Asia VC Cast

This week’s special guest is Jeffrey Yuwono, Co-Founder and CEO of Sorabel.  Established in 2014, Sorabel is changing the way middle class Indonesians  shop online today by providing affordable and accessible fashion to them. Located in the fastest growing ecommerce market in the world, Sorabel has become a notable homegrown player in the ecommerce fashion industry offering quality products at affordable prices and a safe experience of online shopping. Jeffrey shares his perspective on the current fashion e-commerce landscape in Indonesia and how they are differentiating themselves within this competitive vertical.  He also shares his insights on the emergence of social commerce and D2C fashion brands and how Sorabel has integrated those aspects into their business model.  Hope you guys enjoy this one!

This week’s special guest is Samir Chaibi from STRIVE. Samir is an early-stage investor at STRIVE, a pan-Asia venture capital fund headquartered in Tokyo and investing across Japan, India, and Southeast Asia. Samir heads the fund's investments in Indonesia while also managing investments across Southeast Asian countries. Samir serves on the board of Healint, Ayopop, Pintek, and Crowde and work closely with Berrybenka, Saleswhale, and Vouch.     

This week’s special guest is Kalsoom Lakhani from I2I Ventures.  Kalsoom is the Founder/CEO of Invest2Innovate, , which supports startups and the broader entrepreneurship ecosystem in growth markets. i2i has been operating in Pakistan since 2011, and has accelerated 41 startups that have gone on to raise over $6.5M in funding and create over 1500 jobs in the country. Kalsoom is also a partner in i2i Ventures, a venture capital fund for Pakistan, and is the country's first female led in institutional fund. 

This week’s special guest is Victor Chua, managing partner of Vynn Capital.  Victor was formally the Vice President of Investments for Gobi Partners and managed two Southeast Asia focused early stage funds. Prior to that he was with the venture capital arm of Malaysia’s Ministry of Finance,  managing direct and indirect investments. Some of his notable investments are Carsome, Travelio, Triip, Hermo, and Jirnexu. Victor has invested in over 20 companies in Southeast Asia, especially in Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia. Together, we discuss why Victor is so bullish on “female-focused economics” and why there’s so much more excitement in startups serving the female consumers.  Also, he shares his insights on increasing trend in family offices & corporates making direct investments and why he believes it’s important to create more vehicles for corporates to bring complimentary values for startups.  Hope you guys enjoy this one!

This week’s special guest is Chad Tangsriwong from CyberAgent Capital.  Chad is a Chief Representative of Bangkok Office of CyberAgent Capital, leading an operation in Thailand for a Japanese-headquartered VC firm who actively invests in all major cities across Asia Pacific.  As one of the very first native Thais who work for international fund, Chad has made the investment into many top-tier Thai startups, with ClaimDi, Fastwork, Getlinks and SkillLane among others. He has also had a few exits under his belt in Priceza and aCommerce. Together, we discuss the current state of Thai startup ecosystem and the significant market opportunities that are yet to be exploited.  Chad shares his thoughts on the importance of becoming a regional player in Southeast Asia and why Bangkok is one of the best cities for founders to acheive that goal.

This week’s special guest is Gilang Praditiyo from Mandiri Capital Indonesia.  Gilang is the Head of Venture Fund at Mandiri Capital, Corporate Venture Capital  arm of Bank Mandiri which is one of the biggest state owned Bank in Indonesia. Mandiri Capital is the first Banking CVC in Indonesia with investment focus in Financial Technology that can bring innovation to Bank Mandiri Group. Prior to that, he worked for one of the oldest insurance in Indonesia with responsibility in Capital Market Investment, Subsidiary Management and Corporate Restructuring. 

Aditya Mathur is the founder and MD of Elev8.VC, which invests in early stage deep-tech founders. Focus verticals include autonomous vehicles, IOT & AI, communications, and medtech. Prior to Elev8.VC, Aditya operationally helped grow two multi billion-dollar tech companies, both acquired, one in each of the hardware and software industries. Aditya follows his passion, and supports founders in the B2B Deep Tech space to realize explosive Sales growth.  He has a B.Sc. in Engineering from Stanford University.

This week’s special guest is Shiyan Koh from Hustle Fund. Shiyan is an experienced operator and investor. She was most recently  VP of Business Operations & Corp Dev at NerdWallet where she was the employee #10, growing annual revenue from $1M to $150M+. Prior to NerdWallet, she was an investor at Institutional Venture Partners and Bridgewater Associates. She is a graduate of Stanford University and Harvard Business School.

