Investors Directory

Iterative is a Southeast Asia-focused startup accelerator co-founded by Hsu Ken Ooi (previously founded Decide, acquired by eBay) and Brian Ma (co-founded Weave, a Y Combinator S14 company), describing itself as "founders supporting founders." Per its own site, the firm runs two accelerator batches a year, investing US$150,000 to US$500,000 into each admitted startup upfront, followed by a 12-week intensive program built around weekly mentor check-ins, growth-target setting, and a demo day pitching to investors at the end of the cohort. By its own count, Iterative has invested in 100+ companies and supports a community of 200+ founders across Southeast Asia, with its partners drawing on experience having collectively founded multiple companies, raised over $100M, and been through acquisitions. An exact founding year and headquarters city were not confirmed from publicly accessible sources during this research; the firm's own site copyrights its content 2021-2025, and general reporting places its roots in the Southeast Asian startup ecosystem (Vietnam has been cited in some secondary coverage), but this specific detail should be verified before publishing.

💰 Check size: $100K–$500K

Villgro Philippines is a gender-smart impact incubator founded in 2017 and based in Makati, operating as the Philippine chapter of Villgro, an impact-investing organization with roots in India that runs country-specific programs across several emerging markets. Rather than writing occasional checks from a fixed fund, Villgro Philippines runs a direct incubation-and-investment portfolio that has grown to around 39 enterprises across health, education, agriculture, affordable housing, and women-and-girls-focused businesses, pairing capital with hands-on investment-readiness support. It also co-founded two pieces of investing infrastructure the local ecosystem lacked: Impact Pioneers, described by Villgro itself as the Philippines' first dedicated impact angel-investing network, built jointly with xchange; and WE Rise Community, an access-to-finance platform for women entrepreneurs. Its most recent initiative, AI4Health Asia, was launched with Canada's IDRC as the first accelerator of its kind in the region dedicated to responsible-AI health startups, focused on sexual, reproductive, and maternal health and on epidemic preparedness across South and Southeast Asia.