Meet the latest investors to join TechHRSG Startup Program 2020

As the founders of a startup begin to bring their ideas to reality, there are several challenges they face. There are many questions on their mind. From finding the right talent to determining their company’s worth or laying the foundations of the company culture, there are several decisions to make. At such a stage, what founders need is guidance and support from experienced professionals and industry experts. Basically, what they need is a 'mentor'. 

Keeping the importance of mentorship for early age startups in mind, People Matters TechHR Startup Program Singapore 2020 has been specially created for the early-stage startups in the HR technology space to interact with investors and mentors and learn from them. 

By participating in the program these startups get a chance to be part of the Asia's largest HR and Work tech conference, People Matters TechHR Singapore 2020, showcase at the Startup Zone, meet investors one-2-one, and attend exclusive masterclasses. 

After mentoring and guiding some early-stage HR Tech startups last year, this year the program is back with another great panel of leaders from the HR industry and investors from some of the leading VC firms.

In the previous story, we shared about five of the many mentors who will guide the HR tech startups. 

Now, let’s take a look at the latest mentors to join People Matters TechHR Startup Program Singapore 2020:

Freddy Shen, Associate, Golden Gate Ventures 

Freddy Shen started his career with consulting firms like Bain Capital, McKinsey and Company, and KPMG. Later he worked with financial services companies like Caterpillar Financial Services Corporation and Titan Capital. Recently, in March 2019, Shen joined Golden Gate Ventures, an early-stage VC firm in Southeast Asia with over 25 investments across 7 countries.

Golden Gate Ventures’ portfolio includes startups like MoneySmart, Codapay, Homage, and TaniHub. Southeast Asia's one of the leading on-demand multi-service platform, Gojek is also one of the emerging companies Golden Gate Ventures has invested in. 

Meet Freddy at People Matters TechHR Singapore on 20th February 2020 at Marina Bay Sands.

Chieh Suang Khor, Principal, Cento Ventures

Chieh Suang is one of the founding members of Cento Ventures, a venture capital firm specialized in under-invested emerging digital markets, primarily Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam. She focuses on sourcing companies with good potential and helps them refine their business model and strategy.

In her almost 15 years of career, she has designed and formulated startup-friendly policies, early stage co-investment programmes and marketed Singapore to entrepreneurs, business angels, venture capital firms and technology transfer offices. She has also helped to formulate exit strategies for portfolio companies.

Chieh Suang started her career at the Economic Development Board of Singapore, working to develop Singapore into a hub for technology startup. She has also worked with Nusantara Ventures, a family-owned venture fund focusing on Indonesia, where she helped incubate 2 startups in Indonesia and worked on a joint venture investment.

Cento Ventures’ portfolio includes HR tech startup Kalibrr, Thailand’s C2C marketplace Kaidee, and Syte, among several other emerging startups. 

Meet Chieh Suang at People Matters TechHR Singapore on 20th February 2020 at Marina Bay Sands.

Zhifeng Koh, Open Innovation Lead - Singapore, Accenture Ventures

Zhifeng Koh helps emerging startups develop their open innovation strategy, agenda, and operating model. He works closely with the rest of the Accenture Strategy practice and other parts of Accenture to fit open innovation into companies' digital transformation journeys. As the Open Innovation Lead - Singapore, Accenture Ventures he runs Accenture's own open innovation program in Singapore (unofficially ASEAN).

Meet Zhifeng at People Matters TechHR Singapore on 20th February 2020 at Marina Bay Sands.

Ollie Wood, Head of Talent, Golden Gate Ventures

As the Head of Talent at Golden Gate Ventures, Ollie Wood makes senior level introductions to its portfolio companies. His focus areas include hiring investment, portfolio management, operations professionals into Golden Gate Ventures. Before joining Golden Gate Ventures, Wood was Consultant - Data Science & Analytics in Xpand Group. 

In Xpand Group, Wood worked on identifying active Tech, Data and Analytics opportunities across the Southeast Asia region. He has also worked with staffing firms like RP International and Henderson Scott. 

Wood brings the perspectives of both a talent leader as well as an investor. 

Meet Ollie at People Matters TechHR Singapore on 20th February 2020 at Marina Bay Sands.

Kuan Hsu, Co Founder, KK Fund

Kuan Hsu is a Venture Capitalist who co founded KK Fund, a venture capital fund investing in seed stage internet and mobile startups across Southeast Asia, Hong Kong and Taiwan. He started his career as a Business Analyst in McKinsey & Co. in 1999 and later moved to Singapore executing private equity deals at Temasek Holdings. 

KK Fund’s portfolio includes HR tech startups like JobHop, Venteny and Urbanhire and other startups like online car rental marketplace DriveHub, Supplycart and TravelSkope. 

Meet Kuan at People Matters TechHR Singapore on 20th February 2020 at Marina Bay Sands.

Shwetank Verma, Co - Founder and General Partner, Leo Capital

Shwetank Verma is an early-stage venture investor in India and Southeast Asia, focused on Digital Health, Insurtech and Fintech. He co founded Leo Capital, a venture capital fund, investing in early stage, technology centric opportunities. Other than helping with investments in India, he is helping the fund and its portfolio companies look into Asia and collaborate with large corporations. 

Based out of Singapore, Verma is also a mentor at Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship Singapore Management University. With his venture Leo Capital, he seeks to help teams that are persistent, have invested their time and energy in understanding the nuances and have a clear thought process of how they would go about building the business. 

Some of the startups Leo Capital has invested in include Edureka, Travclan and Workspot, among others. 

Meet Shwetank at People Matters TechHR Singapore on 20th February 2020 at Marina Bay Sands.

(Click here to know more about the Startup Program and to register to meet these mentors at People Matters TechHR Singapore 2020!)