Speakers

Jiaway Koh, Associate Director of BANSEA

Jiaway is the Associate Director at the Business Angel Network of SEA (BANSEA). IT is the region’s oldest angel investment network and a leader in the promotion and development of the angel investment community. Jiaway was formerly the programs manager at e27, a startup news portal in ASEAN as well as on the organising team of Echelon – a leading Southeast Asia technology event that draws more than 15,000 visitors annually. Jiaway was also the project lead for TOP100 – a regional startup pitching competition for ASEAN’s emerging startups.

Joelle Pang, General Manager of FastJobs Malaysia

Energetic, empathetic and a forward-thinking entrepreneur, Joelle has developed businesses from just an idea, a person who is passionate for developing and executing business frameworks that empower the lives of others. She has 12 years of experience in technology start-ups in the e-commerce, recruitment, mobile and on-demand space. She has paved the way for women in technology by demonstrating impressive entrepreneurship through her various startups. Joelle has a track record of building an ecosystem with impressive results and is most recently recognised as ‘Entrepreneur of the Year’ at the Women in IT Asia Awards.

Shiyan Koh, Managing Partner of Hustle Fund

Shiyan is an experienced operator and investor. She helped scale NerdWallet as employee #10 from <$1M to $150M in revenue, and has experience across Product, Customer Success, Operations and Corporate Development. As a Managing Partner at Hustle Fund, she works with pre-seed startups to grow their businesses. Shiyan was previously an investor at Bridgewater Associates and Institutional Venture Partners. She is a graduate of Stanford University and Harvard Business School.

Oko Davaasuren, Director of Ecosystem Development of Techstars

Oko is a active founder and a community builder. He has cofounded and helps run several startups in Asia. Oko has received a bachelors degree in Finance from Portland State University before continuing onto a masters degree in Engineering Technology Management but decided to return home to Mongolia. He then received his MBA in Mongolia. When he is not working, he can be found on Squash courts or on long-haul Motorbike rides in Asia.

Andre Sequerah, Managing Partner of ScaleUp Accelerator

Andre Sequerah started out as a Telco engineer in the early days of the mobile revolution, twenty years ago. Cutting his teeth designing and implementing mobile networks in Maxis and later in Ericsson, he realised that there was a gap in the way mobile networks operated and optimized. That knowledge led to the startup Aexio, a software company which later was acquired by a French MNC, in 2013. Andre subsequently moved on to a short stint in banking, working for a couple of years in CIMB’s then, new Fintech division before launching ScaleUp Accelerator, late last year.

Jowynne Khor, Startup Program, Developer Relations & Ecosystem of Google

Part of Jowynne’s responsibilities at Google includes the ‘Powered’ by Google Launchpad program, a global accelerator program that helps startups build and scale great products by matching them with the best that Google can offer, its people, network and of course technology. These accelerators share information, grant access to great mentors and empower local leaders with Google’s Global Resource. She was also part of the founding team at Malaysian Global Innovation & Creativity Centre (MaGIC) as the Director of Community & Events, where she designed the blueprint for the organisation’s core activities and as its results, how to conduct and its alignment to the vision.

Razif Abdul Aziz , Acting Group CEO of Cradle Fund

Razif is currently the acting CEO of Cradle Fund. He is a senior executive with over 23 years of experience in a variety of roles ranging from business development, corporate, legal & regulatory affairs, communications and sales & marketing in various sectors including defense, construction, FMCG, telecoms & broadcast, biotechnology and Government. His stewardship of the Malaysian Business Angel Network from 2015-2018, helped secure the group’s financial independence through corporate sponsorships, grow its membership from 56 to >200 accredited angel investors and successfully leading efforts to create an ASEAN grouping of angel investors known as the ASEAN Angels Alliance in 2016 with angel groups from 8 ASEAN countries as its members.

