UOB Venture Management and Ruangguru prove how impact investing pays off
Scaling impact and innovation: how UOB backed Ruangguru's mission to educate millions
Scaling impact and innovation: how UOB backed Ruangguru's mission to educate millions
For UOB Venture Management (UOBVM), impact investing has always been about more than financial gains. As Seah Kian Wee, CEO of UOBVM, explains: 'Impact investing means doing well while doing good.'
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That philosophy is rooted in intentionality, measurability and scalability, and is what has guided UOBVM's Asia Impact Investment Funds since their launch back in 2015.
As the private equity arm of UOB Group, UOBVM manages more than S$2 billion (US$1.6 billion) in active funds, which include impact funds focused on identifying growth-stage companies across Southeast Asia and China that show strong potential to generate both meaningful social impact and sustainable financial returns – an approach known as the 'dual bottom line'.
Seah Kian Wee, CEO of UOB Venture Management, says helping businesses grow in both size and impact makes investing meaningful.
For its impact investing funds, UOBVM seeks businesses that are not only commercially viable and scalable, but are also improving lives in tangible, measurable ways.
To date, UOBVM's impact investments have benefited more than 45 million people living at the base of the economic pyramid (BOP) – individuals living on less than US$3,000 per year, many of whom lack access to essential services like education and healthcare.
A stand-out example of the dual bottom line approach is UOBVM's early and ongoing partnership with Ruangguru, Southeast Asia's largest education technology company. Founded in Indonesia in 2014, Ruangguru was created to address major gaps in the country's education system, which include poor infrastructure, a shortage of qualified teachers and limited access to quality learning materials.
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Belva Devara, Ruangguru's CEO and co-founder, says: 'Indonesia has one of the largest education systems in the world, but also one of the most dysfunctional. We built Ruangguru to tackle these challenges with technology.'
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