The big payoff: Investing in yourself

“Life has been one big learning curve,” says Chandra Tjan. As the co-founder of Alpha JWC Ventures, Southeast Asia’s largest early-stage fund, Chandra’s focus has remained on lifelong learning and progress – particularly within the field of education.

Having completed a Bachelor of Commerce, majoring in finance, economics and management at The University of Sydney in 2002, he worked tirelessly to complete his course in record time. “Every holiday, I was either doing a summer course or winter course,” he explains. “I finished the degree in about two years because I wanted to graduate as soon as possible.” 

This self-motivating approach has seen him go from juggling work and study to helming a business that currently manages USD $650 million. “My mindset has always been ‘never give up on what you believe in’,” he explains. “If you’re able to think and you’re able to work, you can have a big impact on your own life and on society.” 

Having come from a humble family background, Chandra has always been committed to making the most of every situation. “I came to Sydney right after I finished high school in Indonesia and it was a big change – I was seeing a larger world and suddenly I was in a city filled with diversity,” he explains. “It gave me a totally different perspective on the world.” 

Not only was Chandra attracted to The University of Sydney due to its global reputation, he was also drawn in by its close proximity to home. “A week after I graduated, I was back in Indonesia and had a job at Citibank,” he says. 

Within a few months, this role saw him posted to Singapore, where he stayed for almost five years, before moving over to Credit Suisse. “I stayed for a while but in 2010 I decided to switch careers and look at the investment and tech side of things,” he says. “I had travelled to Japan a little while earlier and it really opened my eyes to how advanced the Japanese were – it felt revolutionary.” 

During this travel experience, Chandra spent his time with friends who were already internet savvy – using their mobile phones for payments. “Back then, in 2007, no one was doing that – I was still holding a thick wallet with cash and credit cards,” Chandra says. “I started doing my research on all things internet and despite a population of 275 million, internet penetration was only about 5-10 million.”

Chandra saw this as a clear opportunity, particularly as tech companies in the US and China were growing extremely fast. 

This perfectly timed pivot saw him become one of the first venture capitalists in Indonesia, having been an early investor in startups including unicorn companies, Tokopedia and Traveloka.

After the creation of his first fund, which was focused primarily on family and friends, Chandra took things to another level by creating a fund that had a robust structure. “I started inviting institutional investors like Woolbank, some insurance companies, and some regional and global banks including Morgan Stanley,” he adds. 

This would eventually go on to become three active funds that Chandra still manages today. “In 2015, I raised about USD $50 million, in 2018 I raised about 123 million, and then the third fund has us managing USD $450 million.” While this amount is the committed capital to deploy, all three funds when combined are totally numbers close to USD $2 billion dollars. 

Dow Jones have since ranked Alpha JWC Ventures as the 15th best performing fund. 

Now, after a decade of tech investment experience behind him, Chandra has invested in 80+ companies in Asia and the U.S., with successful exits in multiple markets. 

As Chandra continues his education and career journey, he remains on the board of a number of companies including Kopi Kenangan, Ajaib and Carro, and is on the lookout for businesses that show true potential within the active global market.

“It’s all about understanding the right questions to ask and gauging whether these company's and founders can bring the company to the next level,” he explains. “You need to understand the business model – whether it will work in the consumer sectors, if people will use it or not – we have to do a lot of assessments, so decision making is really important.”

Despite his success, Chandra has continued to engage in study at various institutions including Stanford, the London Business School and has completed the Harvard Business School’s Owner-President Management Program. 

While his time at The University of Sydney is long over, he still looks back at his time in Sydney as significant and influential.  “My education at The University of Sydney played a pretty big part in creating a strong backbone for me,” he says.