1000+
Start-up founders
500+
CXOs of enterprises
200
Global and regional VC partners
100+
Global and regional media partners
10k+
Online attendees
20m+
Social media impressions
3
UNICORN FOUNDERS
Zhang Ping’an is currently the President of HUAWEI CLOUD. He joined Huawei in 1996 and served successively in several positions - President of product line, Senior Vice President, Vice President of Strategy and Marketing, Vice President of regional division, Vice President of Global Technology Services, CEO of Huawei Symantec, etc. Previously, he headed Huawei’s consumer cloud business. Zhang is a master’s graduate from Zhejiang University.
Jeffery Liu was appointed as President of Huawei Asia Pacific Region since April 2020. He is responsible for overseeing the company’s strategic direction, operations and overall development roadmap. With over 20 years of experience in the telecoms industry, he leads the business group as it strives to become a leading strategic partner in the region.
Mr. Liu joined Huawei in 1997 and prior to his current role, he held several senior positions within the company across China and international borders. This includes General Manager of Mobile Solution Department, Vice president of Asia Pacific Region, Vice President of China Region, President of MTN Global Key Account, President of Central Asia & Caucasia Region and President of Southern Pacific Region and Southern-East Asia Region.
Born in 1971, Ms. Catherine Chen graduated from Northwest University in China. She joined Huawei in 1995 and has served as Chief Representative of the Beijing Representative Office, Vice President of the International Marketing Dept, Deputy Director of the Domestic Marketing Management Office, a member of the Board, President of the Public Affairs and Communications Dept, and Corporate Senior Vice President.
Raymond Wong, Head of Investment, Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTP), manages the HKSTP Venture Fund and Investor Engagement departments. He has 25 years of extensive financial services experience in venture capital and private equity investment, portfolio management, merger and acquisition as well as strategic investment across multiple sectors in the Asia Pacific region. Prior to HKSTP, Raymond was a principal in HPEF Capital Partners, previously known as HSBC Private Equity Asia, and participated in three consecutive Asian funds for 16 years. Prior to HSBC, Raymond held various roles at ABN AMRO Bank in the proprietary capital investment, equity capital markets and corporate finance divisions. Previously, he was a software developer at IBM Laboratory in Toronto, Canada. Raymond is a member of the Venture Committee, Hong Kong Venture Capital and Private Equity Association and a director of the Hong Kong Business Angel Network.
Raymond obtained a Master of Business Administration in Finance from Columbia Business School, New York, and a Bachelor of Applied Science in Engineering Science (Computer Aided Design and Manufacturing) from University of Toronto.
Mr Stephen Phillips is the Director-General of Investment Promotion at Invest Hong Kong (InvestHK), the Government Department responsible for attracting and facilitating foreign direct investment into Hong Kong.
Mr Phillips has served in senior positions in a number of private and public organisations.He lived and worked in Hong Kong from 1989 to 2004 holding senior investment banking positions with Deutsche and BZW/Barclays Capital before co-founding a Hong Kong-based group of companies providing IT, financial and consultancy services across Asia.In 2004, Mr Phillips joined UK Trade & Investment(now the UK’s Department of International Trade) before becoming the Chief Executive of the China Britain Business Council in 2006, as well as Chairman of the EU China Business Association.
Leo is a savvy, accomplished, business and technology leader. He is highly regarded for leveraging design thinking, innovation to drive record-breaking growth for global multi-national companies. A columnist for medium.com, startup, data driven investor, on emerging technology and digital transformation. Out-of-the-box thinker who champions critical insights across business and digital transformations. Leo is sought as corporate entrepreneur and delivered several transformational changes in global multinational companies e.g. BT, Orange Business Services, and Vodafone prior joining Huawei.
Simon is the Founder and Group CEO of WeLab, a leading fintech company and one of the most important digital native brands in financial services in Asia with close to 50 million individual users and over 700 enterprise customers in Hong Kong, Mainland China, and Indonesia. The financial holding company operates one of the largest digital consumer finance businesses in Asia, a pan-Asia digital bank and a leading B2B fintech enterprise solutions business.
Simon is a pioneer in driving fintech development and financial inclusion in Asia. He is a strong believer and passionate about innovating the financial services industry with technology. He serves on key committees in both public and private sectors, sharing his experiences and insights to drive the proliferation of the fintech ecosystem. He has received numerous awards in recognizing his achievement, including “CEO of the Year” by Capital CEO, “Innovation Leadership Achievement in Hong Kong” by The Asian Banker and “Vice Chancellor’s Achievement Awards” by The University of Sydney. He was also named as “one of the 20 people shaping Hong Kong’s future” in the next 20 years by a leading Chinese media outlet.