This week’s special guest is Jong Yoon Kim from Yanolja.  Jong Yoon is the CEO of Online Business & Corporate Strategy at Yanolja, the biggest online leisure and accommodation booking platform in Korea.  Yanolja has expanded its businesses into global hotel chains and system businesses as well as the leisure and activity market.  Prior to joining Yanolja, Jong Yoon worked as a team lead of online sales and operation at Google, and then served as an engagement manager at McKinsey & Company as a digitization expert. He holds an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College and studied chemical engineering at Seoul National University.

Ian Goh is a Founder and General Partner of 01VC, a venture firm building on China's untapped potential in enterprise and transaction platforms.  He is a seasoned investor in the technology space with 18 years experience, an early participant in China's tremendous evolution to today's Internet powerhouse. He was previously a partner of Matrix Partners and was heavily involved in consumer internet and transaction platforms. Prior to that he was a partner with Kleiner Perkins based in Shanghai and a partner in TDF Capital / Venture TDF.

This week’s special guest is Nicko Widjaja from MDI Ventures.  Nicko is the President Director and CEO of MDI Ventures, a corporate venture arm backed by Telkom Indonesia.  Nicko is responsible for leading various digital transformation initiatives of Telkom Indonesia ahead of the curve on high impact emerging technologies and business opportunities.  Prior to MDI Ventures, he launched Systec Ventures, one of the first Indonesia’s venture funds dedicated for early stage startups from 2009 to 2013.

This week’s special guest is Hussain Elius from Pathao.  Elius is the CEO and Co-Founder of Pathao, a Bangladesh-based technology company providing on-demand ride-sharing services, logistics, and food delivery on its platform. Elius started Pathao to address the notorious traffic in Dhaka, the most densely populated city in the world. With only five bikes then in 2015, his friends would call him for their delivery services that were manually scheduled on an excel sheet. Located in a city without a bike or cab culture, Pathao thrived under the pent-up demand for such a service. Today, Pathao is seen as a pioneer in the Bangladeshi startup scene and has expanded to Nepal, handling more than 40 million transactions since it was founded in 2015. Under Elius’ leadership, Pathao has grown from a lean team of five people when they started to over 600 employees and 200,000 registered drivers as of 2019.

This week's special guest is Helen Wong from Qiming Ventures.  Helen was ranked among Top 100 VCs in China and Top 25 female VCs in China in 2018 by Forbes. Past investments/ exits include Mobike (acquired by Meituan), Lagou (acquired by 51jobs), Ruhnn (Ticker: RUHN), Luojisiwei (audio platform). She is currently responsible for investments targeting overseas markets including Clubfactory (cross border ecommerce focused on India), Pratilipi (online literature in India), Akulaku (SE Asia consumer financing), RedDoorz (SE Asian budget hotel chain), and Chinese investments such as Jingling (social ecommerce) and Motianlun (secondary ticketing platform). Helen is a long time venture capitalist and spent 11 years at GGV Capital. She was an early investor in Tudou (merged with Youku).  She was also involved in the investment of Alibaba. She received degrees from Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business, INSEAD, and Oxford University.

This week’s special guest is Sonat Yalcinkaya from SoyakaAI.  Sonat is founder & CEO of Soyaka AI, which is building Shox, the first social commerce app of Southeast Asia powered by Artificial Intelligence.  Prior to starting SoyakaAI, Sonat was head of global eCommerce for Midea Group between 2015-2018 and Amazon key account manager for Philips 5 years before that. He is also the author of the book " 3-Months Online Store: Build Enterprise Level Online Store Under 3-Month.

This week’s special guest is Herston Powers from tryb Group.  Herston is a Principal at tryb focused on investments, portfolio management and investor relations.  Prior to joining tryb, Herston was Head of Southeast Asia and India Business Development for The Bank of New York Mellon (BNY Mellon) in their Investment Services division. In 2015 he was relocated to Singapore to establish their presence and lead their Southeast Asia and India strategy. Together, we discuss how APIs will impact fintech and the growth of services in Southeast Asia.  He also walks us through the evolution in both distribution and acquisition in the rising tide of new fintech and how it has impacted the valuation of startups.  Hope you guys enjoy this one!

