Asia VC Cast

This week’s special guest is Jeffrey Yuwono, Co-Founder and CEO of Sorabel.  Established in 2014, Sorabel is changing the way middle class Indonesians  shop online today by providing affordable and accessible fashion to them. Located in the fastest growing ecommerce market in the world, Sorabel has become a notable homegrown player in the ecommerce fashion industry offering quality products at affordable prices and a safe experience of online shopping. Jeffrey shares his perspective on the current fashion e-commerce landscape in Indonesia and how they are differentiating themselves within this competitive vertical.  He also shares his insights on the emergence of social commerce and D2C fashion brands and how Sorabel has integrated those aspects into their business model.  Hope you guys enjoy this one!

This week’s special guest is Samir Chaibi [https://www.linkedin.com/in/schaibi/] from STRIVE. Samir is an early-stage investor at STRIVE, a pan-Asia venture capital fund headquartered in Tokyo and investing across Japan, India, and Southeast Asia. Samir heads the fund's investments in Indonesia while also managing investments across Southeast Asian countries. Samir serves on the board of Healint, Ayopop, Pintek, and Crowde and work closely with Berrybenka, Saleswhale, and Vouch.

This week’s special guest is Kalsoom Lakhani from I2I Ventures.  Kalsoom is the Founder/CEO of Invest2Innovate, , which supports startups and the broader entrepreneurship ecosystem in growth markets. i2i has been operating in Pakistan since 2011, and has accelerated 41 startups that have gone on to raise over $6.5M in funding and create over 1500 jobs in the country. Kalsoom is also a partner in i2i Ventures, a venture capital fund for Pakistan, and is the country's first female led in institutional fund.

This week’s special guest is Victor Chua [https://www.linkedin.com/in/victor4chua/], managing partner of Vynn Capital.  Victor was formally the Vice President of Investments for Gobi Partners and managed two Southeast Asia focused early stage funds. Prior to that he was with the venture capital arm of Malaysia’s Ministry of Finance,  managing direct and indirect investments. Some of his notable investments are Carsome, Travelio, Triip, Hermo, and Jirnexu. Victor has invested in over 20 companies in Southeast Asia, especially in Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia. Together, we discuss why Victor is so bullish on “female-focused economics” and why there’s so much more excitement in startups serving the female consumers.  Also, he shares his insights on increasing trend in family offices & corporates making direct investments and why he believes it’s important to create more vehicles for corporates to bring complimentary values for startups.  Hope you guys enjoy this one!

This week’s special guest is Chad Tangsriwong [https://www.linkedin.com/in/chadthanachat/] from CyberAgent Capital.  Chad is a Chief Representative of Bangkok Office of CyberAgent Capital, leading an operation in Thailand for a Japanese-headquartered VC firm who actively invests in all major cities across Asia Pacific.  As one of the very first native Thais who work for international fund, Chad has made the investment into many top-tier Thai startups, with ClaimDi, Fastwork, Getlinks and SkillLane among others. He has also had a few exits under his belt in Priceza and aCommerce. Together, we discuss the current state of Thai startup ecosystem and the significant market opportunities that are yet to be exploited.  Chad shares his thoughts on the importance of becoming a regional player in Southeast Asia and why Bangkok is one of the best cities for founders to acheive that goal.