Once an investor, Aditi Sharma, now co-founder, COO, and CFO of Indonesian digital brand acquirer Grow Commerce, says her time at Grab Ventures, the venture capital arm of super app Grab, was what sparked her entrepreneurial journey. This experience also underscored the importance of selecting the right investors for founders.
“…given how deep and long an investor-founder partnership can be, both parties should invest a genuine effort into this a lot more than we currently see happening,” she said in an interview for DealStreetAsia’s recent report on female founders in Southeast Asia.
The report found that female founders bagged 18.3% of the total private funding secured by Southeast Asia-based startups in 2023, up from 12.6% in the previous year. Several founders cited the rise of female investors in the region as key to creating a more level playing field for entrepreneurs.
Sharma agrees. “I hope, over the coming decade, that as our ecosystem of companies matures, we will have an even stronger crop of seasoned female operator-investors who specialise in sectors or industries, giving them a strong edge in making investment decisions and creating true partnerships with their invested founders,” she said.
The full interview is below:
What inspired your journey into entrepreneurship?
I had the privilege of working with several tech entrepreneurs during my three-year stint at Grab Ventures. My love for entrepreneurship brewed strong during this time, looking at the shot at impact these founders had every single day of showing up at work. COVID further catalysed this desire, as, like many of us, it allowed me the opportunity to take a step back on where my professional and life journey was taking me.
To what extent has your experience as a female professional influenced the way your company is run?
Besides driving pivotal decisions for the company, founders play a key role in establishing the company culture, ethos and DNA. Hence, my personal experiences and professional journey have a significant bearing on the kind of company I strive to create. In our day-to-day work, I often find myself taking inspiration from the great things I experienced or solving the challenges I faced at my previous organisations. As an example, taking a leap of faith in team members who bring in the right mindset, attitude and skills but not necessarily prior experience in a specific area is something I have always valued from my leaders and something I commit to offering to my team, especially to create growth opportunities for early/mid-career female professionals.
Can you share your insights on the fundraising process you went through?
We have gone through two rounds of fundraising since our inception. Both were in very different market environments (~2021/2023) and offered a widely different experience and learnings. The first one, where private market investments were growing aggressively, saw a lot of investors bullish about the growth of brand aggregators in Asia/Southeast Asia. It was more like a gold rush and about betting on the right team that can grow quickly. By 2023, the sentiment had turned very cautious and selective. There was a much higher premium for focus, profitability and resilience in the face of an impending long funding winter. Founders have to be prepared to adapt their mindset and narrative all the time – not only towards investors but also their team to ensure they are not disoriented by directional shifts.
Did you meet female investors during your fundraising efforts, and if so, did it impact your discussions?
Yes, several. I have a pleasant recollection of those conversations, during which they all consistently came across as deeply curious about our business model, our moats, and its long-term viability. I also remember a few of them having spent several years focusing on consumer sector investments, which gave them the ability to ask a lot more specific, relevant questions versus purely first principles.
Some of them also came across quite keen to know us founders at a personal level. I believe that given how deep and long an investor-founder partnership can be, both parties should invest a genuine effort into this a lot more than we currently see happening. I also hope, over the coming decade, that as our ecosystem of companies matures, we will have an even stronger crop of seasoned female operator-investors who specialise in sectors or industries, giving them a strong edge in making investment decisions and creating true partnerships with their invested founders.
In your opinion, what are the benefits of having a diverse founding team?
Tremendous. For one, founding teams with diverse backgrounds are capable of developing more robust operating models in the formative years of the organisation. For example, being exposed to different methods of structured problem-solving and alignment in the past allows me and my co-founder to choose one that best meets the needs of a particular setting and context. We will sometimes write one-pagers for the team while at other times gather them in the room for some very quick whiteboarding.
Second, in the early years of a business, you will run into problems of a very “wicked” nature. Diversity of experiences, skills and points of view maximises your probability of preempting these challenges and scaling them far more efficiently and effectively.
Lastly, diverse founding teams are more likely to hire diversely, which sets up a more resilient, vibrant, and fun organisation to work in. In my experience, diverse teams manage to weather road bumps better, keep team morale up, and retain great talent better.
What has been the most challenging aspect of your role as a co-founder?
Your decisions around company direction and strategy profoundly impact your own family, as well as the people in your organisation. Beyond business outcomes and financial results, that people impact and responsibility is both energising and challenging at the same time. This becomes most apparent when you make tough decisions, for example, around shifting strategic priorities or rightsizing a company. Staying centred, maintaining clarity of thought and demonstrating empathy to those impacted by your decisions is a constant learning experience for any founder and also what will differentiate the good from the great.
Do you believe female founders face additional hurdles in raising capital during the current funding climate?
Yes, and the data say so too. Less than 20% of private capital has gone into funding businesses with at least one female founder in the region over the recent years. The bar turns out different (read higher) when it comes to the investability of a female-founded startup. For example, your life stage and personal factors may have a greater weightage in how your business is evaluated. Higher empathy and outward calm may be construed as a lack of hunger or ability to make tough business decisions. Humans naturally rely on heuristics when it comes to making decisions. Founders need to be aware of these and focus on finding the right investors to partner with, where the alignment in values is the strongest and vice versa for investors as well. This may take longer, but it is best for the longer-term success of the company.
Why do you think there’s a scarcity of women-led startups, and are there any unique factors in Southeast Asia contributing to this trend?
The Southeast Asia region has historically seen a varied level of disparity in terms of education, economic and societal opportunities for women. While there has been great progress on this front across countries over the last 2-3 decades, this opportunity debt is far from having a level playing field. With the democratisation effect of technology and capital, we will continue to see more women entrepreneurs flourish.
The abundance of successful role models is a very important catalyst to accelerate the desire in more women to take on the entrepreneurial path. This needs to happen at all levels. Travelling across the region, I am often amazed by the stories of inspiring women who fought uphill circumstances and have built successful MSME businesses of their own with nearly no resources (formal education, capital) to start with, for instance, restaurants and consumer brands.
What advice would you offer to aspiring female entrepreneurs?
Operate with a strong sense of self-belief and be your own biggest champion. Do not be shy of building your business your own way, balancing everything you value (be it family, personal health, or anything else). Business building is a long-haul game, and you need to do it while being yourself. There is a very high probability of failure, especially in your first attempt or iteration. Do not take that as the end; get up, chart your path, and walk again.
