Penjana Kapital Sdn Bhd, a Malaysian government-backed startup development initiative, has signed a Memorandum of Cooperation with Indonesian-focused investment firms Indies Capital Partners and AC Ventures.
During his two-day working visit to Jakarta, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim witnessed the signing ceremony.
The memorandum creates a framework for Penjana Kapital, Indies Capital Partners, and AC Ventures to investigate co-investment opportunities in Malaysia-Indonesia growth companies via existing and soon-to-be-launched funds.
The framework promotes cross-border investments and technology transfer in the data centre, education, hospitality, mobility, and waste management sectors, which include Indonesian and Malaysian start-ups.
According to the Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (Matrade), total trade value between Malaysia and Indonesia increased by 43.5% in 2021 to US$21.73 billion (RM95.1 billion) from 2020. Total Malaysian exports to Indonesia increased by 32.5% to US$8.962 billion (RM39.22 billion), while total imports increased by 52.3% to US$12.769 billion during the same period.
Indies Capital Partners was an early player in Southeast Asia's private credit-focused managers. Today, the firm is a top-quartile alternative asset manager with over $800 million in assets under management. Its strategy includes everything from private credit to private equity.
AC Ventures is a Southeast Asian venture capital firm focused on early-stage Indonesian and ASEAN start-ups. AC Ventures currently manages over $500 million in assets spread across five funds. Since 2012, the firm's partners have invested in over 100 regional technology companies.
Penjana Kapital's flagship programme, Dana Penjana Nasional, has raised a total commitment of US$ 297.05 million for its eight funds as of December 2022 on a roughly 1:1 matching basis — the Ministry of Finance will match every ringgit that the fund successfully brings in.
Foreign and private local investors contributed US$164.73 million to the total.
Penjana Kapital also announce that Dana Penjana Nasional has approved 53 investments valued at US$130.85 million.