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Famous techpreneur Li Yinan (b. 1970) is the former CTO of Baidu and former CEO of Wuxian Xunqi, a China Mobile subsidiary. After Li graduated from Huazhong University of Science & Technology with a master’s degree in Optics Engineering, he joined Huawei and was promoted to vice-president of its Central Research Department in just six months; in 1997 Li because the youngest vice-president at Huawei. In 2001, Li quit Huawei and started his own data communication company, Harbour Networks, which followed the same structure of Huawei and soon became its main competitor. In 2005, Harbour Networks lost in its intense battle with Huawei and was acquired by the larger player. Even though Li rejoined Huawei after the acquisition, he was never able to re-enter the core management team because of his damaged relationship with Ren Zhengfei, the founder and president of Huawei. In April 2015, Li founded his smart e-scooter company, NIU Smart Scooters. Li began investing in 2010 and joined GSR Ventures in 2011. Up to June 2015, Li had invested in more than 10 companies from the TMT sector. Li stood trial for insider trading in March 2016, according to news reports.

LeapFrog Investments is an impact-focused investor, managing over $1.6bn in assets mainly investing in Africa and Asia. Its “profit with purpose” has led to investments in startups that provide healthcare, financial services and insurance for low-income consumers. Since it was founded in 2007, LeapFrog has attracted funds from Prudential, AXA, Swiss Re and Omidyar Network, becoming the first impact investor in the world to reach the $1bn milestone. It’s headquartered in South Africa and Singapore.LeapFrog is best known for its investments in the insurance sector. One of the most prominent companies in its portfolio is BIMA, the mobile-based insurance provider that has provided coverage in Ghana, Bangladesh, Cambodia and many other countries. In 2020, LeapFrog invested in Indonesian startup PasarPolis, which is a broker for a wide range of microinsurance products. In the healthcare and biotechnology sectors, LeapFrog has funded Indian genetic diagnostics company MedGenome, as well as Goodlife Pharmacy, a Kenyan company providing access to affordable medicine in the East African country.

Beyond Investing is a Geneva-based firm investing in early-stage venture capital and equity growth startups mainly in European developed markets. With average investments of €200,000, the firm’s core investment strategy focuses on sustainability with an investment period lasting 5–10 years.The impact investor targets innovative startups involved in vegan, cruelty-free and plant-based alternatives; biotechnologies, foodtech, new materials, clothing and lifestyle sectors. Successful portfolio foodtechs include Mosa Meat, BlueNalu and Shiok Meats.With a team of vegan finance professionals in the US and Europe, Beyond Investing listed the first US Vegan Climate ETF (VEGN) on the New York Stock Exchange in September 2019. The ETF tracks Beyond Investing’s US Vegan Climate Index which covers an index of 495 of the largest-capitalization companies in the US stock market. The ethical investment option aims to exclude stocks in companies with activities that are not aligned with its vegan-themed, cruelty-free and fossil-fuel-free investing ethos.

Armed with Asian and European experience, Miguel Amaro co-founded Uniplaces in 2011. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Finance from the University of Nottingham, and took a course in Chinese Studies at East China Normal University. He obtained his master’s in Management, with a concentration in Global Entrepreneurship, from Babson Graduate School. Amaro also spent two months as an analyst at Grameen Bank in Dhaka, Bangladesh. While developing Uniplaces, he was an entrepreneur-in-residence at Picvic Labs (France), Zhejiang University Innovation Institute (China) and Osram (United States). Amaro is currently part of the World Economic Forum’s Global Shapers. As an investor, to date, he has only invested in Portuguese healthy food service EatTasty and part funding the company's angel, pre-seed and seed rounds, with undisclosed investments. 

C4 Ventures was founded by Pascal Cagni, former VP and GM of Apple EMEIA. With offices in Paris and London, the firm invests in early-stage startups across market segments in Europe. The VC also supports later-stage companies interested in expanding into Europe. It currently has 33 startups in its portfolio with principal interests in sectors like hardware, digital media and the future of commerce and work.Recent investments in 2021 include the $54m Series B round of Austrian refurbished electronics goods marketplace Refurbed in August and the $5m seed round in June of Norbert Health, the French producers of the first ambient scanner that can measure vital signs.

Sanchez is a computer and data science expert with a master’s degree in innovation and research in informatics with specialization in advanced computing from the Polytechnic University of Barcelona (UPC). He also holds multiple certifications from the John Hopkins University School of Education. Sanchez is currently CTO and co-founder of HumanITcare, a telemedicine platform for remote patient monitoring using real-world data and AI to treat patients affected by chronic diseases and also to accelerate drug development and clinical trials. Prior to HumanITcare, Sanchez worked as Data Scientist in a joint-project between the Spanish insurance company Catalana Occidente and technology consultancy Raona to develop a sales collaborative platform. He has also worked on projects in software development, mobile apps, server and hardware as well as prototyping for IoT devices in the fields of education, health and wellness.

