Cocoon Capital is a Singapore-based early-stage venture capital fund that makes pre-seed and seed stage investments across Southeast Asia. It invests in B2B enterprise tech and deep tech startups with an initial check size of $500K to $1.5M and maintain the ability to follow on at later stages.
Zong Xi Sia
Investment Director, Cocoon Capital
Cocoon Capital is on a mission to support founders by offering strategic guidance through active, hands-on partnerships. It employs a high conviction, low frequency approach, averaging five deals per year and dedicating time and resources to championing early-stage innovation.
“PitchBook was one of our first subscriptions as we wanted to have the ability to conduct better, faster, and more comprehensive due diligence, sector, geographical, and competitor analysis,” said Cocoon Capital Investment Director Zong Xi Sia.
As a PitchBook customer since 2022, Cocoon Capital has access to data that supports its multiples analysis for later-stage follow-on investments, with our platform’s shared searches and list functions serving as a bridge to collaboration.
“We trialed other data providers but at the end of the day the quality, spread, and availability of information was what fundamentally set PitchBook apart from others.”—Zong Xi Sia, Investment Director, Cocoon Capital |
PitchBook’s customer support guided Sia’s team throughout the onboarding process and beyond, boosting its confidence that it could make the most of the subscription.
Supporting portfolio companies with best-in-class data and research
Cocoon Capital uses PitchBook throughout its entire due diligence process, from running broad market assessments to fine-tuning investment strategies. During the sourcing phase, it utilizes PitchBook’s Market Maps tool heavily to identify emerging markets and technologies it wants to work with.
“We find PitchBook’s Market Maps tool incredibly valuable—truly, the platform does it better than I ever could.”—Zong Xi Sia |
The Market Maps that Sia’s team creates on PitchBook transform complex data into a visual format that’s easy to understand and customize. The team can create Market Maps from company lists or advanced search results and dive deeper into established or emerging companies, exploring key metrics such as total capital raised and post-valuation.
PitchBook’s Research Center serves as an essential resource in Cocoon Capital’s methodology, providing invaluable perspectives on emerging sectors and the current events within its target markets.
“The Research Center and Analyst Workspaces allow us to broaden our understanding beyond our internal insights and foster a more comprehensive view of potential investments,” said Sia.
The platform’s extensive database of funds, investors, deals, and companies offers precise research references crucial for developing Cocoon Capital’s investment memos and internal industry reports. The ability to access the breadth and depth of information in one place seamlessly aids Cocoon Capital in painting a detailed picture of an investment landscape.
“Research reports circulated by the platform are a staple in our due diligence process. We peruse timely reports as well as review archives when looking at areas that haven’t been freshly addressed.”—Zong Xi Sia |
Using PitchBook for a recurring review process has proven to be extremely beneficial in understanding how industry and sector segmentation is perceived externally, which directly informs regional investment decisions. The insights gained through PitchBook’s research have led Cocoon to previously unknown competitors and stimulated ideas for angles it may not have otherwise considered.
Utilizing market intelligence for strategic investment in cleantech
“PitchBook has contributed to a large number of our investments, and due to the nature of how Cocoon works, we are very proud of all of them,” said Sia.
Cocoon’s recent follow-on investment with Aprisium exemplifies the vital role PitchBook’s market intelligence plays in closing a deal. In August 2024, Cocoon Capital and Deep-Tech Venture Partners completed Aprisium’s Series A funding round, helping the company to make strides in advanced contamination solutions and detection.
Aprisium is a cleantech company that provides on-site contamination testing across solids, liquids, and slush applicable across numerous sectors and industries globally. PitchBook’s insights were particularly valuable in the cleantech sector, given the innovative and niche nature of Aprisium’s products.
“Drawing up a global competitor list across startups and incumbents without PitchBook’s support would have been challenging, especially given the lack of prior precedence in the space.”—Zong Xi Sia |
Informing regional expertise with global insights
Access to global information is essential for Cocoon Capital as it helps develop a unique perspective, whether for investment decisions or crafting narratives for its fundraising efforts. The firm is currently working towards the first close of its $60 million Fund III, which will adopt a similar investment strategy focused on the pre-seed and seed stages.
“It is widely acknowledged that Southeast Asia tends to be less transparent regarding the flow of information. A comprehensive database allows us to consolidate information obtained from on-the-ground sources with global data from PitchBook,” Sia said.
“PitchBook has proven to be beneficial for us internally, significantly improving our performance.”—Zong Xi Sia |
Frequently utilized PitchBook resources
- Multiples data:
Access the world’s largest database of deal multiples and valuations—with public fundamentals and consensus estimates to easily create more accurate comps. - Company Profiles:
Explore our best-in-class company database using more than 1,000 criteria related to industry, deal size, company type, and more. - Custom searches and alerts:
Set up personalized notifications to actively monitor and receive detailed information about new funding rounds, deals, or company updates. - Market Maps:
Tap into PitchBook’s world class data and analyst expertise to dive deeper into established industries and emerging technologies. - Research Center:
Access comprehensive public and private capital market research—all in one place.
