Indonesia-based financial services firm Bank Ragyat Indonesia (BRI) aims to provide up to $250m for the first fund to be managed by its venture capital subsidiary, BRI Ventures, Bloomberg reported today.
BRI Ventures has been equipped with an initial $100m in capital, a figure BRI said it could eventually increase to $250m. It will operate as an evergreen fund and will invest at growth and late stage.
The vehicle is being managed by Nicko Widjaja, formerly chief executive of MDI Ventures, the corporate venturing vehicle overseen by telecommunications firm Telkom Indonesia. He had joined MDI Ventures in 2015 and was also program director for its Indigo Accelerator.
MDI Ventures was reported by DealStreetAsia in May this year to be helping BNI establish its corporate venturing unit, though Widjaja had not at that point been revealed as moving over to BRI Ventures.
BRI formed BRI Ventures by taking over an existing VC firm called Bahana Artha Ventura, buying a 35% stake in late 2017 that it had increased to 97.6% by December 2018.
Widjaja said in a statement that, in contrast to other VC units set up by banks, BRI Ventures will not be restricted to financial technology deals. It intends to explore offline areas where fintech can be utilised, such as education, healthcare and retail technology.
Photo of Nicko Widjaja courtesy of Medium.
