InVent, a corporate venture capital arm of InTouch Holdings Plc, is narrowing its investment portfolio to early stage startups from a previous focus on growth startups to attract more emerging technology.
InVent aims to place at least one startup in its portfolio, Wongnai Media, a restaurant review application, for initial public offering on the Market for Alternative Investment by 2020.
"InVent will invest more intensely in early stage seed funding, with 10 million baht and growth stages in series A and B of over 70 million baht in deep tech and emerging tech startups," said Narongpon Boonsongpaisan, head of InVent.
The company plans to focus on digital, blockchain, data analytics, artificial intelligence, digital lifestyle and tourism.
Each year it allocates 200 million baht for investment.
This year InVent has already invested 70 million baht in two startups: 30 million in YDM Thailand and 40 million recently in Choco Card Enterprise Co.
The company plans to use about 100 million baht for investment in several deals, including a blockchain startup next month and three more startups within this year.
Over the past five years InVent has invested in 16 startups, but it decided to sell off shares of four of these, including Computerlogy and ShopSpot.
Mr Narongpon said Choco Card Enterprise Co, which sells online subscriptions, has potential.
Choco Card, a market leader in the areas of customer relationship management (CRM) and POS Digital Platform, and a CRM solution provider for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) yesterday announced it secured Series A funding from InVent.
Sirasit Suriyapattanapong, chief executive of Choco Card Enterprise Co, said it will utilise the funding to grow its business, targeting 5,000 SMEs in three years, up from 1,300 presently.
The focus will be on restaurants and cafes, fashion, car care and hair stylists in Bangkok, Chon Buri, Chiang Mai, and Phuket.
The fund will finance more product development, in particular micro-CRM by providing QR codes to small brands and manufacturers, collecting customer data in exchange for discounts or rewards.
Choco Card also has a Reward as a Service pilot programme with Government Savings Bank (GSB) to reward GSB customers through the MyMo application.
Choco Card's use of integrated CRM and point of sale solutions can help SMEs manage their sales as well as customer data.
