VC Firm Celebrates Another Successful Year of Strategic Losses
AltBridge Capital celebrated after 9 of its 10 portfolio startups collapsed this year, calling the losses a strategic victory for the firm.
JAKARTA — Champagne flowed and confetti rained down last Friday evening at the rooftop of The Edge, as AltBridge Capital, proudly announced it had lost money on 9 out of its 10 portfolio companies in 2025.
“We couldn’t be more thrilled,” said Managing Partner Reza Hardiansyah, raising a toast to a crowd of LPs, and regional tech media. “While some might view these results as ‘financially catastrophic,’ we view them as a clear sign that we are playing the long game.”
AltBridge’s portfolio companies include an AI-powered herbal supplement app, a blockchain-based rice tracking platform, and a vertical farming startup that ran out of electricity.
Critics may question the viability of these investments, but insiders insist the firm’s performance is not about traditional notions of “profit,” “return on capital,” or “basic competence.” Instead, they say it’s about something far more important: conviction.
AltBridge’s partners spent the evening swapping war stories about “pre-revenue pioneers,” “cashflow-agnostic” founders, and one particularly “disruptive” startup that burned through $18 million in three months due to an accounting error caused by a misplaced decimal point.
“People just don’t understand how difficult it is to consistently back the wrong companies,” said Partner Shinta Malik, sipping a negroni.
She pointed to the firm’s most recent investment, a metaverse-based wedding planning service, as “an exciting opportunity to explore new kinds of loss.”
AltBridge’s internal strategy document reportedly includes phrases such as “optimize for learning, not earning,” and “valuation is a mindset.” Their decision matrix for investing reportedly includes three primary criteria:
Is the founder confident?
Do they use the word ‘scale’ at least twice per sentence?
Have they previously worked at a failed unicorn?
Analysts have noted that AltBridge’s playbook isn’t unique, it’s simply bolder in its self-awareness. Where other VC firms might quietly bury failed investments under a pile of LinkedIn posts about “pivoting,” AltBridge embraces its graveyard of startups as a mark of authenticity.
“Every time one of our portfolio companies fails,” Reza explained, “we gain insights. And more importantly, we gain LinkedIn content.”
Indeed, the firm’s partners have already scheduled a 12-part podcast series titled “Failing Forward: Investing with Grit, Guts, and No Due Diligence,” in which they will interview each of the CEOs they backed in 2025… assuming those CEOs are not currently in Bali or hiding from creditors.
Looking ahead to 2026, AltBridge Capital plans to raise a new $250 million fund, tentatively titled the “Optimism Fund,” which will focus on investing in founders who have never run a business before but have read at least two business books and attended a TEDx talk.
“There’s a lot of untapped potential out there,” said Shinta. “Especially among people who are completely unburdened by experience or financial literacy.”
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