This week’s special guest is Joel Leong from Shopback.  Joel is the founder and heads the merchant partnership at ShopBack, a one-stop lifestyle portal that powers smarter purchase decisions for consumers.  A go-getter and a world class negotiator, he is responsible for driving deals and partnerships to bring the most rewarding shopping experience for ShopBack's users. Joel holds a Bachelor of Social Sciences from the National University of Singapore and hailed previously from Zalora and the Economic Development Board of Singapore.   Together, we discuss how Joel came to found Shopback and how the business has evolved over the years. He shares why data-driven, customer-centric mentality is at its core at Shopback and how they measure everything that matters from the perspective of return and certainly the perspective of their customer.

This week’s special guest is Lee Bagshaw, a partner at Simmonds Stewart, a leading boutique law firm providing corporate and commercial advice to technology companies and investors in New Zealand, Australia and across Southeast Asia.  Lee is one of the most well-known venture capital and tech lawyers advising start-ups and VC funds in Southeast Asia. He has advised on over 300 financing and M&A transactions in the region in the last few years and before that worked in London for a global law firm. Lee has considerable expertise on seed investments, series A, B and larger financing rounds, and therefore has great insights on regional trends when negotiating equity investment documents, convertible notes or venture debt financings. Last year, Lee released an interactive video series on how to negotiate a series A term sheet in Southeast Asia In this podcast he shares his perspectives from both sides of the table having advised startups and VC funds in Southeast Asia. He also explains also how Simmonds Stewart engages with the ecosystem through content marketing, most recently with the release of the map of the funding terms, a tool to track typical investment terms at different stages of a company’s life cycle in Southeast Asia, and its free online consult.

This week’s special guest is Vikas Nahata from Validus Capital.  Vikas is the Executive chairman and co-founder at Validus Capital,  a leading peer-to-business lending platform backed by Vertex Ventures that connects growing SMEs to accredited investors and financial institutions. Before starting Validus Capital, Vikas served as the Joint Managing Director of Urbana Bengal NRI (BNRI). Additionally, he co-founded four different start-ups in the financial services, telco and manufacturing sectors. Together, we discuss what about the peer-to-business lending sector that excites Vikas so much and his take on P2P lending in Southeast Asia and where it's headed.  Also, he shares his story on establishing partnership with Visa as an early stage startup and his advice for founders when seeking corporate partnerships early on.  Hope you guys enjoy this one!

This week’s special guest is Jussi Salovarra from Antler.  Jussi is the co-founder and managing partner at Antler, a startup generator and early-stage VC that turns the world's top talent into great founders of great companies. Their hands-on approach enables top talents to team up with the right co-founders and develop and scale their ideas. Before Antler, Jussi was the Vice President at Nokia’s headquarter in Helsinki and also had his experiences built across working with promising international companies such as McKinsey, Deloitte and Morgan Stanley. Together, we discuss Antler's unique approach on accepting applicants as individuals, not a team to their 6 months program.  After having to meet hundreds of aspiring founders, Jussi shares his thoughts on why having a co-founder is like a marriage and what qualities to look for in a co-founder.  Also, he gives advice to entrepreneurs who are struggling to find that one perfect idea and emphasizes his belief on why Execution eats ideas for breakfast!  

This week’s special guest is Ambar Machfoedy from Rekanext.  Ambar is the Managing Partner at Rekanext, an  early stage VC fund focused on regionalising startups across Southeast Asia through their experiences and network.  Previously, Ambar was a consultant with Massachusetts-based Monitor Company and before that, with Accenture. Also, He has been an Adjunct Professor in Marketing, initially at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, and since 2008 at the NYU Stern School of Business. So please join me in welcoming Ambar from Rekanext. Together, Ambar walks us through Rekanext’s investment thesis as well as his outlook on investment interest from China and his observations on the Philippine startup scene. Also he shares his unique approach on holding round table discussions with founders and how VC firms can implement investment decision process that is both rigorous yet innovative. Hope you guys enjoy this one!

This week’s special guest is Dmitry Levit from Cento Ventures.  Dmitry is the Founder of Cento Ventures, and is responsible for overseeing all investment and fund activities in Southeast Asia.  Dmitry formerly served as an advisor to several investment groups and corporations pursuing technology and media opportunities across developing Asia. Prior to that, Dmitry was also part of the investment team at IDG Ventures and spent several years in DB roles with Yahoo! Southeast Asia. Together, we take a deeper look into Cento’s latest SE-Asia Tech Investment Report that highlights the record amount of $7.3B that was invested during the first half of 2018 and growing interest in the potential for Southeast’s tech startups.  Also as one of the pioneers in investing into Fintech in the region, Dmitry shares his insights from backing 2C2P early on and his learnings on how the Fintech landscape has shaped into what it is today.