Prior to founding WeLab in 2013, Simon spent 15 years in the retail banking divisions of Citibank and Standard Chartered. Simon has a Master of Science in Management (MSM) from Stanford Graduate School of Business and is a Fellow of Certified Public Accountant (Australia).
As Chief Operating Officer of Klook, Eric oversees critical pillars of the company’s operations including business strategy and growth, marketing, partnerships, and customer experience. Under his leadership and vision, the company has grown significantly with diverse product offerings, leading marketing innovation and popularity across the globe. To date, Klook has raised over US$720 million in funding from world-renowned investors including Sequoia Capital, Matrix Partners, and Softbank Vision Fund. Eric has also been instrumental in establishing partnerships with key travel players from Universal Studio and Hong Kong Mass Transit Railway Corporation (MTR) to Japan National Tourism Organization, Hong Kong Tourism Board, Singapore Tourism Board, and many more.
As a testament to Eric’s leadership, Klook covers over 400 destinations and over 100,000 experiences across the globe. A Mauritius native and educated in the United States, Eric is an avid explorer with a multicultural upbringing that taught him to speak seven languages. He was featured on Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia 2017 List and China’s Yicai (CBN) Brilliant 20 List, recognizing his entrepreneurial spirit and game-changing attitude. Before co-founding Klook in 2014, Eric worked in finance at a global investment bank in Hong Kong.
Edward is the Chief Executive Officer, Board Member of Sistema Asia Capital, and a member of the Investment Committee. Established in 1993, Sistema is the largest private investment corporation in Russia with assets in excess of USD 20 Billion. Its diversified investment portfolio comprises stakes from 15 sectors of the economy, including telecoms, internet technology, utilities, retail, pharmaceuticals, healthcare, railway transportation, agriculture, finance, and mass media. Sistema Asia Capital is a MAS regulated venture capital/private equity fund that invests in innovative APAC technology companies.
Edward previously held senior roles in British Telecom, IBM, Keppel Communications, and Hewlett Packard in divisions that include AI, data centers & analytics, cloud services, IoT, smart city, 5G, satellite communication & next-generation mobility networks. He actively engages the regulators, investors, and business community in China on entrepreneurship and sustainability issues.
A graduate from the National University of Singapore in Mechanical Engineering, Edward serves as a Business Mentor at Singapore Management University and Adjunct Lecturer at Peking University for MBA Private Equity and Venture Capital.
Kuo-Yi is the Co-founder and Managing Partner at Monk’s Hill Ventures, a venture capital firm investing in early-stage tech companies, primarily Series A, in Southeast Asia. He is based in Singapore and is a board member of Ninja Van, Padlet, KKday, Jio Health, Horangi, Saleswhale and GoGet.
In the early 2000’s, Kuo-Yi was an early employee of Encentuate, an identity and access management software startup (acquired by IBM) and Reputation Technologies, a supplier relationship management software startup (acquired by Security Sources). In 2008, he co-founded SportsHook, a social networking and event management SaaS startup for the sports community.
Prior to Monk’s Hill Ventures, Kuo-Yi was CEO of Infocomm Investments, a $200M venture fund based in Singapore investing in technology startups globally. At Infocomm Investments, Kuo-Yi led investments in Twilio (NYSE:TWLO), Dataxu, Quid, Gengo and other leading startups.
Kuo-Yi serves as a board member on several Singapore government statutory boards, including the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), Health Promotion Board (HPB), and the Intellectual Property Office (IPOS). He is also a member of the Future Economy Council in Singapore.
Kuo-Yi graduated from MIT with the bachelor, master's and doctorate degrees in electrical engineering. His doctoral thesis is in the area of nanophotonics, specifically in the design, fabrication and characterization of photonic crystal structures.
David, a second-generation Venture Capitalist, is the founding partner of MindWorks Capital and has been involved with some of the most transformative companies to emerge from Asia. MindWorks is one of the earliest institutional investors of Huolala and David has been a board member of Huolala since 2014.
Previously, David worked as a Managing Director for Guosen Securities; prior to that he was Vice President at Credit Suisse and Analyst at Morgan Stanley. He graduated from the University of California San Diego with a dual degree in Management Science and Political Science.
