Kaya Founders raises $25m fund to back early-stage startups
- ByStartupStory | November 11, 2025
Kaya Founders, a Philippines-based venture capital firm, has successfully closed a $25 million fund aimed at supporting early-stage startups across the Philippines and Southeast Asia. This marks an important milestone in Kaya’s mission to back the next generation of Filipino and regional founders building technology-driven solutions for local and regional markets.
The new fund features a two-pronged “stapled” structure: the “Zero to One” Pre-seed Fund focuses on companies at the idea or pre-market stage, while the “One to Ten” Seed to Series A Fund supports startups further along in their growth journey. Kaya plans to back 10 to 20 additional startups over the next three years, targeting sectors such as fintech, e-commerce, education, healthcare, SaaS, agriculture, and more.
Founded in 2021 by industry veterans including Paulo Campos (ex-CEO, Zalora Philippines), Lisa Gokongwei-Cheng (CEO, Summit Media), and Ray Alimurung (ex-CEO, Lazada Philippines), Kaya Founders has built a portfolio of over 40 startups to date. Its notable investments include e-commerce enabler Etaily, cloud logistics platform Locad, banking-as-a-service provider Netbank, and payments firm PayMongo, supported by global fintech Stripe.
The fund’s investor base includes local family offices and international partners such as Singapore’s Pavilion Capital, Boston-based hedge fund Bracebridge Capital, and Chicago’s Concentric Equity Partners. Recently, Kaya also signed a memorandum of understanding with the Startup Venture Fund of the Philippine government’s National Development Company to strengthen co-investment efforts and improve capital access for Filipino startups.
Kaya Founders views the Philippines as an emerging tech hub, with a growing startup ecosystem fueled by a youthful population, increasing online service adoption, and returning Filipinos educated abroad. The firm positions itself as a key early-stage investor offering operational expertise, mentoring, network access, and go-to-market strategy support.
Kaya’s $25 million fund close signals continued investor confidence in the Philippines’ tech sector and sets the stage for a new wave of innovation and growth in the region’s fast-maturing startup ecosystem.
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