This week’s special guest is Devang Mehta from Anthill Ventures.  Devang is the Partner at Anthill Ventures, which launched a $100m fund  in early 2018 focused on investing in early stage companies at the Pre-Series A stage of the growth cycle.  Devang is responsible for various activities in the Fund’s operations including structuring, fund marketing, Investments and advising portfolio companies on growth strategies. Together, we discuss how Devang defines a company that is ready for speed scaling and how he helps his pre-Series A startups scale to Series A.  He also dive into India’s startup landscape, sharing his insights on the up & coming trends and identifies the cross-boarder opportunities  that exist between India and rest of Asia.  Hope you guys enjoy this one!

This week’s special guest is Anurag Avula from Shopamatic.  Anurag is the CEO of Shopmatic, a Singapore-based e-commerce company that has been launched to help business owners sell their products and services online. From developing a unique web store, to listing businesses on marketplaces and to giving insights on how to sell online, Shopmatic helps business owners manage the full spectrum of what is required to grow their businesses. Prior to launching Shopmatic in December 2014, Anurag was the Senior Director for Merchant Sales, Strategy, and Operations at PayPal Asia-Pacific, where he met the other co-founders of Shopmatic. Together, we discuss how Anurag was able to apply his learnings from the corporate days to starting Shopmatic and the advantages of having the corporate experience prior. Also, Anurag emphasizes that “There is always strength in numbers”.  Having great co-founders to overcome the lows and celebrate the highs and shares his thoughts on what qualities to seek for when finding your co-founders.  Hope you guys enjoy this one!  

This week’s special guests are Will Klippgen & Michael Blakey from Cocoon Capital Management. Will co-founded product comparison website Zoomit.com which merged with Kelkoo.com and was eventually sold to Yahoo! In 2004 in one of Europe’s largest internet transactions. Michael has invested in over 25 companies in the UK and achieved 9 successful exits. He has also invested in 8 early stage companies in Southeast Asia including Anchanto, MyDoc and Nugit under the name of Cub Capital since 2013. Founded in August, 2016 Singapore-based VC firm Cocoon Capital focuses on seed / early-stage digital enterprise tech start-ups across SEA. Together, we discuss how Will & Michael’s experience as angel investors have made their investment approach more hands-on by investing in no more than six startups per year. We also talk about the importance of having a brand as a VC and what it takes to create a VC brand. Lastly, how Cocoon Capital helps startup founders not only grow their business, but also provide mentorship to build own personal development. Hope you guys enjoy this one!

This week’s special guest is Amit Saberwal from RedDoorz.  Amit is the CEO of RedDoorz, one of Southeast Asia’s leading budget hotel online booking platform.  Headquartered in Singapore, the brand is spread across Indonesia, Singapore, The Philippines and Vietnam. Prior to founding RedDoorz, he was the Chief Business Officer – Hotel and International Markets at India’s premier travel and airline booking site MakeMyTrip.com.  Together, we discuss how Amit came to found RedDoorz after identifying the pain points for budget hotel owners in Southeast Asia.  He also takes us through his experience of raising RedDoorz' latest round despite the “Series B” funding gap that currently exists in Southeast Asia and shares his international expansion strategy of going into one city, one country at a time.  Hope you guys enjoy this one!

This week’s special guest is Charles Manning from Kochava.  Charles is the founder and CEO of Kochava, a mobile attribution analytics platform serving tier-one advertisers worldwide. Prior to founding Kochava, he founded PLAYXPERT (a gaming technology platform) and licensed the technology to Razer. Together, we discuss Kochava’s story on becoming a bootstrapped, profitable company and why Charles decided tobootstrap while outside VC funding was available.  He also shares his insights on the recent shake-up in mobile measurement landscape and lastly, his future outlook on bringing ad-tech into blockchain and why putting media buying and selling on blockchain makes sense.   

