Amid funding winter, Japan’s Genesia Ventures bucks the trend

[HO CHI MINH CITY] Even as the global funding squeeze shows little sign of easing, Genesia Ventures – a Tokyo-based early-stage venture capital (VC) firm with offices across Japan, Indonesia and Vietnam – celebrated the final close of its third fund last week at 15 billion yen (S$146.4 million).

This exceeded its target of 12 billion yen, and the announcement came less than a week after its Vietnamese portfolio company BuyMed raised US$51.5 billion in a Series B funding round.

“We do not slow down or speed up our investment pace because of a weak yen, a gloomy market or a lower startup valuation prospect,” said Hoang Thi Kim Dzung, the country director of Genesia Ventures Vietnam, in an interview with The Business Times. The yen has weakened by about 25 per cent against the US dollar in the last two years.