technology, business concept or a good strategy.
- Have a transparent financial management and shareholders as well as the readiness to achieve such transparency.
If you have a startup within these criteria and requires an investment, you could try contacting them via email to [email protected]. Certainly, it’s important that you should introduce yourself and learn about their company’s portfolio in advance. They spent about USD 5-20 million for a startup, depending on the startup quality.
