Fundraising: Innovation amidst adversity
- What is the key to expanding the historically smaller capital bases of Asia VC funds?
- Should governments support GPs as part of ecosystem development?
- How can a China-turned-global investment mandate get traction with LPs?
- What kind of strategic tweaks – sector, stage, operational angle – make a difference?
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Xun Zeng is an investment funds partner at Cooley and partner in Cooley’s Singapore office.
Xun’s practice focuses on the formation, structuring and operation of a wide variety of investment funds, including venture capital, private equity, hybrid and co-investment funds. She advises fund sponsors on the marketing, formation and operation of their funds, as well as upper-tier arrangements, carried interest plans, strategic joint venture arrangements and various governance matters. Xun also has extensive experience in representing institutional investors in connection with investments in private funds across Asia, including China, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia.
She also advises clients on the structuring and operation of cryptoassets funds and Web3 investment vehicles, including those focused on blockchain, decentralized finance (DeFi), digital assets, and tokenized investment strategies. She also assists clients navigate global regulatory frameworks.
Xun is a lecturer in Law on the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School where she teaches Private Investment Funds. She is admitted to practice in New York and Hong Kong and is a native Mandarin and Cantonese speaker.
Prior to founding A91 Partners, Mr. Abhay Pandey (Abhay) was a Managing Director at Sequoia Capital India Advisors Private Limited from 2008-2018, which he joined in June 2007. At Sequoia Capital India Advisors Private Limited, Abhay has partnered with passionate founders in Consumer and Healthcare sectors focused on a few themes, including, creating challenger brands in large categories, supporting superior execution capabilities in massive market opportunities and building companies in new emerging categories. His investment track record and board positions include Vini Cosmetics, Indigo Paints (NSE: INDIGOPNTS), B9 Beverages, Faces Cosmetics; PI Industries (NSE: PIIND), La Renon, Koye Pharmaceuticals, Curatio Healthcare, ASG Eyecare; and Awfis, MedGenome Inc. Prior to Sequoia Capital, Abhay worked as an investment banker with DSP Merrill Lynch (2004-07) and as a management consultant at McKinsey & Co. (Mumbai and Johannesburg) offices (1996-2002) where he served leading clients in media, industrials and automotive verticals on a wide range of strategic and operational issues.
Abhay received his PGDM (MBA) from Indian Institute of Management Kolkata (1996) and a B. Tech in Computer Science and Engineering from IIT Bombay (1993).
Abhay is passionate about supporting philanthropy and giving back to society in education. He is a Trustee at Ashoka University, and a Trustee of BECT, a charitable trust for primary and secondary education.
Yinwei joined East Ventures in 2019 and leads investment projects out of the Firm’s Singapore office. Yinwei has over 12 years of experience in venture capital. Yinwei previously served as an Associate at the private equity and venture capital arm of Tiger Global Management, where he worked with start-ups from India, Latin America and South Africa.
Prior to Tiger Global Management, Yinwei was involved in policy planning, technology ecosystem development and venture investing at the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore, a Singapore government agency.
Yinwei received a Master’s in Management Science and Engineering from Stanford University and a Double Degree in Systems Engineering and Finance from the University of Pennsylvania.
Shane Chesson is a Founding Partner of Openspace Capital, a multi-strategy asset manager with a long-established specialist focus on Southeast Asia. Since 2014, the platform has expanded from Early Stage to Growth Stage, Web3 (Ocular), Credit (Onyx) and Listed Equities (Orbit) investment strategies.
Shane has overseen investments into more than 80 Openspace companies since 2014 and has served on the Board or as an Observer for companies including Gojek (Exit GOTO:JK), HaloDoc, Whispir (Exit WSP:AU), Finnomena, Kredivo, Topica, CXA (Exited), Tradegecko (Exit to INTU:US), Amp, Abacus, CoPilot, Validus, Pluang, Envisso, Neuroglee and BeautyMNL (Exited).
Shane is also Vice-Chairman of SVCA (Singapore Venture & Private Capital Association) which represents the community and interests of over 300 members focused on private markets.
He was previously Managing Director and Co-Head (Technology Investment Banking, of Citigroup Asia-Pacific.
Shane has an MBA with distinction from INSEAD Singapore where he was a recipient of the IAA Asian Campus scholarship and has an LLB/BCom from University of Western Australia.
Dr. Goji is Co-founder, Managing Partner, CEO & President of UTEC (The University of Edge Capital Partners Co., Ltd.).
Since 2004, he has raised and managed six UTEC funds surpassing 1 billion USD, strategized investment and value-adding in university-related startups, built the investment team, and guided UTEC's investments and exits. 22 investees were acquired and 20 have achieved IPO until July 2025.
In his previous career at the Japanese government, he authored "The Limited Partnership Act for Venture Capital Investment" (enacted in 1998) in 1997-1998, which became the foundation of Japanese VC funds thereafter, and its related accounting/tax rules as well as VC fund performance measurement reports at the then Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI, now known as METI: the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry). He also authored "The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program" (enacted in 1999, as part of "Industrial Revival Act") at METI, "Copyright Management Business Act" (enacted in 2001) at Cultural Agency, and intellectual property-related articles of "Trust Business Law" (enacted in 2003) at Financial Services Agency. He left the government to initiate UTEC in 2004 to execute the ethos of the Limited Partnership Act.
Dr. Goji received his Ph.D. from the University of Tokyo's School of Engineering, earned his MBA at Stanford University, and graduated from the University of Tokyo's Faculty of Law. During his doctoral research at the University of Tokyo's School of Engineering, he modeled the success factors of startups founded on science and technology, based on data science and network analysis, and demonstrated the importance of academic papers and other factors.
At JVCA, he has been involved in policies such as the revision of the Financial Instruments and Exchange Law, the revision of the Foreign Exchange Law, and the planning of public procurement for startups, as well as JVCA's Sample of Limited Partnership Agreement, as Executive Director & Section Chairman of the Policy Subcommittee since July 2015 and Vice Chairman & Section Chairman of the Policy Subcommittee since July 2022. Became Chairman in July 2023.