Shawn Low is a co-founder at Better and part of the core leadership that built an integrated homeownership company from pre-revenue to a tech unicorn. In his pinnacle role as Head of Operations, Shawn led teams across Better’s core business lines and corporate functions comprising over 80% of Better’s workforce. During this time, Better grew 10X, achieved profitability, and was named LinkedIn’s #1 Start-Up in the US in 2020. In recognition of his contributions, Shawn was named to HousingWire's Insider list for 2020. Since relocating back to Singapore, Shawn continues to serve as an advisor at Better while mentoring other startup founders. In his spare time, he enjoys helping people learn more about personal finance, playing competitive squash, and whipping up Singaporean food in his kitchen.
A programmer by training and a venture capitalist by profession. Aaron founded his first startup at 13 and subsequently sold two companies before turning 21.
Former IT Youth of the Year, Aaron represented Singapore in programming competitions overseas. Aaron subsequently took a scholarship from the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore and read computer science at Carnegie Mellon and Singapore Management University.
As a returning scholar, Aaron helped start Singtel’s venture fund - Singtel Innov8 ventures. Aaron spearheaded the setup of Blk71– Singapore’s largest startup ecosystem. He subsequently relocated to the United States and started Block71 San Francisco and the firm’s San Francisco operations before returning to Singapore in 2015. While at Innov8, Aaron oversees the fund’s investments in South East Asia.
Aaron left the fund in 2016 and founded Carro – SEA’s largest online marketplace for cars. In 2021, Carro was named the fastest growing company in Asia Pacific with revenues of over $300M annually.
Aaron graduated Summa Cum Laude with a BSc and MSc from Singapore Management University School of Information Systems and Carnegie Mellon University School of Computer Science.
Edwin Chow is the Assistant Chief Executive Officer of Enterprise Singapore.
In this role, Edwin and his colleagues will work to ensure that Singapore becomes a centre of market-led innovation projects, targeting our international markets. This will result in a strong base of startups, SMEs and larger local companies developing and commercializing new products and solutions, creating value and jobs in Singapore.
His previous roles at Enterprise Singapore include driving the agency’s efforts to strengthen SMEs in our Manufacturing & Engineering sectors, supporting the growth of Singapore’s startup eco-system, and overseeing the investment arm of SPRING Singapore (pre-cursor to Enterprise Singapore) Before joining SPRING, Edwin spent 8 years with the Economic Development Board in a range of portfolios, including 4 years as EDB’s Centre Director in Milan covering Italy, Switzerland and Spain. Edwin is a graduate of the London School of Economics, and holds an MBA from the National University of Singapore. He is married with 3 sons.
As CEO of SGInnovate, Dr Lim Jui has overall leadership of the organisation that is committed to helping entrepreneurial scientists build and scale Deep Tech startups. At SGInnovate, Jui and his team work closely with a wide range of partners and co-investors to back this unique group of founders, who are looking to solve global challenges with their research-based solutions. This is done through equity-based investments, access to the Deep Tech ecosystem and talent network, as well as by providing business-building support.
While he trained in medicine, Jui had spent most of his professional life in the business of science and innovation. He was Director of Investments, Bio*One Capital; CEO of Merlin MD, a medical device company; Executive Director of the Medical Engineering Research and Commercialisation Initiative (MERCI) at the National University of Singapore (NUS); and Programme Director of the Singapore-Stanford Biodesign Programme (SSB), a joint venture between the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) and Stanford University. Before joining SGInnovate, Jui was CEO of NTUitive, the innovation and enterprise company of the Nanyang Technological University (NTU).
He currently serves on the advisory boards of IPOS International, the business arm of the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS), and several startup companies. He was previously a board member of the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) in Singapore.
Jui received his Bachelor of Arts (BA, Biological Sciences and East Asian Studies) and Doctor of Medicine (MD) at Columbia University. He then obtained his Master of Medicine (Anaesthesiology and Surgical Intensive Care) from NUS. He remains a registered medical practitioner today.
