Tech in Asia Arena goes to Ho Chi Minh city: pitching and learning how to scale in Southeast Asia

If you're an entrepreneur in Vietnam working on the next big thing, we want to hear from you. Our next event in Ho Chi Minh city on Tuesday 22 July from 6:30pm-9pm will be investment-focused. Through a panel discussion, startups can learn from seasoned investors - what they look out for, how to regionalize, globalize and scale your startup, and maybe why you should not expand regionally. Startups will also have the opportunity to pitch to these investors live on the Tech in Asia Arena battlefield. 

We are privileged to have Kuo-Yi Lim (managing director at Monk’s Hill Ventures) and Khor Chieh Suang (principal at Digital Media Partners) to sit with us for an intimate chat for the first half of the event. Both firms are headquartered in Singapore and include investors who are veterans in the technology startup space, having worked on international companies and deals across the US and Asia.

Monk’s Hill Ventures is a new US$80 million fund targeted at technology startups from Southeast Asia, and Silicon Valley companies expanding into Asia. It is run by serial entrepreneurs and investors who have been behind Match.com, Interwoven, Bubbly, and Infocomm Investments. Meanwhile, Digital Media Partners has invested in many Southeast Asia-born and Southeast Asia-focused companies over the last several years, including 2C2P, Adz, Mig.me, and NhomMua.

Gwendolyn - Our Head of Business will be chatting with both Kuo-Yi and Chieh Suang. Kuo-Yi will share his experience of being involved in startups that scaled successfully (Encentuate, acquired by IBM; Reputation Technologies, acquired by Security Sources), and having to transition to leading Infocomm Investments, a US$200 million fund investing in technology startups globally. For Chieh Suang, we will be looking to seek out learnings from her 10 years of investing experience in Southeast Asia (EDB Investments, Infocomm Investments, Nusantara Ventures and now Digital Media Partners). Her deep experience in looking at deals in emerging Southeast Asia will give us much opportunity to compare the similarities and differences in growing companies in Vietnam versus Indonesia versus Thailand, for example.

The second part of the event gets interesting in a very different way. We are looking for five startups who want this fantastic opportunity to pitch to both Monk’s Hill Ventures and Digital Media Partners (DMP). Monk’s Hill invests between US$1 to 5 million in each deal, and DMP invests between US$0.5 to 1 million per deal and may follow-up with US$3 million if the company expands.

This pitch will be conducted live in front of everyone. The format involves a five-minute pitch and five-minute Q&A from Kuo-Yi and Chieh Suang. We are looking for five promising startups to take the stage.

Even if you’re not raising at the amounts Monk’s Hill and DMP are investing at, you are still welcome to apply for a slot. Startups, submit this form and don’t miss the opportunity. We will be screening the submissions and notify the selected ones. Remember to book your calendar and even if you don’t want to pitch, come by to learn about scaling and listen to the pitches.

Agenda:

6:30pm-7:00pm: Registration

7:00pm-7:05pm: Welcome by Tech in Asia

7:05pm-7:45pm: Fireside Chat with Kuo-Yi Lim (Managing Director at Monk’s Hill Ventures) and Khor Chieh Suang (Principal at Digital Media Partners)

7:45pm-830pm: Pitches by 5 companies (5 mins pitch, 5 mins Q&A)

8:30pm-9:00pm: Networking

Venue: 1st Floor, Block D, Thong Tan Xa Viet Nam, 116-118 Nguyen Thi Minh Khai, Quận 3, Hồ Chí Minh, Vietnam

Registration:

Book a ticket here on Ticketbox to attend, and submit this form for a chance to pitch on stage.

About the speaker:

Kuo-Yi Lim Kuo-Yi was the CEO of Infocomm Investments, a $200M venture fund based in Singapore investing in technology startups globally. Prior to Infocomm, Kuo-Yi has been a founder, early employee, mentor and angel investor of early-stage technology startups spanning the US and Asia. He was a senior sales executive at Encentuate (acq. by IBM) and Reputation Technologies (acq. by Security Sources), and co-founder of SportsHook, a sports-focused SaaS platform. Kuo-Yi graduated from MIT with B.S., M.S., and PhD degrees in electrical engineering.

About the speaker:

Khor Chieh Suang Chieh Suang started her career at the Economic Development Board of Singapore, working to develop Singapore into a hub for technology startups. She designed and formulated startup friendly policies, early stage co-investment programmes and marketed Singapore to entrepreneurs, business angels, venture capital firms and technology transfers offices. She continued to market Singapore to US and European startups at Infocomm Investments. As one of the investment managers at Infocomm Investments, she was involved in deal sourcing and conducted due diligence on potential co-investment deals. She also helped to formulate exit strategies for portfolio companies. Chieh Suang joined Nusantara Ventures, a family-owned venture fund focusing on Indonesia in 2010. There she helped to incubate 2 startups in Indonesia and worked on a joint venture investment before joining Digital Media Partners. Chieh Suang has a degree in Electrical Engineering from the National University of Singapore. She is fluent in English, Bahasa Melayu and Mandarin. She loves to experiment in the kitchen in her spare time, trying out new recipes for her toddler and learning family favourites from her sister, aunts and mother-in-law.