AVCJ Private Equity & Venture Forum
Asia's premier private equity & venture event for the last 36 years
LIVE Broadcast & In Person
Four Seasons Hotel, Hong Kong & Online
13
Nov
Driving diversity in venture capital and entrepreneurship
Research has suggested that VC firms that fail to prioritize diversity, equity and inclusion may face more issues during a challenging fundraising environment. Despite increased DEI efforts globally and regionally, women and racial minority representation within VC firms remains limited, particularly at the senior level. In Asia, whilst female representation in entrepreneurship has risen, male founders disproportionally receive the bulk of VC funding. What needs to be done to ensure a more equitable playing field within the industry? Our panel of leading regional venture capital investors and entrepreneurs will discuss and debate how the industry can move forwards.
- Why does increased diversity in the venture capital industry lead to better returns, performance, and enhanced innovation?
- Why is a top-down commitment to diversity necessary in the venture capital industry?
- What are some concrete examples in which the APAC VC industry has helped to foster an inclusive environment for female/minority entrepreneurs?
- What more needs to be done to drive DEI adoption within the industry, from an internal and portfolio company perspective?
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SpeakersYiqing Wang Managing Editor, M&A and ECM, APAC MERGERMARKET
Field Pickering Managing Partner VULPES VENTURES
Scarlett Chen Managing Partner VERGE HEALTHTECH FUND
Cindy Zhang Executive Director GOBI PARTNERS
Huiting Koh Founding Managing Partner BLUEPRINT VENTURES
Adrian Li Founder & Managing Partner AC VENTURES
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Yiqing Wang is Managing Editor of Mergermarket’s Asia-Pacific M&A and ECM editorial team, which specializes in breaking news on private and public M&A transactions and delivering forward-looking intelligence on corporate strategy. Yiqing spearheads the editorial strategy and oversees day-to-day operations, to deliver timely, actionable insights and analysis to help clients make better deal-making and investment decisions. Additionally, she frequently moderates panels and chairs conferences at ION Analytics events, bringing industry insights to the forefront.
She has been an investigative M&A reporter and editor since 2009, writing news ranging from healthcare, renewable energy and financial service, etc.
Yiqing achieved her master's degree of multilingual multicultural studies from New York University.
Field launched Vulpes Ventures within Vulpes Investment Management in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic to take advantage of a lack of liquidity in venture markets across Southeast Asia and Australia-NZ. Since early 2020, Field has lead investments into 44 portfolio companies across 2 funds. For its 3rd fund, Vulpes Ventures is going all in on backing female founders and gender diverse leadership teams. Field is also on the Board of Directors of Orvel Early Stage Fund, Patamar Fund 2 and Beacon Fund. Prior to Vulpes Ventures, Field was the long standing Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel of Vulpes Investment Management, the Singapore based alternative investment manager.
Ms Scarlett Chen is Managing Partner at Verge HealthTech Fund, a VC fund manager focused exclusively on impactful HealthTech startups at a global scale and at the early stage. The team has invested in 50 HealthTech startups from 20 countries, impacting 57 million lives.
Previously as Managing Director at Prudential Corporation Asia, Ms Chen was responsible for Strategic Investments. Before Prudential, Ms. Chen worked at Anbang Capital as Global Head of Financial Institutions Group where she led a number of outbound investments in Europe and Asia.
Before joining the buy-side, Ms. Chen was an investment banker for over a decade, having worked at Merrill Lynch in the US and Barclays in Hong Kong, where she executed more than US$30 billion in capital markets and advisory transactions.
Cindy is an Executive Director at Gobi Partners Greater Bay Area and joined Gobi 2020. Prior to joining Gobi, Cindy held positions in the investment banking division of Guggenheim Securities in New York. Cindy received her Bachelor's and Master’s Degree from the University of Waterloo in Canada.
Huiting is the Founding Managing Partner of Blueprint Ventures, a new regional Southeast Asian seed stage venture firm. The fund invests in consumer and consumer tech businesses for the new Southeast Asian consumer. Blueprint's mission is to help founders unlock Brand Value to outpace and outlast the competition, to drive outsized returns.
Huiting has almost 15 yrs of experience in building and investing in consumer-first businesses. She spent ~8 yrs working with and operating large global consumer businesses and 5 years as a Partner at an early stage venture fund in Southeast Asia investing into Consumer and Fintech companies such as Tonik, Stashfin, StaffInc and SATURDAYS.
Huiting started her career in Investment Banking at Goldman Sachs and moved into Brand Management after business school. She has experienced how gender diversity plays a critical role in organizational behaviour and overall employee motivation and is passionate about encouraging diversity throughout all levels of a team.
Adrian Li is an entrepreneur and veteran investor in the Indonesian and Southeast Asian tech industry. As Founder and Managing Partner of AC Ventures, he has invested in over 80 businesses in the past decade, including category leaders such as Stockbit, Shipper, Xendit, Koinworks, Julo, Carsome, and others.
With co-founding experience in both China and Indonesia, Adrian brings a unique perspective and valuable insights to any business. His first startup became the largest live online English training service in China before being acquired in 2010. Adrian then joined Rocket Internet as a Managing Director, building ventures in China and Southeast Asia. In 2014, he launched Convergence Ventures, which later became AC Ventures in 2019.
Adrian graduated from Cambridge University with a BA and MA in Economics and was elected a Hawk in recognition of his contributions to university and national-level judo. He obtained his MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business.
He is a business mentor at Endeavor, The Founders Institute, and Antler, and is a member of YPO. Adrian is also an endurance race enthusiast having completed over 15 70.3 events and as well as a Full Ironman.