Paris-based Orange Digital Ventures is part of French telco Orange and was established in 2015. It invests up to €150m in businesses with technology that aligns with Orange's development plans. It has a geographical focus on Africa and has made a commitment to boosting the continent's startup ecosystem through its 2017 €50m dedicated Africa fund. Recent investments include fintech Monzo's US$144m Series F round and B2C savings and investment marketplace Raisin's US$$114m Series D round.

London-based financial services company Octopus Investments was founded in 2000. Since then, the firm has grown to a 500-strong company that manages £6 billion on behalf of more than 50,000 investors. It is part of Octopus Group. The VC firm has offices in New York, Singapore and Shanghai, besides London and has invested in 200 companies to date, almost half of them as the lead investor.  It has seen 27 exits among its portfolio companies, including acquisitions by Microsoft, Amazon, and Google, with notable divested companies including Graze, Adbrain, SwiftKey and Zoopla.

Indogen Capital is Indonesia’s latest VC founded in early 2017. The private fund looks for founder “athletes and shapes them into champions”, with capital injections of US$100,000 to US$500,000.VC advisor and Tokopedia co-founder, Leonitus Alpha Edison is passionate about mentoring startups on how to negotiate founder-friendly deals.The other VC partners are: Hendry Willy (Leon’s friend and founder of TokoUSB.com), private equity veteran Teezar Firmansyah, Nararya Ciputra Sastrawinata of business tycoon family in real estate and Ciputra University. Indogen’s CEO Chandra Firmanto is Leon’s childhood friend whose family business had joint ventures with Ciputra. 

Eempat Kapital (EK) was established in 2011 by Pramadita (Riel) Tasmaya, who is also a co-founder of Muslimarket. The investment firm is also managed by team member Emilia Emil Abbas, the daughter of Dr Emil Abbas who also owns PT Ranji Karya Sakti, part of the Easco Holding conglomerate. Another team member is Aldi Harris, who was the general manager of the private family-owned Easco Holding.EK’s portfolio includes energy and oil companies, e-commerce Muslimarket, concert information website Sindhen and food chains, Chicken Run and Arasseo. EK also raises finance for startups and provides management services as needed.

Well-known for co-founding JobsCentral in Singapore, Lim Der Shing has been an angel investor since 2009. JobsCentral was acquired by CareerBuilder USA in 2011 and Der Shing became its Asia-Pacific MD. He left the new role after six months in 2014 to become a full-time investor and partner at Singapore-based VC Jungle Ventures. The electrical and electronic engineer graduated in 1999 with a Summa cum Laude from the University of Michigan, USA. As a scholar, he returned to work at Sembcorp before co-founding JobsCentral’s predecessor JobsFactory in 2000 with co-founder and wife Huang Shao-Ning.

Founded in 2017 by the ex-CEO of Credit Suisse bank Gaël de Boissard, 2B Capital is venture capital firm based in London. Its first investment in CrowdProcess Inc and the startup's James risk management platform was as part of a US$2.7-million seed funding in August 2017. The VC primarily invests in fintech and structured credit and mezzanine lending to the new lenders and challenger banks.

IGF is a crowdfunding platform for impact investing in Asia. It aims to partner with innovative, high-impact enterprises in need of capital to scale their businesses and, as a result, be of value to society and the environment. The fund seeks to mobilize its US$50m in investment capital to deliver affordable healthcare, cut CO2 emissions, help more than 2m people gain access to clean energy and empower women. IGF's investments range in size from US$250,000 to US$5m, and primarily take the form of equity or quasi-equity. All its investments include pre-agreed social or environmental impact targets.

Founded in 1999, TLCOM Capital now has offices in Kenya, Nigeria and the UK. Originally a global VC investor, its key investment objective now is to tackle Africa’s greatest challenges via its TIDE Africa Fund that was established in 2017.Total funding to date stands at $300m and investments range from $500,000 to $10m.  It currently has 12 portfolio companies and has managed 13 exits. Recent investments include the $6m Series A round of Kenyan agro-focused insurtech PULA and the $7.5m Series A round of Nigerian edtech uLesson Education.

Rick Klausner is an award-winning scientist, former executive director of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and an entrepreneur. Cell and molecular biologist Klausner was also director of the US National Cancer Institute from 1999-2001 and currently serves as CEO at biotech Lyell Immunopharma working with cell-based technology. He has also co-founded three US healthcare startups to date, Juno Therapeutics in 2013, MindStrong Health in 2014 and GRAIL in 2015. In 2021, he participated as an investor in the $48m Series A round of Dutch cell-based meat startup Meatable which leverages pluripotent stem cells for the first time in foodtech.

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