Clay Chandler is Fortune’s Asia editor. Based in Hong Kong, Clay oversees Fortune’s editorial operations throughout the region, contributes feature articles, commentary, and news analysis to the magazine and Fortune.com, and leads the Asia- and China-based conferences. Clay writes Eastworld, a twice-weekly newsletter with analysis of developments in Asian business, finance, and technology. Clay returned to Fortune after a six-year stint at McKinsey & Company. He worked previously for Fortune as Asia Editor in Beijing, and before that covered business, economics, and technology in the U.S. and Asia as senior staff writer for the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post. Clay has lived in Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, and Tokyo, and reported from every major Asian capital. He speaks Mandarin and Japanese, is a graduate of Harvard University and a former fellow of Harvard’s John King Fairbank program on Chinese studies.
David is a Provost’s chair and professor in management and organizations at NUS Business School, National University of Singapore. He is the founder and director of the Center on AI Technology for Humankind at NUS Business school. Before moving to NUS, he was the KPMG endowed chaired professor in management studies at Camrbridge Judge Business School, where he is now an honorary fellow and fellow at St. Edmunds College, Cambridge University. He is named one of the World’s top 30 management gurus and speakers in 2020 by the organization GlobalGurus, one of the “2021 Thinkers50 Radar list of 30 next generation business thinkers” (an annual ranking that the Financial Times deemed the “Oscars of Management Thinking”), and included in the World Top 2% of scientists. He is a best-selling author with his book on “Huawei: Leadership, culture and connectivity” having sold more than 1 million copies. His latest book is “Leadership by algorithm: Who leads and who follows in the AI era?”, which has received critical acclaim worldwide and was named one of the 15 leadership books to read in Summer 2020.
Hsien-Hui Tong brings with him, in-depth knowledge and experience in the Business Development and Venture Capital spaces in Australia, Europe, Singapore, and the US.
As the Executive Director - Investments, Hsien-Hui oversees SGInnovate's investments efforts, which target high-potential, deep technology startups working on areas such as Artificial Intelligence, Autonomous Vehicles, MedTech, and Blockchain.
Prior to joining SGInnovate, he was the Managing Partner, Asia Pacific for Wassax Ventures. He has also served as the CEO of the National University of Singapore Society (NUSS) and Vice President at Staples. In the early 2000s, he co-founded a data mining company, which was sold to a global bank two years later.
Hsien-Hui graduated in 1998 from NUS with a Bachelor of Engineering.
Queenie is the Vice President of C Ventures, leading investments in the global consumer space including fashion, beauty and lifestyle sectors. Prior to joining C Ventures, she worked at Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s Equity Capital Markets team based in Hong Kong, executing equity offerings across sectors in the Asia Pacific Region. Queenie holds the degree of a Bachelor of Business Administration from The Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Michael Lints has over 20 years of experience helping innovative businesses obtain the resources, insights, and expertise they need in order to be successful. Michael has been a startup operator, investor, and mentor, and is currently a Partner at the Singapore-based venture capital firm Golden Gate Ventures. He joined the firm in 2013 and is currently leading growth venture efforts, which include LP fundraising and portfolio management for Golden Gate Venture’s investments at Series B and beyond.
Michael’s entrepreneurial journey began in 2000 when he co-founded an IT managed services startup in Europe that was acquired by a large data and telecom company six years later. In 2007, Michael founded a venture fund focused on Dutch small- and medium-sized enterprises to help them with capital financing, business development, and strategy. During the same period, he was invited to join the Economic Development Board Rotterdam as Vice Chairman. In that role, he launched the Young Economic Development Board where he brought together a highly influential Dutch network to develop a sustainable framework for public-private relationships that increased local business investment while leveraging the public infrastructure.
Michael has helped support firm and portfolio-level priorities that have spanned fundraising, capital allocation, and corporate development. He has helped to raise over USD $60M for Golden Gate Ventures and its portfolio companies, including helping to raise later stage rounds from external investors as well as leading two early strategic acquisitions.
Outside of work, sport is an essential part of Michael’s life. He is a former member of the Dutch karate team and the former ambassador for Treknology (Trek bikes distributor in Singapore). Michael actively participates in Ironman 70.3 races and marathons. He is also passionate about social justice and uses sport as a vehicle to raise awareness for important issues such as civil rights, economic opportunity, and education. Besides sport, Michael is an active writer and writes articles regarding life, balance, and venture capital on michaellints.com.
Cat has extensive leadership experience driving mobile, internet and software related transformation with large enterprises and start-ups. Her current role is as Global Head, Technology at Standard Chartered Bank where she is responsible for building a new business around technology clients. She joined from 3 years at UBS Wealth Management Greater China where she was Head of Innovation Technologies, Greater China. Previously, she spent more than 15 years building eight technology companies in software, cloud and mobile in Hong Kong, China, the US and the UK. With the aim of promoting technology and transformation, Cat holds senior roles with the Women’s Foundation and InvestHK; she also leads a Facebook community with over 12k members around start-up. She was also named a global top 100 in women in Fintech.
