Venture capital (VC) firms Gobi Partners and Ozora Yatrapaktaja are partnering together to launch a US$10 million seed fund for women start-ups in Indonesia, called the Ratu Nusa Fund.
Focusing on health tech, e-commerce/social commerce, future of work/education, prop tech, enterprise/SME tech and fintech, the Ratu Nusa Fund will be dedicated to supporting women-led seed-stage and pre-Series A companies in Indonesia.
The Ratu Nusa Fund will also focus on companies that improve the livelihoods of women and girls across Indonesia; underserved companies that reside in emerging secondary and tertiary cities such as Surabaya, Bali, Denpasar, Nusantara and Medan; as well as companies that leverage technology to broaden access and have the potential to create enhanced efficiencies and scalability.
The launch of the Ratu Nusa Fund on 21 April honors Kartini Day – a significant celebration of the birthdate of Raden Ajeng Kartini. Kartini was hailed as a national hero and is a symbol of women’s empowerment in Indonesia for promoting gender equality and women’s rights to a better life and education.
“Women entrepreneurs have long gotten a small slice of the VC funding pie mainly due to entrenched gender biases, leaving untapped potential from half of the world’s population. The Ratu Nusa Fund was designed to address this gap,” said Gobi Co-Founder, Thomas Tsao.
“There’s nowhere better to debut our first women-centric fund than in Indonesia where there are an estimated 30 million active women entrepreneurs who stand to benefit from a thriving startup ecosystem. We are also excited to partner with Ozora with its strong women-led management team and their deep-rooted networks here,” he continued.
Ozora Founding Partner, Margaret Srijaya is looking forward to uncovering the next Indonesian startup ‘treasure’.
“Ozora means strength from God and treasure, which reflects our goal as we are on a mission to identify local treasures in Indonesia and turn them into global gold. There is a large underserved and untapped opportunity in VC support for women entrepreneurs and women-impact businesses serving 133 million Indonesian women,” said Srijaya.
“We are confident that the Ratu Nusa Fund will provide worthy women-led businesses the ability to scale its impact in this country and across neighboring markets within the Asia-Pacific region.”
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