six a pitch
investors' bios
saemin ahn - managing partner, rakuten ventures
Saemin Ahn (“Sae”) is the Managing Partner at Rakuten Ventures. He is responsible for 1) leading and evaluating investments (team, product, IP, market, channels) 2) conducting due diligence and 3) analyzing deal structure in APAC. Prior to Rakuten Ventures, Sae was at Google for 5 years from 2009 to 2013 managing Sales and Business Development for Asia. He has extensive experience in Brand Management and Content Distribution with his time in Hyundaicard and Animal Studio, an animation startup. Sae received his B.S. in Business Administration and Broadcasting and Journalism from Sogang University. Website: global.rakuten.com/corp
jeffrey paine - founding partner, golden gate ventures
Jeffrey Paine is the founding partner of Golden Gate Ventures, an early stage technology incubator based in Singapore. Jeff started and manages the Founder Institute in Asia where he is currently overseeing its expansion in the Southeast Asian region. Since 2010 the Founder Institute in Singapore has graduated over 60 companies in Asia. He is a Singapore native and graduated with a Bachelors of Business Administration (Information Systems) from the University of Southern California. Jeff spent the first eight years of his career in early stage venture and private equity in the US, North and South Asia. He co-founded a China market entry advisory firm which was then merged with a China mid-market private equity firm. He was an Investment Manager at MPH Ventures, a $20M fund specializing in media & tech investments in Asia and the US. Jeff is also a founding partner of Gen Origin (advised by the legendary Pitch Johnson), a $4M tech fund focused on early stage Asian tech start ups. Website: www.goldengate.vc
frank lee - invesment manager, tnf ventures
Frank is the Investment Manager with TNF Ventures Pte. Ltd., an incubator under National Research Foundation’s Technology Incubator Scheme. TNF Ventures, founded by key shareholders with backgrounds of entrepreneurs, senior corporate executives and venture capitalists are some of the IT luminaries in Singapore. With the belief that their combined knowledge, experience and contacts could make a huge difference to a burgeoning startup ecosystem, TNFV looks to contribute back to Singapore by incubating the next generation of entrepreneurs. Website: www.tnfventures.com
piyush chaplot, vp finance & investments, innosight ventures
Piyush joined Innosight Ventures in 2008 with a decade-long experience in financial and risk management roles in India, Indonesia, Australia, UAE, and Singapore. His current role is to source, evaluate, structure, monitor, and manage early stage investments in Singapore. He serves on the board of www.chope.com.sg and also acts as part-time CFO for some of the other investee companies. Additionally, he manages the finance and compliance functions within the Innosight Ventures group. Website: www.innosight.com
Rosalind Tan Yan Ching – Partner, EIDMV II
Rosalind is Vice President at Expara and Expara IDM Ventures, and Managing Director of Expara Malaysia. She is also a Partner at Expara IDM Ventures II and Advisor to the Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC) in Malaysia.Since joining Expara in 2011, Rosalind coached and mentoredmore than 20 potential spin-offs from A*STAR, to which more than half has since spun-off or received follow-on funding. Two of the spin-offs that she mentored went on to receive the prestigious Demo Guru award at the 2012 Demo Asia event in Singapore. She has helped these start-ups write business plans and financial plans for the purpose of raising funds. Rosalind also manages the Expara IDM Ventures and Expara IDM Ventures II incubation in which she oversees the operations and fundraising activities of the start-ups. Rosalind is a mentor at Seed Forum Singapore and BidNetwork. Rosalind holds a PhD in Biophysical Chemistry from Glasgow University, UK and an MBA in Strategic Planning from Edinburgh Business School. Website: www.expara.com
hiroyuki kiga, gree ventures
Hiroyuki Kiga graduated with a bachelor's degree in e-business in 2007 from Macquarie University. He then worked for the IT department of Macquarie Group and was involved in supporting the equity derivatives trading platform. Pursuing a career change, he went on to earn his master's degree in applied finance from the same university after which he joined GREE, Inc. in 2012. www.greeventures.com