This week’s special guest is Eng Seet from Openspace Ventures. Eng is the vice president of Openspace Ventures, a Southeast Asia-based early-stage VC firm that has invested in tech startups like Go-Jek, FinAccel, Sale Stock and Halodoc in Indonesia. Prior to joining Openspace, Eng was part of Bank Central Asia Indonesia’s corporate venture arm investing in early stage fintech startups. He also co-founded Kredivest, one of the first P2P invoice lending platforms in Indonesia. Together, we discuss how Eng sees the P2P lending landscape play out in Indonesia and what needs to take in place to regulate the space and push out the frauds.  He also shares his thoughts on how recent tech-boom and mobile-first development has impacted the ways Indonesians live and why he believes content vertical wil be the next key growth sector.

This week’s special guest is Ridzki Syahputera from Convergence Ventures.  Ridzki is the corporate development manager at Convergence where he focuses on supporting their portfolio companies post-investment.  Prior to joining Convergence, he ran a market entry consulting firm at Seroja Partners that specifically focused on helping media and advertising technology enablers to enter into the Indonesian market. Together, we discuss how Ridzki helps his portfolio companies after the investments are made and shares in detail what Convergence’s post-investment strategy entails.  He also shares his experience on working closely with the ICT Ministry and how the government is putting big efforts in promoting entrepreneurship and tech development in Indonesia.

This week’s special guest is Issac Lee from Blockwater Capital.  Issac is the Managing Partner at BlockWater Capital, a leading digital asset investment firm focusing on bringing blockchain enabled projects to real world application. He has extensive expertise in the blockchain and cryptocurrency industries and advised various projects on behalf of Blockwater.  Blockwater has invested in top blockchain projects such as Fantom, Fusion and Bibox. Together, we discuss what are the core barriers to institutions transferring assets on mass into crypto and how crypto can eventually become the new asset class for the investors.  In addition, Issac introduces his plans for Blockwater’s newest fund and why he decided to structure it as a traditional hedge fund. Hope you guys enjoy this one!

This week’s special guest is Jooch Nam from WeWork Labs. Korea is the first country in Asia where WeWork Labs launched and Jooch manages one of the four locations in Seoul.   Before joining WeWork, Jooch spent the past 11 years at EBS (Korea’s leading educational television and radio) & Arirang Radio hosting and writing various English programs. Together, we discuss his biggest takeaways from interviewing people from all walks of life and how he is applying his learnings to help his WeWork Lab members.  Also, Jooch highlights the importance of networking and why successful people build good relationships.

This week's special guest is Jeremy Berger from Life.SREDA. Jeremy  is the portfolio director of Life.Sreda, one of the first fintech-only venture capital funds in Southeast Asia. Through its two funds, Life.Sreda has made over 20 investments across the US, Europe, and Southeast Asia, with seven exits to date. Berger also manages Arival Bank, a venture-backed digital banking startup. Together, we discuss why Jeremy believes digital banking is the next big thing and how it can benefit the customers, especially in Southeast Asia. We also talk about a potential for Fintech companies to co-operate with rather than replace traditional banks and how Arival Bank came about when noticing the challenges crypto businesses face when working with traditional banks.  

This week’s special guest is Christopher Quek from TRIVE.  Christopher is Managing Partner at TRIVE, an early-stage VC in Singapore,  focusing on investing in the SEA region. He is a 4th generation serial entrepreneur turned VC and has invested in over 13 startups. A prior experience as a pro-bono incubator saw him helped 38 Singapore startups raise US$5.6m in angel funding. Also He has been regarded as a thought leader in the startup community, writing over 100 articles on Tech in Asia, e27 and BEAM, interviewing various known personalities in the startup ecosystem.

This week’s special guest is Arnaud Bonzom from Map of the Money.   Arnaud is a former Venture Partner at 500 Startups where he was focusing on helping Southeast Asian entrepreneurs to succeed. He is a frequent speaker at several international conferences including Slush, Tech in Asia, Rise and Web Summit. He is also the co-founder of Map the Money, an organization that helps entrepreneurs to raise funds in Southeast Asia. Arnaud explains the driving force behind Southeast Asia’s recent growth and how the VC ecosystem has evolved to fuel that growth.  From his experience advising B2B startups, he shares his insights on how startups should evaluate corporate partnership and how to get the most value out from it.  Hope you guys enjoy this one!

This week special guest is Eric Dadoun from Impiro.  Eric brings a world of knowledge, relationships and experience with him built on 15 years in the startup, tech and business world after having started his first company at 17 years old. He now plays an integral role at Impiro as well as some of their group companies such as Silverstreet and Twizo in terms of driving relationship development, strategy and new initiatives. His strong focus on providing great value, transparency and dedication as an angel investor has become synonymous with his approach to business and a foundational aspect of everything he does at Impiro. Together, we discuss how Eric evaluates early stage companies when making angel investments and what additional value-add angels bring that VCs or institutional capital do not bring. We also take a deeper dive into the optimal relationship between an investor and founder as Eric answers the question, "Can an investor be a friend as well as an advisor?"