Ee Ling Lim, Singapore Country Lead, Innovation & Partnerships of  500 Startups

Ee Ling leads 500 Startups’ Innovation & Partnerships team in Singapore where she works with various ecosystem stakeholders to accelerate their innovation journey. Ee Ling spent almost a decade as an Investment Banker, executing billion-dollar transactions in M&A, equity and debt capital markets. She also specialized in Consumer, Retail and Technology.  Ee Ling has been featured in and spoken on The Straits Times, Money FM, 938 Now, The Asian Entrepreneur, Tech Sauce, Tech Collective, Lian He Zao Bao etc. and was also invited to speak at and conduct workshops for Horasis Asia, e27, IMDA, DBS Imaginarium, and Standard Chartered Bank.

Jamie Lee, Co-Founder of The Kind Friend

She believes that entrepreneurship is a mindset and business is all about people. Jaime loves choosing opportunities based on the quality of people she gets to work with, rather than the perfect job or title. This has allowed her to pursue interests with zero experience in, and be mentored by some of the top industry leaders. As the co-founder of The Kind Friend, she is proud to have created a social conscious company that helps people live a more mindful life through kindness. Jamie was the regional partnerships lead at Carousell and founder of two education businesses.

Riddhiman Das, ex – International Technology Investments Ant Financial Alibaba and CEO & Founder of TripleBlind

Das is the CEO of TripleBlind, where they’re building digital privacy as a service. Before TripleBlind, Das was the Head of International Technology Investments for Ant Financial and Alibaba, where he led investments in Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence, Security, IoT and Computing. Das ended up at Alibaba after EyeVerify’s successful exit in 2016. His background is in Computer Science, and his general interests lie in Machine Learning, Computer Vision/Image Processing, high-frequency/low-latency Distributed Systems, Data Science, Applied Statistics, functional programming (especially Haskell) and lately, Blockchain Technologies. He is very passionate about applications of technology to foster financial inclusion for the 2 billion people in the world that do not have access to an account at a formal financial institution.

Russ Neu, Venture Partner, Impact of Quest Ventures

Russ Neu is a Venture Partner, Impact, at Quest Ventures, a leading venture fund for technology companies that have scalability and replicability in large internet communities. The impact fund, the first in Asia from a venture capital fund, focuses on base of pyramid issues in Southeast Asia.

Tengku Dato’ Sri Azmil Zahruddin Raja Abdul Aziz, Deputy Managing Director of Khazanah National Berhad

Tengku Dato Sri Azmil joined Khazanah National Berhad in 2011 after serving at Malaysia Airline System Berhad (MAS) as the Managing Director and Chief Executive officer. Prior to that, he was the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Aviation Malaysia Berhad. He has worked with PricewaterhouseCoopers in London and Hong Kong. He holds a degree in Economics from the University of Cambridge, UK and is a certified accountant. He is now the Deputy Managing Director of KNB and a non-independent director of Axiata Group Bhd. 

Yaw Yeo, Managing Director for International Business, CPaaS | CDN | Video Products of Alibaba Cloud

Yaw leads IoT partnerships globally and new market expansion in the Asia-Pacific region for Twilio (NYSE:TWLO), the leading cloud communications platform. He was the architect behind Twilio’s first foray into Asia-Pacific in 2014, and orchestrated Twilio’s deployment into the region across different functional teams. These days, Yaw is spending the bulk of his time working with the Product Engineering teams to launch Programmable Wireless (www.twilio.com/wireless), Twilio’s IoT/M2M product, globally.

Hendrik Susanto, Chief Investment Officer of Traveloka

Hendrik Susanto is Chief Investment Officer at Traveloka, where he leads all external inorganic growth for the company, including investments, mergers & acquisitions, joint ventures, and partnerships. Prior to joining Traveloka, Hendrik was a venture capital and private equity investor in the U.S. and Southeast Asia. He was managing director and CEO of Ancora Capital, a private equity fund focused on Indonesia. He started his career at Goldman Sachs in New York and Singapore. A graduate of Princeton University with a BSE in electrical engineering, Hendrik also holds an MBA from The Wharton School.