Prior to her days in technology, Cat spent 5 years in China building companies, factories and amusement parks. She studied Management and Statistics at St Andrews University and received Diplomas in Marketing and Process-reengineering. She speaks Mandarin, French, German and some Spanish; and was born and raised in Asia.
Mr Kurt Wee is the President of the Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (ASME). He has spent his career spanning the last 18 years in the investment and private equity industry. He is invested in medical and biotechnology fields of human stem cells, immunotherapy and gene therapy. He is also consulted by enterprises for turnarounds, recovery and corporate restructuring situations. Mr Wee also serves in a number of committees in various government ministries, charity and academic institutions.
Mr Alfred Sit joined the Government as Assistant Electrical and Mechanical Engineer in 1984 and was promoted to Chief Electrical and Mechanical Engineer in 2001, to Government Electrical and Mechanical Engineer in 2007, to Deputy Director of Electrical and Mechanical Services in 2011. He was Director of Electrical and Mechanical Services and Electrical and Mechanical Services Trading Fund General Manager since October 2017. On 22 April 2020, Mr Sit was appointed Secretary for Innovation and Technology.
Mr Sit is an electrical engineer by profession and has over 30 years’ experience in public administration. He is a fellow member of the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers. He was the President of the Hong Kong Institution of Facility Management and Chairman of the Biomedical Division of the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers.
Mr Sit holds the Associateship in Electrical Engineering from the Hong Kong Polytechnic and a master degree in Business Administration from The Chinese University of Hong Kong. He has also attended the Harvard Business School.
Mr.Foo has more than 20 years of information and communication industry experience from both operators and vendors.
He is appointed as CEO Huawei International Pte Ltd in 2021 and managing the overall business in Singapore and Brunei. He joined Huawei in 2007 has served as Director of Asia Pacific Carrier Solution Department, Vice President of Huawei Malaysia, and Vice President of Huawei Australia.
Before joining Huawei, Mr. Foo was the Head of Department in the R&D Department of Unified Communications Ptd. Ltd. responsible for telecommunications value added services and signaling product design and development.
He graduated from USM with Electronic Engineering degree in 1997 and obtained his postgraduate degree in Software Engineering from Staffordshire University in 2000.
Yang Zhandi is the Managing Director of the Hong Kong Cloud Business Dept. He is in charge of Huawei Hong Kong Cloud business, covering sales of HUAWEI CLOUD products, solutions, cloud ecosystem construction, and local development of HUAWEI CLOUD branding.
Mr. Yang served as the Director of the China Mobile Account Dept. and Vice Director of the Enterprise Business Group (in charge of sales) at Huawei Hong Kong. During this period, Mr. Yang made outstanding achievements in the Carrier and Enterprise markets respectively. In addition, Mr. Yang actively communicated and cooperated with the IT industry in Hong Kong to promote Huawei's contribution to ICT digitalization in Hong Kong.
Spark Founders Summit – “SFS” is an event focused on providing unparalleled opportunity and spotlight to rising Asian startups, bringing active investors, corporates and government onto one connected platform to showcase and build on Asia’s startup ecosystem. SFS is ideal for fundraising, forging strategic and commercial partnerships, and showing the world what you’re capable of. Come join us to see what your future could look like.
Looking for the next unicorn in Asia? Come to SFS to meet potential new investments and network with other active investors in the region. Here, you’ll be learning more about the Asian investment landscape, hearing pitches from 9 selected high-potential startups, and participate in exclusive founder-investor networking activities.
SFS is where Fortune 500 organizations can learn more about innovative and commercialized solutions delivering impactful changes for enterprises, how technology and disruptive business model is transforming respective industries, and find out how to improve their business to stay competitive. If you’re a corporate looking to innovate and transform, join us to meet disruptors, solution providers that can help co-create a new reality.
SFS packs a punch with fresh announcements, new developments and trends from leading companies in the Asian tech ecosystem. World-leading press, including Fortune, CNA and Tech in Asia, cover the region’s most influential startup event, highlighting the latest and the greatest, and profiles of rising startups. Join to be ahead of the pack, reporting on one of the most anticipated tech event of the year.