Go-Ventures, backed by Indonesia’s GoTo, announced Tuesday it has raised the 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.

“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. 

The VC will continue to invest in early and mid-stage companies. So far, Argor has invested from the second fund in sectors such as B2B marketplaces, consumer, digital transformation platforms for SMEs, environmental tech and fintech. The limited partners for Argo’s second fund include sovereign wealth funds, institutional investors, corporations, and family offices across the globe, from Asia, the Middle East, Australia, and Europe to the U.S. 

“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. 

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 three-fold over the last two years. 

The firm has made investments from the first fund in companies including Vara, a 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 agritech startup; and SafeBoda, an Uganda-based ride-hailing app. 

Southeast Asia-focused Go-Ventures closes $240M second fund, rebrands as Argor Capital  by Kate Park originally published on TechCrunch