IYARA Venture Capital Co, a newly-launched venture capital firm based in Thailand, plans to raise 300 million baht ($9.28 million) to fund at least 100 Thai startups over the next five years.
IYARA was founded by four co-founders, comprising Apichai Sakulsureeyadej, Somboon Sukheviriya, Wissanupong Wongwas and Chatchai Tolertmongkol. All of them have experiences in information industry (IT) but have worked in different sectors like retail, tourism, food and beverage, and the government projects.
In the formal opening ceremony today, co-founder Apichai said that although the Thai software developers and technology-related startups have high potential, most of them do not have access to capitals and lack management, marketing experience.
IYARA plans to invest about 3 million baht and hold 25 per cent of the total shares for each startup it invests in. The expected return on investment is about be 5-10 times of the investment.
“We are committed to be a linkage between investors and startups, so investors can diversify their portfolio in new innovations with good potential and returns on investment. On the other hand, startups can gain capitals and grow their businesses,” he said.
However, IYARA will focus only on startups which have developed 75-80 per cent of software products, completed the development and are ready to market, or have already launched the products.
It has already funded a mobile technology startup called Fixzy and it is in talk with other four startups, comprising ZipEvent, SharingBox, and TakeMeTour.com.
In February, US-based venture capital 500 Startups launched a $10-million micro fund, called 500 Tuk Tuks, to support Thai startups. It has recently announced to jointly fund Thai online market Blisby.com with East Ventures and DeNa.
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