Paul Ark, Managing Director – Corporate Venture Capital of Digital Ventures

Paul manages Siam Commercial Bank’s US$100 million global FinTech and DeepTech venture capital fund. Prior to venture capital, he spent a decade as an investment banker, working on IPOs, acquisitions, and private equity deals for global banks, and then another in the world of retail facilitating market entry into China and other Asian markets for international retailers such as Central Retail, Apple, and Microsoft. He has be named as a Top FinTech Influencer in Asia by Next Money, Fintech Asia and Lattice80.

Ee Lynn Tee, Innovation & New Ventures of Sime Darby Property

Ee Lynn, a unique blend of corporate innovation, boardroom polish and entrepreneurial zeal, currently leads the Innovation & New Ventures team in Sime Darby Property – 45-year track record in property development and is the biggest property developer in Malaysia in terms of land bank. She co-founded and launched-to-market dto (‘ditto’), an internal venture of Sime Darby Property with RM3million seed funding from the company. dtolah.com is a digital platform fully designed through the human-centered approach to empower customers to co-create with the property developer.

Oranuch Lerdsuwankij, CEO & Co-founder of Techsauce Media

Oranuch (Mimee) Lerdsuwankij is the Co-Founder and CEO of Techsauce Media, Thailand’s leading media for tech startups and corporate innovation. Prior to starting her own businesses, Mimee had more than 12 years of experience in product strategy and marketing-related roles with leading IT and telecommunications companies such as Truemove, Atos Origin, and Total Access Communication (DTAC). 

Jeffrey Paine, Managing Partner of Golden Gate Ventures

Jeffrey Paine is a Co-founder and Managing Partner of Golden Gate Ventures, a Singapore based, early stage technology venture capital fund focused in Southeast Asian businesses with over US$175 million invested in over 35 companies since 2012. 

Jeff started and manages the Founder Institute in Singapore where he is currently overseeing its expansion in Southeast Asia, and Japan. Since 2010 the Founder Institute in Singapore has graduated over 100 companies. He is a recipient of the Founder Institute Director Award 2012 for “Greatest Ecosystem Impact” Worldwide (Singapore).

Dr. Lu Gang, Founder & CEO of TechNode

Dr. Gang LU is the Founder and CEO of TechNode, making him one of China’s most recognised influencers in the global technology sector. What started as Dr. Lu’s personal blog quickly became a highly respected international innovation platform, with six business units including TN Media (Chinese and English technology media platform), TN Inno (corporate innovation services), TN Global (Asia and global business), TN Events (branding and event services), TN Data (startup ecosystem data analysis) and TN VC (venture capital and financing services). TechNode connects China’s start-up technology ecosystem with the rest of the world. Today, TechNode is the exclusive China partner of TechCrunch.

Amarit Charoenphan, Executive Chairman & Co-founder of HUBBA Thailand & Techsauce Media

Amarit is the CEO and Co-founder of HUBBA, Thailand’s first and largest coworking space and community that is part of Google for Startups Partner Network. He is also Chief Connection Officer and Cofounder of Techsauce, one of Southeast Asia’s leading technology media and events company. He angel invests in many emerging startups as is also a Fellow of the Edmund Hillary Fellowship (EHF), and has been named as one of Forbes Asia 30 Under 30: Enterprise Technology, and Thailand Startup Enabler of The Year 2016.

NorHizam Abdul Kadir, VP, Growth Ecosystem Development of MDEC

Norhizam Abdul Kadir (or Hizam) brings with him almost 20 years’ experience in multi-market technology and energy industries in various markets across Asia Pacific. He was with Intel, Microsoft and Ballard Power System before joining MDEC as Vice President in 2015. He has wide experience in corporate marketing, end-customer sales, business development, communications and channel marketing and enablement.

Grace Sai, Co-CEO of Found8

Grace is the Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Found8 (a merger between Found. and Collision 8), a reputable co-working community of entrepreneurs and corporate innovators. She and her team are often pioneering ways to build innovation ecosystems bottom-up; growing entrepreneurs through curated communities, spaces, funding, mentoring and access to corporates. More at: www.found8.com.

