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34 Singapore entries in Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia list, like influencer Annette Lee

Annette Lee as seen in her music video for The Caifan Song.
Forbes 30 Under 20 Asia list: Annette Lee, a content creator, is known for her humorous personas. (PHOTOS: Screengrabs from Annette Lee's YouTube)

SINGAPORE — Forbes on Thursday (26 May) announced 34 Singapore-based individuals or teams who made it to its annual “30 Under 30 Asia” list, including familiar face, Annette Lee, one of the singers of The Caifan (economical rice) Song.

Influencer Lee, 29, is a content creator known for her humorous portrayal of characters. She is also an actress, singer-songwriter and filmmaker.

Entrepreneurs behind prominent firms such as JiPay and Accredify are also among those honoured.

The list features 300 under-30 entrepreneurs, leaders and trailblazers from 22 countries and territories in the Asia-Pacific region.

The honourees are spread equally across each of the 10 categories: Media, Marketing and Advertising; Entertainment and Sports; Consumer technology; Finance and Venture Capital; The Arts (Art & Style, Food & Drink); Retail and E-commerce; Industry Manufacturing And Energy; Enterprise Technology; Social Impact and Healthcare and Science.

According to Forbes, a record more than 4,000 nominees from the Asia region applied to be on this year’s list, with the final 300 selected by judges for each of the categories.

Singapore ranked second highest for the number of entries that made it to the list – 34. It was only behind India, which had 61 entries.

Singapore was ahead of Japan, Australia, Indonesia and China, which had 33, 32, 30 and 28 entries respectively.

Forbes also noted, “As the pandemic forced other international hubs in the region to shut down, Singapore has managed to attract entrepreneurs from across the region to set up their businesses in the city state. The 34 entries from Singapore include over a dozen of non-Singaporeans who are based and operate from there.”

Singapore shuttler Loh Kean Yew, 24, is the sole Singaporean sportsman in the Entertainment and Sports category.

Three entries from Singapore made it to the Media, Marketing and Advertising category, including influencers Lee, and Ng Ming Wei, 27.

Ng, the founder of Boom Digital Media, has more than 20 million followers on TikTok currently and is known for creating viral videos featuring him with his father.

Ng Ming Wei posing for a photo.
Ng Ming Wei has a TikTok account with more than 20 million followers. (PHOTO: mingweirocks Instagram)

The other two Singapore honourees to make it to this list are Matthew Zeng, the 29-year-old co-founder of marketing agency DSTNCT; and Swayam Narain, 28, and Nisarg Shah, 29, co-founders of marketing startup Affable.

Seven entries from Singapore made it to the Financial and Venture Capital category. These are: Diane Dai, 24, co-founder of DODO Labs; Mia Deng, 26, partner at Dragonfly Capital; Shaun Hon, 29, co-founder of Motion Ventures; Augustus Ilag, 29, associate at Sequoia Capital; Felix Xu, 29, and Xu Yemu, 28, co-founders of Penrose Tech, Darshan Bathija, 28, and Sanju Kurian, 29, co-founders of Vauld; and Dayana Yermolayeva, co-founder of JiPay.

The sole Singapore entry to make it to the Retail and E-commerce category is Kushal Patel, 28, the co-founder of Una Brands, an e-commerce startup which acquires profitable brands and grows them.

Five Singapore nominees made it to the Industry, Manufacturing and Energy category. These are: Chong Voon Foo, 23, and Daryl Lim, 26, co-founders of Augmentus; Animesh Jha, 25, CEO of Volt14 Solutions; Arthur Lee, 28, founder of SAI.TECH; Rayner Loi, 27, co-founder of Lumitics; and Rebecca Xing, 29, CEO of Trustana.

Six Singapore entries made the category of Enterprise Technology. These are: Shaun John Cheetham, 28, Edmund Chew, 29, Derrick Lee, 28, and Quah Zheng Wei, 29, the co-founders of Accredify; Benjamin Harris, 28, founder of watchTowr; Kaniyet Rayev, 26, co-founder of Appboxo; Jeremy Hon, Lee Kai Yi, Eugene Ng and Janson Seah, all 28, co-founders of StaffAny; Peter Kristianto Widjaja, 28, co-founder of Hubble; and Zheng Zee, 29, co-founder of SpaceChain.

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