Willson Cuaca | What Startup Funding In Post-Pandemic SE Asia May Look Like

DealStreetAsia’s data shows, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic hasn’t yet started reflecting on startup fundraising in Southeast Asia, but as its after-effects become clearer, investors are likely to selectively back companies that have shown resilience in the face of the crisis and are using this time to turbocharge innovation.

Homing in on post-pandemic startup funding in Southeast Asia, the webinar featured a prolific early-stage investor East Ventures’s co-founder and managing partner Willson Cuaca.

The venture capital firm recently announced the first close of a new $88 million seed fund to back digital companies emerging from the aftermath of the current crisis.

Willson Cuaca, an early backer of Indonesian unicorns Traveloka and Tokopedia, was also a managing partner at EV Growth, a growth-stage investment firm that closed its first fund at $250 million at the end of 2019.

The webinar discussed sectors and startups Willson sees as prime to capture the post-pandemic market, VCs’ response during the pandemic, East Ventures’s new seed fund, and what’s next for EV Growth