This week's special guest is Tim Tam from CoinFi. Tim is the cofounder and CEO of fintech startup CoinFi.  He has nearly 15  years of experience working in hedge funds. He started his career in Goldman Sachs Asia, before working as a senior trader in two Asia hedge funds, each with $1+ billion assets under management. Before making the move into crypto, Tim was also cofounder of an Asia Long Short Hedge fund that specialized in event trading. Together, Tim walks us through which factors were considered and what preparations were needed before launching an ICO late last year.  He also shares his insights on fair the lock-up practices for both the founders and investors and shares his learnings that are applicable to founders pondering an ICO.

This week’s special guest is Vidit Agrawal from Carro. Vidit is currently the COO at Carro and manages the Operations of the fast growing used car marketplace. He is presently focused on pushing the growth in their International Markets. Vidit also holds the distinction of being Uber's first employee in Asia and he went on to become the Head of Strategic Vehicle Partnerships, APAC. He was in charge of spearheading the vehicle partnerships of Uber in the region, and was responsible for the growth of the business. Together, we discuss how the ride-sharing landscape has evolved in Southeast Asia and with Uber’s recent exit, shares his insights on the dynamics of Grab vs Go-Jek.  Also from his operational experience, he points out the critical stages that every company must face and how they can break out to continue scaling, giving heads up to the founders “Be ready for scale!”

This week special guest is Charles Rim from Access Ventures. Prior to founding Access, Charles was the managing director of Korea and Southeast Asia at Tapjoy and a Venture Partner for DFJ Athena based in Seoul. Prior to that Charles had been immersed in the expansion of the internet in the APAC region. He was the head of M&A APAC for Google, and led all deals by Google in the APAC region (excluding-China) from 2006 to 2011. He was also a director of strategy and corporate development at Yahoo Korea.   Together, we discuss why now is the ideal time to start investing heavily into Southeast Asia and why foreign investors tend to look at SEA as a whole, but should rather approach each country on its own.  And we go on to hear why Charles is a strong believer on why ever founder should position their company for an exit and what factors should be considered when planning an exit strategy. Hope you guys enjoy this one!

This week's special guest is Simon Wu from Cathay Innovation.  Simon is a Principal at Cathay Innovation, based in San Francisco. He is responsible for sourcing, evaluating, and executing potential investments, as well as post-investment monitoring. Prior to joining Cathay Innovation, Simon spent over three and a half years at VMware in the Strategy & Corporate Development team and was also at UBS in the investment banking division as part of the technology, media, and telecommunications group. Together, we discuss how the fundraising landscape in Silicon Valley has changed over the years, especially with the influx of capital that caused the stage shift throughout the funding cycle. Simon also shares his insights on how founders should approach the fundraising process and how he views the importance of valuation in his investment decision making process.     

This week’s special guest is Nikhil Kapur from Gree Ventures.  Nikhil is Principal and Head of South Asia at GREE Ventures. An entrepreneur by background and developer by training, he spends his time sourcing and managing the fund’s portfolio across South Asia. After building a profitable media-tech venture in India, he completed his MBA in Finance from NUS Business School. A Computer Engineer from Delhi College of Engineering, he previously developed the first version of Excel for mobile while at Microsoft. He was recently listed as Forbes 30-Under-30 in Asia. Together, we discuss why Nikhil believes the funding gap exists at the seed level rather than at A/B round and he expresses his strong dislike for the convertible notes, explaining why they are worse for not only investors but founders too.  This episode was one of the more technical VC conversations I’ve had so far, hope you guys enjoy this one! Nikhil's blog - https://medium.com/@grayscale.vc

This week's special guest is Alex Shin from Hashed.  Alex is the Chief Business Officer and Partner at Hashed, the largest crypto assets fund, project accelerator and community builder based out in Korea. Working out of San Francisco, Alex focuses his efforts around cross-border deals and key partnership opportunities as Hashed continues to build footprint overseas. Previously, Alex led the US expansion of Blind and held numerous Enterprise Sales and Partnership roles at companies like Google and DocuSign. Together, we discuss how we can leverage the past year's financial phenomenon in cryptocurrency to keep Korea as the global leader not just for trading, but for blockchain development & advancement. And Alex also shares his insights on what Hashed looks out for when making investment decisions.  

