Asia Vc Cast

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-fo

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 mentors

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.