Jan Smejkal, Founder & CEO of YCG Ventures

Jan, a.k.a. YourChinaGuy, is s featured on the LinkedIn Power Profiles List 2018 as one of the most viewed and engaged members of LinkedIn China (alongside Kai Fu Lee from Sinovation Ventures, Starbucks China CEO, and many others). Jan managed to scale Startup Grind (the world’s largest innovation community) to 100+ cities in Asia (including 25+ cities in China) as the Director of the company in the region. He’s been in China for 4+ years and regularly works with founders and high-level executives from companies such as Forbes, Ping An Group, Bain & Company, Deutsche Telekom, Continental, Singularity University, etc.

Ben Richardson, Founder & CEO of Onstage

He has a piece of paper that says he was an Aerospace Engineer and a portfolio of startup companies and tech projects (two alive, two acquired, many dead) that he built by teaching himself to design and code. In 2018, he founded Onstage, a platform that connects people with speaking opportunities (like Linkedin, but for speakers). They’re revenue positive, growing aggressively, and seeking early-stage investment.

Arif Tukiman, Co-founder & CEO of RunCloud

Experienced Chief Executive Officer with a demonstrated history of working in the information technology and services industry. Skilled in Research, Management, Game Development, and Business Development. Strong business development professional with a Master of Science (M.Sc.) focused in Information Technology Entrepreneurship from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia.

Nyha Shree, Co-Founder & CMO of Jumper.ai

Nyha is the cofounder of Jumper.ai – a conversational commerce platform that enables brands to take orders, support customer and automate marketing across popular messaging apps. Nyha started her entrepreneurial journey in 2012 and has been featured by Forbes 30under30 and UN women for her current work at Jumper.

Aldrich Huang, CEO of UXTesting

He is the CEO and co-founder of UXTEsting.io, one of the world pioneers in user experience. He is devoted to optimising the user experience and offers remote testing to entrepreneurs, UX teams and product managers utilising user behaviour analysis that helps dig deeper for a better user experience. 

Sai Kit Ng, Chief Executive of Captii Ventures Pte. Ltd

Sai Kit is the Chief Executive of Captii Ventures Pte. Ltd, a venture capital company that he helped set up in late 2014. Captii Ventures is now a multistage investor in technology companies in Southeast Asia with an aggregate of 16 investments across Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam, including Avana, Digify, Alterra, Sorabel, MuslimPro, Computer Guys and Mimosatek.

Ian Chua, Co-Founder & ex-CEO of Hermo

Ian Chua is the Co-founder & ex-CEO of Hermo, currently one of the top e-commerce websites in Malaysia leading in beauty products category with 150,000 monthly active users and revenue of RM 10 million in the last 12 months of operation. Hermo recently raised a $2 million series A funding to expand into Indonesia.

Sabrina Shabri, Etiqa Digital Solutions of Etiqa

Sabrina heads up the Voice of Customer unit within Etiqa Digital Solutions. Her main responsibility is to manage and execute customer-centricity tools & platforms in Etiqa. Prior to Etiqa, Sabrina worked in Maybank taking care of the innovation culture within the organisation. She also worked with the Land Public Transport Commission of Malaysia and Accenture in the areas of project management, change management, operational improvement, as well as strategy development.

Koichi Saito, Founder and General Partner of KK Fund

Koichi has 15 years’ experience in Venture Capital, Private Equity, Investment bank and money lending.  Qualified as a Chartered Financial Analysts (CFA), a Real Estate Transaction Specialist as well as a Registered Money Lender. 

He’s been in the casino business with Orix Corporation in Japan before being the team lead in the Investment Banking Division of Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities before being a Project Manager for IGH by George Soros Real Estate Partners. In 2015, he founded KK Fund, a Singapore based venture capital fund. Join him and learn from his experience and expertise in startup financing at BaseConf2020!

Shen Loong Ong, Country Director of Lalamove

Country Director of Lalamove, which was founded in 2013 as EasyVan. It is now one of Asia’s leading local delivery platform in more than 20 cities. Being a unicorn startup based in Hong Kong, they are motivated to provide local delivery faster and simpler by harnessing the power of mobile internet to bring the sharing economy to logisits with more than 1 million customers.

