Forbes 30 below 30 Asia 2022
Forbes 30 below 30 Asia 2022
XanPool, a cross-border funds infrastructure supplier, goals to increase outdoors of the Asia-Pacific area amid rising international demand for each crypto and fiat foreign money settlements. The Hong Kong-based firm—which has raised $32 million since inception in March 2019—plans to enter markets corresponding to Europe and South America. “I see a lot of opportunity to scale up quickly,” says Jeffery Liu, founder and CEO of XanPool.
At age 28, Liu is amongst this 12 months’s Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia honorees within the Finance & Venture Capital class who’re utilizing know-how to disrupt the conservative world of finance.
Forbes
XanPool expects its person base (comprising of shoppers and companies opting to make use of various modes of paying for cross-border transactions) to achieve 10 million by end-2022 from 500,000 at the moment. With XanPool’s gross merchandise worth seen doubling to as a lot as $8 billion this 12 months, the corporate (backed by buyers together with personal fairness corporations Antler and Valar Ventures) goals to spice up its headcount to nearly 200 staff by end-2022 from about 90 at the moment. Most of the brand new hires will probably be software program engineers and product builders to be based mostly on the analysis and growth hub the corporate plans to construct in Southeast Asia, Liu says.
VCs on the rise
Besides fintech founders, 15 buyers made this 12 months’s Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia, together with Sequoia Capital‘s Augustus Ilag in Singapore. A Stanford grad and a former McKinsey marketing consultant, Ilag has been driving Sequoia Capital’s growth into new sectors and geographies in India and Southeast Asia. He has led or co-led 21 investments, together with breakouts corresponding to Filipino digital financial institution Tonik, worldwide hiring platform Multiplier, and customer support software program supplier WATI. He additionally spearheads Sequoia’s investments in blockchain startups, driving eight of 13 such offers publicly introduced in Southeast Asia.
Shaun Hon can be based mostly within the city-state, certainly one of Asia’s most vibrant startup hubs. In 2021, Hon cofounded Motion Ventures, a $23 million enterprise capital fund investing in startups disrupting the maritime trade. Backed by delivery firms corresponding to Mitsui OSK Lines, Wilhelmsen, and HHLA in addition to Enterprise Singapore’s SEEDS Capital, the fund goals to introduce cutting-edge applied sciences to help decarbonization, provide chain resilience and security within the trade. Motion Ventures is supported by startup incubator Rainmaking, with a mixed portfolio worth of greater than $2 billion the place Hon has been a director since 2020.
In Indonesia, Pitra Harun is cofounder and nation head of Singapore-headquartered Asia Partners, which manages a $384 million fund that invests in growth-stage firms. Harun was instantly concerned in Asia Partners’ $100 million Series B funding in Indonesian B2B e-commerce agency GudangAda in July 2021. He was additionally concerned in investments in finances lodge chain RedDoorz, automotive e-commerce platform Carsome, and on-line tutoring platform SnapAsk. An economics graduate from Claremont McKenna College, Harun beforehand labored as a marketing consultant at Bain and as digital merchandise head at Indonesian e-commerce agency Bukalapak.
Melvin Hade of Global Founders Capital, which has backed the likes of Canva, Lazada and Traveloka, can be based mostly in Indonesia. In 2021, Hade was appointed Global Founders Capital’s associate for the Asia-Pacific at age 26, making him one of many youngest VC companions within the area. Active in GFC’s investments in early-stage firms such agritech startup Eden Farm and fast commerce agency Astro, Hade additionally sits on the board of some portfolio firms. Prior to becoming a member of GFC, he suggested senior administration in Southeast Asia as a administration marketing consultant at McKinsey.
Retno Dewati, principal at Access Ventures.
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Retno Dewati in Indonesia is without doubt one of the 5 feminine buyers on the checklist. She heads investments in Singapore and Indonesia at Hong Kong-based VC agency Access Ventures. She has closed six new offers and three follow-ons, corresponding to in Sampingan and the AI-driven credit score scoring Credolabs. Becoming a enterprise capitalist at age 21, Dewati interned at Pegasus Tech Ventures in 2015 earlier than being promoted as Southeast Asia regional supervisor. There, she was concerned in lots of startup investments, together with in Moka POS, which was acquired by Gojek for $130 million.
Over in China, Song Sisi is a Beijing-based vp at Silicon Valley funding agency Bessemer Venture Partners, which manages greater than $9 billion of property. The agency has invested in additional than 200 firms, together with LinkedIn, Shopify and Yelp. In 2020, Song grew to become the corporate’s first rent in China, and she or he now oversees funding within the nation. Song’s portfolio contains U.S.-listed IoT agency Tuya, Hong Kong-listed SaaS software program developer Youzan and information analytics platform Sensor Data. Before Bessemer, she labored for 4 years on Chinese e-commerce big Alibaba’s funding staff, the place she centered on alternatives in cloud and infrastructure sectors overseas.
This 12 months’s checklist additionally options two buyers in South Korea: Hashed‘s Park Hyeon-jun and KB Investment‘s Minjae Song.
A Wharton graduate, Park is an investor centered on gaming at Hashed, a blockchain-focused enterprise capital agency based mostly in Seoul and Silicon Valley. The agency’s backers embody South Korean web giants Kakao and Naver, and its portfolio firms embody Vietnamese recreation maker Sky Mavis and India-based recreation streaming platform Loco. Before becoming a member of Hashed final 12 months, Park was a enterprise capital investor at Hanwha, certainly one of South Korea’s largest chaebols.
And Song is an funding supervisor at KB Investment, the enterprise arm of KB Financial Group, South Korea’s largest financial institution by market capitalization. She has labored on 17 offers at KB Investment since becoming a member of in 2020. Of these, 9 offers have been self-sourced and embody robotic market Bigwave Robotics, edtech startup Mathpresso (whose cofounders made the 30 Under 30 Asia checklist in 2020) and digital world developer NdotLight (backed by Korean web giants Kakao and Naver).
Lauren Fong, principal at Icehouse Ventures.
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In New Zealand, Lauren Fong is an funding principal at Icehouse Ventures, an Auckland-based VC agency. There she manages ArcAngels, a community of angel buyers that invests in women-led startups in New Zealand. She’s at the moment serving to to lift cash for its second fund, concentrating on $20 million to put money into 50 firms over 4 years. Fong can be a DJ and digital music producer and has performed at music festivals each at residence and abroad.
In neighboring Australia, Alexander Khor and Adrian Petersen are cofounders and companions at AfterWork Ventures—a community-powered VC fund investing in pre-seed and seed stage startups in Australia and New Zealand. Some of its managers come from the area’s largest tech firms, together with Canva, Airwallex, Atlassian, and Binance. AfterWork has made greater than 40 early-stage investments, together with D2C pet wellness model Lyka and at-home resistance coach Vitruvian. In 2021, the agency focused elevating a $30 million fund; as of September, it had raised half of that and made 4 investments.
Additional Reporting by Jonathan Burgos.
To be taught extra about these younger innovators and buyers, learn our full Finance & Venture Capital checklist right here – and be sure you take a look at our full Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia protection right here.
