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. 

Here’s a list of some of the latest investors from leading VC firms who will mentor the HR and Work tech startups participating in the People Matters TechHR Startup Program Singapore 2020:   

Ajay Taunk, Associate, Wavemaker Partners

Ajay joined Wavemaker Partners in 2018. Prior to that he has worked in diverse industries in banking, energy, and startups in both emerging and developed markets. 

At Wavemaker, Ajay is involved in the sourcing and evaluation of deals, due diligence, and the preparation of investment proposals for the fund’s investment decisions. He focuses on the performance of Wavemaker’s Fintech and Agritech portfolio companies as well as the Indonesian and South Asian markets.

Wavemaker Partners, founded in 2003 and dual-headquartered in Los Angeles and Singapore, has over US$ 335 Mn in assets under management, and has invested in over 300 portfolio companies. Wavemaker’s portfolio includes HR and work tech startups like Hardskills, Panalyt, Kalibrr and Sprout, among others. 

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

Prasad Vanga, Founder & CEO, Anthill Ventures

Prasad Vanga founded Anthill Ventures, a speed scaling platform for early growth stage startups and within two years, built a startup portfolio of 22 companies across India, US and Southeast Asia that has grown by 3X in portfolio value. 

In his current role, Prasad leads the strategy, fund management and venture building at Anthill. As an investor, Prasad has backed several successful companies like Medplus, Zenoti and Tynker. He is also a board advisor to ISB (Indian School of Business) SRITNE center of excellence, Charter Member (TiE), Member (Hyderabad Angels) and an active Alumni of the Stanford Business School. 

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

Carmen Yuen, Partner, Vertex Ventures

Carmen has served many years in Singapore’s government-backed venture capital initiatives including EDB Investments and Spring SEEDS Capital where she worked closely with many startups in Singapore. In 2014, she joined Vertex Ventures Singapore. Before that she was with Majuven, a Singapore angel fund. 

Carmen, who currently serves on the Board of TickledMedia (dba TheAsianParent.com), has a focus on helping startups in Singapore and Southeast Asia market grow. Vertex Venture, Carmen works as Partner has invested in companies like Grab, Firstcry, Get, PAYFAZZ, SDiX, SoCash, Sunday, among others.

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

Chia Jeng Yang, Principal, Saison Capital

Chia is a Principal at Saison Capital, a Japanese-backed fintech-focused fund (early-late stage, debt, fund of funds) that invests globally and in any vertical, but especially in emerging markets like Southeast Asia, and India. 

Previously, he was the 5th employee (Investment Manager/Country Launcher) for Antler, an early-stage VC/pre-team accelerator, and helped build Daraz, an ecommerce company that was acquired by Alibaba, in Pakistan/Sri Lanka for Rocket Internet. 

Chia is a consumer angel investor, with portfolio companies in Indonesia, Bangladesh, Egypt, London and the US, and founded Shaper Impact Capital, a global platform for impact dealflow and startup support, currently in 20 countries. 

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

Andreas Surya, Principal, Kejora Ventures

Andreas is on the lookout to empower startups who are leveraging to enhance productivity. Currently, he leads Kejora Ventures investment team and is responsible for analyzing investment opportunities, executing an investment deal, and monitoring active investment portfolios. 

Prior to joining Kejora, Andreas has worked in companies like Siemens and CISCO in strategy and business development roles. Currently, overseeing more than 30 portfolio companies, he also helped co-found MobileMonday Indonesia. 

Kejora Ventures’ portfolio includes names like Qareer, Found8, SmartStudy, and Fastwork. Andreas is also a mentor at G-Startup Worldwide, a global startup competition held around the world to find the most innovative, early stage startups, invest in them, support them with a global network and enable them to change the world.

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

Ryu Hirota, Principal, Spiral Ventures

Ryu, was associated with “IMJ Investment Partners” established in 2012 by IMJ Corporation (“IMJ”), a major digital marketing company, as an independent venture capital subsidiary in Japan. After IMJ was acquired by Culture Convenience Club (“CCC”) in 2013, the company continued their investment activities independently, and eventually relocated the office to Singapore to change the strategy and start a venture capital fund for the Southeast Asia market. 

In 2015, Ryu and team established the Japan office and started a venture capital fund for the Japanese market. In tandem with the expansion of the business, they left the CCC Group, and relaunched as“Spiral Ventures” in 2017, and made a fresh start as an independent venture capital firm.

Currently, Spiral Ventures’ portfolio includes a mix of HR tech, fintech and edtech startups like Classplus, HealthMetrics, UangTeman and Zoom. At present, Ryu is Non Executive Director of HealthMetrics, an enterprise web-based software startup that assists HR in simplifying and managing the complexities of employee healthcare plans. 

Meet Ryu 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!)