This week’s special guest is Peter Choi from Go-Jek. Go-Jek is the massively popular ride-hailing company from Indonesia - its first unicorn and recently announced that they will invest $500 million to expand their services into Southeast Asia. Peter is the VP, Head of Logistics at Go-Jek, responsible for product & business development, data analytics, and operations. Prior to this role, Peter worked as a Senior Analyst at Salesforce and made the big transition from Silicon Valley to now Jakarta. Together, we discuss how Peter is tackling one of the biggest pain points in Indonesia,  its logistics. And though started as an on-demand ridesharing platform, why it makes sense for Go-Jek to aggressively expand into other consumer businesses such as delivery, payment and even massages!

Asia VC Cast explores the minds of the experienced venture capitalists and seasoned entrepreneurs to navigate the sophisticated but exciting world of venture capital.  Daniel together with a special guest each week present unique perspective and insights to startup investing & fund-raising across different countries in Asia.   This week’s special guest is Lyle Fong from Hobo Labs.  Lyle is a serial entrepreneur and an active tech investor/advisor. Most recently, he was the co-founder and CEO of Hobo Labs, a mobile gaming studio based in San Francisco. Prior, Lyle co-founded and was CEO of Lithium Technologies, a social media software company. Lithium had raised over $180M in venture funding, scaled to 11 offices globally and over $150M in revenue. Lithium was acquired by Vista in 2017. Lyle was also a Visiting Partner at Y Combinator.  

Asia VC Cast explores the minds of the experienced venture capitalists and seasoned entrepreneurs to navigate the sophisticated but exciting world of venture capital.  Daniel together with a special guest each week present unique perspective and insights to startup investing & fund-raising across different countries in Asia. This week’s special guests are Anuj Jain & Nitin Nath from Startup-O. Startup-O is a Singapore-based assessment and investment platform that discovers promising startups from South/ SEA region and connect them to seed funding through its partner funds and its venture building network of market experts. It puts businesses through a structured 10-week online process that involves a data driven and transparent evaluation by a global expert community.

Asia VC Cast explores the minds of the experienced venture capitalists and seasoned entrepreneurs to navigate the sophisticated but exciting world of venture capital.  Daniel together with a special guest each week present unique perspective and insights to startup investing & fund-raising across different countries in Asia. This week’s special guest is Erica Kang from Kryptoseoul. Erica is the founder of KryptoSeoul, a leading community building team based in Seoul, Korea. KryptoSeoul supports promising blockchain projects by managing online channels and by hosting meetups. She is also a partner at Blockwater Capital, advisor of the Korea Blockchain Association, and host of English Youtube channel KryptoSeoul. As a born communicator, Erica is passionate about bridging between diverse parties in the blockchain and cryptocurrency scene.

Asia VC Cast explores the minds of the experienced venture capitalists and seasoned entrepreneurs to navigate the sophisticated but exciting world of venture capital.  Daniel together with a special guest each week present unique perspective and insights to startup investing & fund-raising across different countries in Asia. This week’s special guest is Nicki Ramsay from CardUp.  Nicki is the founder and CEO of CardUp, a payments company based in Singapore that enables individuals and businesses to use credit card for all their big payments such as paying rent to a landlord, taxes, or even payroll to employees. In doing so users get access to instant credit and rewards. A payments professional, Nicki has a background in business development, consumer insight and analytics having worked for American Express across both Asia Pacific and Europe. During this time she held leadership roles including Head of Consumer Insight for APAC and Director of International Business Development. She is seen as a thought leader in the fintech space, featured in media and events such as The Business Times, Channel News Asia, The New Paper, Money20/20 and the Singapore Fintech Festival. Nicki started her career as a management consultant at Deloitte Consulting, after graduating with a first-class degree in Economics.

