27 investors that make Echelon 2018 the best tech event this year
Part of the reason to attend a tech conference is to meet investors and pitch your company. These 27 standouts will make Echelon a fantastic lead-gen opportunity
Echelon is going to be a fantastic opportunity to meet potential customers, business partners and community members. But it will also be chalk-full of investors. Come meet these awesome 27 investors (and more!) on June 28-29 at Expo Center!
We can’t wait to see you there!
1. 500 Startups
500 Startups is one of the most active early-stage investment companies in the world and has built a strong presence in Southeast Asia. It has been part of some of the first-ever fundraising efforts in countries like Cambodia and Vietnam.
Notable portfolio companies: KhmerHome, Carousell and HelloGold.
2. ACE Capital
This Taiwanese investment firm invests in companies based on three core factors:
Timing
Team
Market opportunity
ACE Capital focusses on North and Southeast Asia.
Notable portfolio companies: NinjaVan, SpaceX and Red Pulse.
3. Antler
The startup builder invests in Founders and provides them an avenue to build their dream company. Antler just launched its first cohort and the company brought together over 55 Founders to make matches and begin the programme.
4. Burda Principle Investments
Burda Principle Investments is an the investment arm of Hubert Burda Media, a German media conglomerate that owns a host of tech-related properties. The investment arm focusses on later-stage companies.
Notable portfolio companies: Coc Coc, Priceza and Zilingo.
5. Coffee Ventures
Coffee Ventures is an investment company that works with a hands-on approach to provide partnerships with the startups in its portfolio. Portfolio startups have preferential access to their war chest of verified resources including product development, UX research, security compliance, legal audit, supply chain management, entry into global markets, and follow-on funding syndications.
Notable portfolio companies: Carro, kulina and 42Race.
6. Cradle Seed Ventures
Cradle Seed Ventures is the venture capital arm of Cradle Fund, which falls under Malaysia’s Ministry of Finance. The fund has a mandate to invest between RM1 million and RM3 million per company (or around US$25,000 to US$75,000).
Notable Portfolio companies: Involve Asia, ServisHero and AVANA.
7. GD1 APAC
GD1 stands for Global From Day One and it is a New Zeleand-based firm. It’s second fund is focussed on high-growth companies in Asia in the sectors including Consumer Internet, eCommerce, Lean Hardware and Manufacturing.
Notable portfolio companies:Letscargo, Puteko and Spotlight Reporting.
8. Gobi Partners
Founded in 2002, Gobi Partners is bridging the gap between China and Southeast Asia. It manages a US$300 million fund and while most of its offices are in China, the company has invested in notable Southeast Asian startups.
Notable portfolio companies: Jirnexu, Glints and Nuren Group.
9. Golden Equator Capital
Global Equator Capital is a fund management company and it holds a Capital Markets Services License from the Monetary Authority of Singapore.
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It technically falls into the more traditional bucket of investors, but the firm is hyper-focussed on technology companies.
Notable portfolio companies: MC Payment, Paktor and Fastacash.
10. Golden Gate Ventures
Golden Gate Ventures is one of the pioneer Seed and Series A funds in Southeast Asia. Founded in 2011, it has invested in over 30 companies across 7 countries in the region. It’s group of LPs includes big brands like Paypal, Yelp, Mint, and Sony Entertainment TV.
Also Read: A shameless use of Echelon to do some user research :P
Notable portfolio companies:Carousell, Carro and Alodokter.
11. GP Accelerator
GP Accelerator is a Bangladeshi accelerator that lasts for four months. The programme provides seed funding, access to mentors and investors. It takes-on five startups per cohort. The GP stands for Grameenphone.
Notable portfolio companies: Socian, Alteryouth and Mars
12. GREE Ventures
With its headquarters in Japan, GREE Ventures is one of the few investment firms with a connection to both South and Southeast Asia to the island nation. GREE invests in pre-Series A and Series A companies with startups coming from Japan, Singapore, Indonesia and India.
Notable portfolio companies: Saleswhale, Luxola and Bukalapak.
13. International Finance Corporation
A member of the World Bank Group, the IFC is fairly active within the startup community. As a global development institution focussing on developing markets, it has provided financial support to companies that would be considered part of the startup community.
Notable portfolio companies: Bizongo, RedDoorz and Bigbasket.
14. iGlobe Partners
Founded in 2000, iGlobe is a Singaporean investment firm that includes the Chairman of SPRING Singapore, Philip Yeo as its Chairman. The firm invests in all sorts of technology companies and recently backed a video game software developer.
