DV to support variety of startups globally
TEL AVIV: Digital Ventures (DV), a corporate venture capital (CVC) arm of Siam Commercial Bank (SCB), plans to steer investment into both financial and nonfinancial technology startups this year.
Investment in both local and overseas financial technology (fintech) firms will be the company’s focus this year, said Polapat Arkkrapridi, DV’s managing director for CVC.
DV’s investment in fintech startups will help SCB adopt innovative financial products and services, while branching into other technology startups is a strategy to serve existing corporate customer demand for the bank’s financial services, Mr Polapat said.
With collaboration between the bank and its corporate clients, DV expects to develop Thailand’s ecosystem for startups.
“We’ve invested in startups both directly and indirectly through startup funds,” Mr Polapat said. “But we cannot set a specific time frame for when the existing funds will be fully used.”
DV, set up last year with initial investment capital worth US$50 million (1.71 billion baht), has invested in three foreign startup funds comprising Golden Gate, Nyca
Fund II and Dymon Asia. The company also invested directly in two fintech startups, Ripple and PulseiD.
The bank is looking into adopting Ripple’s blockchain technology for international remittance services in order to offer more efficient, convenient, secure and faster services to customers.
DV plans to kick off the second-round accelerator programme, Batch 1, next month under an unofficial collaboration with three large companies: PTT Plc, Siam Cement Plc (SCG), and Ananda Development Plc, DV’s head of accelerator Charle Charoenphan said.
The collaboration among several industries will help strengthen large corporates’ networks and enhance startup growth in the longer term.
In the first-round accelerator programme, Batch 0, construction technology winners worked with SCG, while another winner engaged in property technology worked with Ananda.
DV, in collaboration with local large corporates, explored startup engagement in Israel last week.
Tel Aviv has about 8,000 tech startups.
In 2016, tech startups there raised funds to the tune of $5 billion, up 15% from 2015 and a whopping rise of 50% from 2014.
There are around 70 active venture capital funds and 260 startup accelerators.