[Updated] Alpha JWC taps ex-Sea Capital execs for regional growth-stage deals

Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to incorporate comments from Alpha JWC Ventures.

Jakarta-based venture capital firm Alpha JWC Ventures has hired a trio of seasoned investors from the now-defunct Sea Capital, the investment arm of Southeast Asia’s Sea Group, as it looks to expand into regional growth-stage investments, DealStreetAsia has learnt.

The incoming team includes Alex Tong, Ren Liang Tan, and Kanush Chaudhary, who previously led investments at Sea Capital before it was disbanded in mid-2023 amid a broader strategic shift at Sea Group. After the dissolution, the three briefly regrouped under a new vehicle called Inveneos, though little is known about its activities.

Confirming the development, Alpha JWC said, in an email response to DealStreetAsia, “The addition of Alex, Kanush and Ren (as Venture Partners), three experienced investors with strong track records, strengthens our investment efforts and reinforces our long-term commitment to the region, as we enhance our ability to support companies from seed through growth stages.”

“These hires reflect our conviction in the long-term prospects of the region, particularly Indonesia as our key market,” the firm added.

Alpha JWC said the firm remains focused on Indonesia and believes that “this is a great time to be investing in Indonesia.” The VC said it was also looking at regional companies with the angle to bring them to Indonesia/SE Asia.

The trio’s move to Alpha JWC marks their return to institutional venture investing and comes ahead of the firm’s fourth fundraise, expected to start later this year. DealStreetAsia had reported in January that Alpha JWC’s fourth fund is reportedly looking to raise approximately $300 million, though the final target has not been finalised and could still change.

Alpha JWC had confirmed at the time that the fund would be smaller than its predecessor, which had closed at $443 million in 2021.

The third fund is Alpha JWC’s largest to date. The LPs included prominent companies such as the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC), Morgan Stanley Alternative Investment Partners, and Li Ka-Shing’s Horizons Ventures.

These developments—Alpha JWC’s plan to launch its fourth fund and the addition of seasoned investment professionals—come at a time when Southeast Asia’s venture capital landscape is facing significant headwinds, which may have prompted Alpha JWC to explore growth-stage investments in the broader region through its latest fund.

Only 14 Southeast Asia-focused VC funds reached a final close in 2024, according to DealStreetAsia DATA VANTAGE’s biannual report, SE Asia’s VC Funds: H2 2024 Review. The annual performance fell sharply compared to the previous year, when 32 funds had hit final closes, securing $6.77 billion. The pullback reflects ongoing macroeconomic uncertainty, valuation resets, and increasing caution among global LPs.

Some LPs are already diverting capital to alternative markets like India, where larger addressable markets and clearer exit pathways provide more predictable returns, according to the report.

While the current bleak exit environment in Southeast Asia may have prompted Alpha JWC to explore global deals, it said it is optimistic about the region. “We expect some of our portfolio companies to go public in the coming two years, thawing out the market freeze of the last few years, helping to revive investor confidence and unlock financing opportunities for later-stage ventures,” Chandra Tjan, Co-founder & General Partner, Alpha JWC Ventures had said in an interview for the report.

Before Sea Capital, Chaudhary was part of Composite Capital Management, a Hong Kong-based investment firm founded by David Ma, a former Hillhouse Capital partner. Some of its portfolio companies, spread across Singapore, India, and California, included Moglix, Clear, MPL, Zoox, and TuSimple.

Composite Capital gained recognition for deploying capital into private technology companies and was later acquired by Sea Group in 2021 to form Sea Capital, with Ma taking the helm as CIO. Ren Liang Tan joined Sea Capital from Eight Roads while Alex Tong joined Sea Capital from Tencent.

Sea initially injected $1 billion into the unit, but amid shifting market dynamics and a more cautious investment climate, Sea disbanded Sea Capital by mid-2023.

It made three investments in its short period, including in the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX in 2021.

In early Feb 2025, during Alpha JWC’s tenth anniversary, it announced the plan to raise the fourth fund to support its next growth phase, prioritising the consumer and healthcare sectors while maintaining a sector-agnostic approach.

The firm then appointed new key hires, including Ray Frederick Djajadinata, former CTO of Traveloka, as technology partner, and Satria Situmorang, former SVP at GoTo Group, as principal of value creation. Lastly, Wenyou Tan, joined the investment team in Singapore to support regional expansion.

During its decade of operation, the firm has amassed $645 million in assets under management (AUM) and has invested in close to 100 startups.