Kaya Founders

Kaya Founders was started in 2021 by Paulo Campos, Lisa Gokongwei-Cheng and Constantin Robertz, and is run by operators rather than career investors.

Campos is managing general partner and co-founded Zalora Philippines, serving as its chief executive, which put him at the center of the country's e-commerce build-out. Gokongwei-Cheng is a general partner and chief executive of Summit Media, the Philippine publisher, and a member of one of the country's most prominent business families. Ray Alimurung joined as general partner of the Zero to One fund after serving as chief executive of Lazada Philippines, the other pole of Philippine e-commerce. The result is a partnership whose principals have personally run the largest consumer internet businesses in the market they invest in, which is the firm's core argument to management teams weighing it against regional funds based in Singapore.

Kaya Founders was formed in 2021 and raises through a stapled pair of vehicles rather than a single fund: the Zero to One pre-seed fund and the One to Ten fund, which invests from seed through Series A. Limited partners commit across both, so a company can be funded from formation through growth without the firm hitting a stage mandate it cannot cross.

The firm announced a first close of $12 million across the two funds in June 2023, with total committed capital of $16.5 million at that point against a $25 million target. It reached that target in November 2025, closing at $25 million, or 1.47 billion Philippine pesos. Ray Alimurung's appointment as general partner of the Zero to One fund was announced alongside the first close. The pair is small by Southeast Asian standards but ranks among the larger pools dedicated primarily to Philippine companies.