East Ventures appoints Koh Wai Kit as its new Venture Partner
February 9, 2021
East Ventures, an early-stage sector-agnostic venture capital firm that has supported over 180 companies in Southeast Asia and is widely known as the VC pioneer in Indonesia, is pleased to announce the appointment of Koh Wai Kit as a Venture Partner at the firm.
Willson Cuaca, Co-founder and Managing Partner at East Ventures, is thrilled to welcome Wai Kit to East Ventures.
“We have worked closely with Wai Kit for years and we truly value his advice. Wai Kit is a quick-witted thinker with a great deal of empathy, sharing the same core value we hold at East Ventures. We welcome him to our team and are looking forward to work together to grow the platform for all our stakeholders,” said Willson.
Koh Wai Kit brings over a decade of investment experiences, a vast network, and expertise to the East Ventures team. As a founding member of Pavilion Capital, a Temasek subsidiary focused on Asia private equity and venture capital, he spearheaded the fund investments in China, Japan, Korea, and Southeast Asia. Prior to setting up Pavilion Capital, Wai Kit served in investment, strategy and portfolio management functions at Temasek.
Before joining Temasek, he was a member of the Singapore Administrative Service where he was involved in public policy formulation and implementation. Wai Kit received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
“Under Willson’s leadership, East Ventures has become a leading venture capital firm in Indonesia and Southeast Asia. I am excited to be part of the East Ventures family and look forward to contributing to its growth ” said Koh Wai Kit, East Ventures’ Venture Partner.
Founded in 2009, East Ventures is an early believer in the startup ecosystem in Indonesia. The firm is the first VC investor in Indonesia’s unicorn companies, Tokopedia and Traveloka. Other notable companies in the fund portfolio include Ruangguru, Warung Pintar, Kudo (acquired by Grab), Loket (acquired by Gojek), Tech in Asia, Xendit, IDN Media, MokaPOS (acquired by Gojek), ShopBack, Koinworks, Waresix, and Sociolla.
In 2018, to further support and capitalize on the development of their ecosystem, East Ventures set up a growth-stage fund named EV Growth. EV Growth has one of the largest networks of companies and partners in the region and has invested in more than 12 portfolio companies with its first US$250 million funds.
East Ventures was recognized as the most consistent top performing VC fund globally by Preqin in 2019 and has been named the most active investor in SEA and Indonesia by various media.