By Arra B. Francia, Senior Reporter

AYALA Corp. (AC) is raising $150 million from its business units to put up a venture capital fund that will allow it to invest in startups across various industries at home and abroad.

“We formulated a plan to establish a group-wide corporate venture capital entity where we are trying to raise $150 million of new money from within Ayala Corp. and its business units supported by the CEOs and by the board of the different units,” AC Chief Financial Officer Jose Teodoro K. Limcaoco said in a media briefing after the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Makati on Friday.

Mr. Limcaoco said they hope to raise the amount by the middle of the year, which will then be invested to startups within the next five years.

The listed conglomerate will look for startups in the early growth stage in the areas of data and analytics, machine learning, artificial intelligence, cloud computing, financial technology, automation, real estate, retail, transport, energy, water, health and wellness, and food.

The fund will be jointly managed by AC Ventures Holdings Corp. and Kickstart Ventures, Inc., a subsidiary of AC’s telecommunications arm Globe Telecom, Inc. Kickstart has invested in 39 digital startups in seven countries since it was established in 2012.

Kickstart President Minette Navarette said they plan to issue check sizes anywhere from $2-10 million, in exchange for an equity investment in the startup.

Prior to this fund, Mr. Limcaoco said AC has already poured in $250 million worth of investments in different industries.

AC Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala noted that the fund is the largest of its kind in the Philippines to date, as well as the first conglomerate-wide strategic venture capital fund.

The aggressive venture capital spending forms part of the group’s digitization efforts, which also includes transforming existing businesses, new business models and opportunities, leveraging data and analytics, and empowering talent.

“We spend significant time studying other markets that are in the advanced stages of digital maturity and we have teams constantly looking at emerging trends and technologies,” Mr. Zobel said.

“Absorbing and learning from these experiences, we have become more deliberate in our own digital transformation journey and have elevated it into a group-wide strategic agenda,” he added.

The AC chairman cited how their business units have grown to become significant players in their respective fields. For instance, GCash and the Bank of Philippine Islands (BPI) are among the top financial service providers in the digital space.

Mr. Zobel said GCash has about 20 million users to-date, with 35 GCash-enabled sites by the end of 2018. Meanwhile, BPI’s mobile app is the most downloaded mobile app in the Apple App store with 1.6 million downloads, with total active users rising by 16.3% in 2018.

AC’s net income grew by five percent to P31.8 billion in 2018, after consolidated revenues also went up 13% to P274.88 billion.

Shares in AC jumped 1.13% or P10 to close at P895 each at the stock exchange on Friday.

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