Asia VC Cast explores the minds of the experienced venture capitalists and seasoned entrepreneurs to navigate the sophisticated but exciting world of venture capital.  Daniel together with a special guest each week present unique perspective and insights to startup investing & fund-raising across different countries in Asia. This week’s special guest is Thuc Vu from OhmniLabs. Graduated from Carnegie Mellon with a BS and Stanford with a PhD both in Computer Science, OhmniLabs' CEO and co-founder Thuc Vu is an expert in Artificial Intelligence and Algorithms. His ambition is to bring robots into every home to create a positive impact in people's life. And Kambria - a decentralized AI and Robotics platform - is his next move to bring this goal one step closer to reality. He previously founded Katango and Tappy which were quickly acquired by Google and Weeby.co, respectively. He also invests in early stage startups and helps grow the ecosystem in Vietnam. Apart from being an entrepreneur, Thuc is also a Research Scientist and Assistant Professor at John Von Neumann Institute of Vietnam National University. As a way to pay it forward, Thuc co-founded VietSeeds in 2011, a nonprofit organization empowering hundreds of underprivileged students with excellent academic record in Vietnam. In 2017, he was named as one of the "40 Under 40" of Silicon Valley by the Silicon Valley Business Journal for his tireless effort to bring about a significantly positive impact in the business world.

Asia VC Cast explores the minds of the experienced venture capitalists and seasoned entrepreneurs to navigate the sophisticated but exciting world of venture capital.  Daniel together with a special guest each week present unique perspective and insights to startup investing & fund-raising across different countries in Asia. This week’s special guest is Andy Choi from Kakao Ventures. Before coming to Kakao Ventures, Andy was a software engineer across various industries, including high-frequency trading, mobile payments, digital media, and e-commerce. He was also a researcher in Human-Computer Interaction with awards for high academic achievements, and his areas of focus include computer systems, consumer internet services, and machine learning. So please join me in welcoming Andy from Kakao Ventures.

Asia VC Cast explores the minds of the experienced venture capitalists and seasoned entrepreneurs to navigate the sophisticated but exciting world of venture capital.  Daniel together with a special guest each week present unique perspective and insights to startup investing & fund-raising across different countries in Asia. This week’s episode was recorded live at Token2049 conference in Hong Kong with a special guest, Paul Veradittakit from Pantera Capital.  Paul is a Partner at Pantera Capital, the earliest and largest institutional investor in digital currencies and blockchain technologies, managing over $1B. Since joining in 2014, Paul has helped to launch the firm’s second venture fund and currency funds, executing over 60 investments. Paul also sits on the board of OpenToken and BitOasis, is a mentor at The House Fund, Boost VC, and Alchemist, and is an advisor to Orchid, Origin, and Icon. So please join me in welcoming Paul from Pantera Capital.

Asia VC Cast explores the minds of the experienced venture capitalists and seasoned entrepreneurs to navigate the sophisticated but exciting world of venture capital.  Daniel together with a special guest each week present unique perspective and insights to startup investing & fund-raising across different countries in Asia. This week’s special guest is Mike Kim from Google.  Mike is currently leading APAC Partnerships for Google for Entrepreneurs and is the Interim Head of Google Campus Seoul.  Prior to Google, he led Global Business Development for LinkedIn's Profile & Higher Education product teams. He also served as Senior Director of Corporate Development for Baedal Minjok ( 배달의민족 ), Korea's largest mobile food ordering application, and spent time leading business development for Monster Worldwide and social gaming giant Zynga.  Mike is passionate about empowering and supporting the next generation of entrepreneurial pioneers in Asia.  So please join me in welcoming Mike Kim from Google.  

Asia VC Cast explores the minds of the experienced venture capitalists and seasoned entrepreneurs to navigate the sophisticated but exciting world of venture capital.  Daniel together with a special guest each week present unique perspective and insights to startup investing & fund-raising across different countries in Asia. This week’s special guest is Jeff Oh from AIRy Mobile.  AIRy Mobile is a modular commercial real estate developer in Manila with the pop up shops ranging from 15 to 650 square meters.  They set up shops and retailer outlets made from shipping containers that are flexible, but also visually attractive by using glass display windows and durable paint.  Originally from New York, Jeff moved to Manila to start this new venture and he will share with us today about the fast-growing development in Manila and his experience starting a company there from ground up.  

Asia VC Cast explores the minds of the experienced venture capitalists and seasoned entrepreneurs to navigate the sophisticated but exciting world of venture capital.  Daniel together with a special guest each week present unique perspective and insights to startup investing & fund-raising across different countries in Asia. This week's special guest is Mark Mi from Foxconn. Mark is part of Foxconn’s corporate M&A and strategic advisory team. He is focused on industries related to autonomous vehicles, electric vehicles, Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence and deep learning with investment experience in small startups to large public companies. Prior to coming to Asia, Mark was a management consultant managing projects on strategic advisory, process improvement and compliance.