Impact is not a trade-off
We started Accelerating Asia because we believe entrepreneurs are one of humanity's greatest catalysts for positive change. And that's still at the core of what we do. We care about the problems our founders are solving and the people affected by them. When I first wrote about our approach to impact, I talked about aligning impact with commercial goals. We still believe that's possible, and we don't sacrifice our commercial returns or objectives to do it.
That doesn't mean impact and business always align. Business isn't always the right way to solve a problem, and even when it is, that doesn't automatically make the company VC-backable. You can build a good business that makes a difference without it being suited to venture capital. That doesn't make the business, or the problem it's solving, any less important.
So we're essentially looking for a needle in a haystack: founders who can build a business with the potential to deliver venture returns, where growing that business also grows its impact. Finding one doesn't follow automatically from finding a big problem. We still need to understand who pays, why they keep paying and whether the company can grow at the scale venture investment requires.
But by nature of investing across Southeast Asia and South Asia, including emerging markets where so many everyday needs are still poorly served, there are a lot of problems to work on. That's a big part of what draws us to this region. We want to find the companies where meeting those needs can become a substantial business, and help their founders build it.
Early-stage investing is risky.
The useful question is not whether we can remove the risk. We cannot. The question is how to structure a portfolio to take this into account. Volume and non-correlation can minimize investment risk.
At Accelerating Asia, our model has three parts: selection, acceleration and diversification.
Where the two come together
One of the things I find interesting about investing across Southeast Asia and South Asia is how often a commercial problem and a social problem turn out to be connected. An inefficient supply chain costs a buyer money, but it can also mean a farmer earns less from the same harvest. Fixing that has value to both of them.
We recently wrote about PulseTech, our Fund 2 company from Cohort 10. Kazi and his team started with software for pharmacies in Bangladesh, but found that getting the right medicines reliably was a more urgent problem for their customers. They built the distribution network around that need, with software and access to financing supporting it.
PulseTech joined the programme reporting US$2.5 million in annualised revenue. As of June 2026, it reported US$150 million, more than 14,000 pharmacies and profitability. There's a commercial business growing around a problem that matters to pharmacies and the people who rely on them for medicines. Its expanding pharmacy network gives us a practical way to understand the reach of that business, alongside its commercial growth.
The same connection appears elsewhere in the portfolio. Mayani in the Philippines connects farmers and fisherfolk with buyers including supermarkets, restaurants and food processors. Its model shortens the route to market and matches supply with demand. Buyers get a more dependable supply chain, while producers get better access to customers. The opportunity comes from making that whole transaction work better.
Or look at EasyRice, our Cohort 7 company from Thailand. Phuvin's experience exporting rice showed him how subjective grading could affect what farmers were paid. EasyRice uses AI to assess rice quality, giving mills and exporters a faster, more consistent process and farmers a way to demonstrate what their grain is worth.
Each company has a practical reason for customers to use its product. The potential benefit to patients or producers is connected to the same activity. That's the relationship we're interested in understanding when we look at impact inside a business model.
The investment still has to make sense
The connection between the business and the benefit is important, but it isn't the whole investment case. A company might provide a service people genuinely need and still struggle to deliver it profitably. We need to understand what it costs to serve those customers, whether the demand can support a much larger business and whether the team can build it. The impact doesn't make those questions any less important.
We also have to be practical about how we track impact at this stage. Our companies are early, they're often pivoting quickly, and getting consistent data is already difficult. We're a small fund, and neither we nor our founders have the resources to run detailed impact studies alongside building these businesses. The approach has to make sense for the stage we're investing at.
So we focus on data connected to the business itself, including revenue, jobs and the customers or businesses it serves. The idea is that where impact is built into the business model, as the company grows, the impact grows too. Those figures give us a practical indication of its reach and progress. They aren't an independent assessment of every change in a customer's life, and we don't present them as one.
For me, that's why the connection matters from the start. We want to understand how growing the business also expands the benefit it provides, then follow that through the data our founders can realistically report. Our commercial objectives remain the same: backing founders who can build substantial businesses and generate returns for our investors.
Fund 2 is in final close. If you'd like to understand the portfolio and how we invest, find out more here, or email team@acceleratingasia.com.
Start with the fund deck. Choose your path at acceleratingasia.com/investors and we'll send access.
Ready to invest? Book a call here with a partner.
See the portfolio. Check out acceleratingasia.com/portfolio. Filter by country, sector, or fundraising status. Request an introduction directly to any CEO.
For investors and partners. Choose your path at acceleratingasia.com/investors. Whether you're looking to co-invest in individual startups or invest in the fund, the next step is there.
* Carta Q4 2025 VC Fund Performance. US benchmarks used as Asian fund comparables remain limited.
About Accelerating Asia Ventures
Accelerating Asia Ventures is an independent accelerator and venture capital fund investing in early-stage startups across Southeast and South Asia. Founded by operators, the organisation is committed to supporting founders with capital, credibility, and a long-term community.
For interviews, data requests, or portfolio introductions, contact: team@acceleratingasia.com