Rashid Karim, CEO of Iskandar Malaysia Studios

Rashid Karim joined as chief executive officer of Iskandar Malaysia Studios (IMS) (previously Pinewood Iskandar Malaysia Studios) in March 2019. Prior to that he was chief commercial officer at Granatum Ventures, the investment holding company for Khazanah’s Creative & Media assets, including IMS and Rhizophora Group, which was involved in content development, investment and distribution. Prior to that, he was vice president, investments at Khazanah Nasional Berhad in the creative & media team.

Zi Kang Tai, Founder & Director of FitGear

ZiKang Tai – E-commerce entrepreneur, growth-hacker & the founder of FITGEAR.  He started his business with a RM3,000 (US$700) self-funded capital and grew it into a RM15mil (US$3.7mil) business through accumulated sales with 40,000 customers worldwide within 2 years.

Lalitha Wemel, Regional Director, Community (APAC) of Techstars

She is the Regional Director of Community for Asia Pacific at Techstars, the global network that helps entrepreneurs succeed. She has been actively overseeing the partnerships and programming of startup ecosystem development and programming across Asia Pacific since 2015; where she has worked with over 20+ corporate & government partners in the region, developing strategy, executing corporation innovation programs and leading community growth activities. 

Lim Feng, CEO of START Malaysia

Feng is a startup founder and CEO of START Malaysia, who is actively cultivating the local community in Malaysia. His work involves building a thriving & sustainable startup ecosystem, operating coworking spaces as well as managing startup programmes in the southern region of Malaysia, predominantly in Iskandar Malaysia, Johor.

YB Jimmy Puah Wee Tse, Chairman of Johor International Trade, Investment and Utility Committee

 YB Jimmy Puah Wee Tse, Johor International Trade, Investment and Utilities Committee Chairman as well as the Assemblyman of Bukit Batu. He is geared towards improving the economics of Johor, championing the local industries to ride the wave of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. 

Bobby Liu, Senior Director of Topica Founder Institute

Ideas abound, he started a co-working space/incubator called Hub.IT, a space that provided young entrepreneurs a conducive environment to innovate and share collective experiences, and in the process contributed to building a great entrepreneurial ecosystem in Hanoi and Vietnam. In 2015, Hub.IT was acquired by Topica, where he’s the Senior Director at Topica Edtech Group and Co-Director of the Topica Founder Institute, an early-stage accelerator.

Heislyc Loh, Founder & Community Director of StartupMamak

Is the founder of StartupMamak, a community for technology start-up entrepreneurs in 2011, now one of the largest tech startup community in Malaysia with over 10,000 patrons. Heislyc is also the Managing Director for Malaysia chapters of Founders Institute, the world’s premier pre-seed startup accelerator across 180 cities. He is currently focused on building a sustainable digital talents community and product delivery service platform through Devs Asia. 

Howie Chang, Founder & CEO of Forward School 

Howie Chang is the founder and CEO of Forward School (www.forwardschool.co), a revolutionary technology and future skills school in Malaysia. At Forward, he leads the growth and development of the company, with the goal of building sustainable talent pipelines for businesses. Having spent the formative years of his career in Singapore, he has a long experience of product management, user experience and digital business transformation in various industries. Howie also had stints with startups of all kinds, where he delved into the dynamic intersection of design, business and technology. He was also the Head of UX and Design at Viki and Director of Product Management at Redmart, both which resulted as two of the most notable tech acquisitions in Southeast Asia.

Rama Mamuaya, Founder & CEO of DailySocial.id 

He is the founder and CEO of DailySocial.id, Indonesia’s leading tech media company and is a tech startup enthusiast as well as an advocate for tech-entrepreneurship. He has spoken on international stages to address the audiences about tech policy, innovation, entrepreneurship and the tech ecosystem. Rama is passionate about technology and is currently leading a team of experts in participating and growing Indonesia’s tech ecosystem.