Notable portfolio companies: Unity, NerdWallet and Matterport
15. Innoven Capital
Innoven Capital is a leading venture debt provider in both Singapore and India. The company helps startups gain access to capital when a bank loan is not feasible and pursuing a venture capital funding is not realistic.
The Singapore office was established in 2015 and the firm has clients from Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand.
16. Jungle Ventures
Jungle Ventures invests in mostly Series A companies with some selective seed investments across Asia. After investing, the firm’s core focus is to work with portfolio companies on marketing and design, product management, engineering and recruiting. It has invested in four exits over the recent years: Twitter, Rakuten, HomeAway and ShopClues.
Notable portfolio companies:KaHa, iflix and Pomelo
17. Monk’s Hill Ventures
Founded by one of the Co-founders of Match.com, Monk’s Hill has two specific investment strategies. One part of the fund is focussed on Series A and B startups while the other portion puts money into the growth stage. One of its selling points is a strong network in both Asia and the US.
Notable portfolio companies:Ninja Van, kkday and Saleswhale
18. Openspace Ventures
Previously known as NSI, Openspace Ventures is a Southeast Asia-focussed investment company focussed on Series A and Series B investments in the region. It has more than US$150 million under management. It is currently deploying capital from its second fund.
Notable portfolio companies: Go-jek, CXA Group and Chope.
19. Patamar Capital
Patamar Capital is focussed on venture capital in high-growth areas, but also wants to serve Asia’s low-income communities. This means trying to use investment and business to solve pervasive problems in society. Part of the strategy to help support the working poor.
Notable portfolio companies:Kalibrr, Leaf and Topica Edtech Group
20.Qualgro
Qualgro is supported by large Asian conglomerates and invests in Southeast Asia, India, Australia and New Zealand.
Notable portfolio companies:PatSnap, Appier and Eyeota
21.QuestVentures
QuestVentures is an early-stage investment company that has a portfolio across Southeast Asia and into China. The company draws inspiration from the Chinese poet Qu Yuan. The quote is, “The way ahead is long and has no ending, yet high and low I’ll search with my will unbending.”
Notable portfolio companies:Xfers, Shopback and Vibease.
22. Rekanext Capital Partners
Rekanextis looking for startups in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam and the Philippines that have creative and innovative technologies to scale regionally. The company invests in pre-Series A and early stage startups and works with them to scale regionally.
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Notable portfolio companies:Lozi, Avana and Xjera Labs.
23.RHL Ventures
This Malaysia-based fund that wants to support SMEs and their long-term growth prospectus. RHL Ventures is focussed on entrepreneurship more than technology and has a fairly flexible investment strategy. It has a host of partners, some of whom are listed in this article.
Notable portfolio companies: HealthMetrics and Perx
24. SGInnovate
SGInnovate is a private-public business in Singapore that is focussed on supporting the deep tech industry. This means it looks for companies with a unique IP, have invented a core technology or are pushing the edges of current technologies. The mandate for SGInnovate is to “launch, prove and scale ‘deep tech’ products borne out of science research”.
Notable portfolio companies: AiDA, TABSQUARE and AID:Tech
25. SparkLabs Global Accelerator
SparksLabs is a global accelerator that has its home base in Silicon Valley but has built a strong presence in South Korea. It also is active in Taiwan and into Southeast Asia. The three-month-long programme occurs twice per year and targets companies that want to expand globally.
Notable portfolio companies: talentX, Emergent and Asian Boss.
26. Spaze Ventures
Spaze is a seed-round focussed investment company that is based in Singapore. It provides intensive mentorship with its money, which ranges from S$50,000 to S$500,000 (about US$37,000 to US$370,000). The hope is that Spaze can be that first investor to get a startup off the ground and prepare it for follow-on investments from other VCs.
Notable portfolio companies: Airfrov, GetFash and RunSociety
27. Trive
Trive is a pre-Series A company that invests up to US$300,000 into startups in Southeast Asia. It is targetting the industries of education, hospitality, F&B, e-commerce, retail and media. The strategy for portfolio companies is to engage large MNCs and gain traction in Singapore before expanding regionally.
Notable portfolio companies: Park N Parcel, UpCode Academy and Kungfu Math.
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Want to hear more insights from Aaron and other rockstar entrepreneurs? Come to the Echelon Asia Summit 2018, which will be held at the Singapore Expo from the 28th to the 29th of June. Click here to get your tickets now. Enter the promo code e27-ROCKS to redeem a free pass! It is limited to only 30 passes and expires on the 20th of June, so hurry now!
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