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KrASIA

“One of the sectors that we have invested in and are tracking closely is the broad Islamic digital economy, which encompasses everything that we have in the ‘general’ digital economy but with an adherence to Islamic principles.”

(Quest Ventures’ James) Tan is specifically interested in how these rules apply to lending.

According to a 2017 report from IMF, there is a funding gap of USD 80 billion for small and medium enterprises in Indonesia. While SMEs make up more than 95% of the number of businesses in Indonesia, less than 15% of them have access to bank financing. This lack of access is often the result of a lack of fixed asset as collateral, a lack of operating history, poor operational efficiency, or poor financial reporting.

With the entry of multiple international players in P2P financing and rampant unethical business practices, Tan says, “A deeper adherence to Islamic principles will be helpful in weeding out unsavoury players in the world’s largest moderate Islamic market.” More

Singapore Business Review

… Financial difficulties in its home market may have prompted Mobike to rethink its global ambitions, said Yunming Wang, venture partner at Quest Ventures. An earlier report from TechCrunch revealed that Mobike reportedly laid off its entire Asia-Pacific operations team as part of its efforts to trim down its regional presence and focus on its Chinese operations.

“The Singapore bike-sharing scene is now dead. Where there was untidiness on the streets, there was however last-mile convenience. With the industry all but dead, the streets are now tidy but the convenience is gone,” said Wang, referring to the indiscriminate parking of shared bikes in Singapore which could be traced as the source of Ofo’s woes.

“For an industry that was widely hailed as one of modern China’s four great inventions – the others being high-speed rail, Alipay and e-commerce – this is a sad retreat and has important lessons for startups to learn,” he added.

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Deal Street Asia

According to James Tan, managing partner of Quest Ventures, there are gaping holes in the food supply chain ripe for venture investments to solve and make more efficient.

Tan said: “After planting, where do they go? Do farmers plant at volume or not? We need to get the supply chain ready first…”

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Analytics India Magazine

Quest Ventures made the short list of VCs that are investing into artificial intelligence.

“Based in Singapore and China, Quest Ventures is a leading venture fund for companies in the tech sector, especially those promising high scalability. It has been focussing on an overreaching digital commerce strategy across industries such as e-commerce, entertainment, logistics and more, using artificial intelligence. It has invested in startups such as Nurture.ai, which is a platform dedicated to making AI research more efficient, reproducible and accessible.”

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Singapore Tatler

Drawing on her entrepreneurial experience, the venture capitalist is helping to groom the next generation of start-up leaders.

Goh Yiping’s mind is constantly running. Her thoughts are mostly about new business opportunities or ways to help build start-ups. “I cannot sit still, even when I’m on holiday,” says the 37-year-old entrepreneur, who has founded several technology-driven companies.

While still running All Deals Asia and taking on the development of Lippo’s e-commerce business, Matahari Mall, the Generation T 2018 honouree decided to become a venture capitalist. “I enjoyed being a founder and being at the front line of running a business, but I started to wonder how I can make a greater impact and harness my connections and experience to help others build their businesses.”

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Deal Street Asia

Since 2010, Singapore-based venture capital firm Quest Ventures has been discreetly investing in e-commerce and internet economy startups in the region. Its portfolio today includes prominent names such as Carousell, Carro and ShopBack.

Through all this time, it has not needed to fundraise – until now.

Quest is lucky. It has a godfather – James Tan.

But Quest is nurturing big ambitions, requiring bigger capital.

The VC is now targeting an open fund of $50-100 million to invest in early-stage digital economy startups in Southeast Asia. It plans to invest in about 100 companies across the fund’s 10-year tenure, with ticket sizes between $500,000 and $1 million, and scope for potential follow-on investments.

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The Business Times

In an op-ed for The Business Times to celebrate International Women’s Day, 42Race’s cofounder and CEO Zhou Mi gave praise to Quest Ventures.

“I am first and foremost in the role of a co-founder, the leader of my team. My responsibility is to provide a better future for those that follow me. There were many times where I doubted my capability and direction. Those doubts however, stemmed from my limited knowledge and understanding of business strategies and industry. I am blessed to have amazing mentors (a shout out to James Tan from Quest Ventures) and fellow co-founders from Oddle, Carousell and Xfers where I can share my problems with and whom I can learn from. I do not feel limited to reach out to them because of my gender.”

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High Net Worth

Goh Yiping doesn’t play by the rules.

Starting in 2004, the serial entrepreneur founded her first company, World Indigo, at the age of 22 while juggling academic responsibilities. In spite of her inexperience as a business neophyte, her inaugural enterprise raised a laudable $350,000 in seed funding, and won the National Startup@Singapore Business Plan Competition.

Bitten by the start-up bug, she went on to establish AllDealsAsia at 28, which grew to become the top deal aggregator in the region. Displaying acute foresight and a forward-thinking spirit, she even introduced online customer service to the platform at a time when websites were still slow to adopt live chats. Fast forward four years, AllDealsAsia was acquired by Lippo Group, which kick-started her next venture, Matahari Mall – an e-commerce site that would rise to the top as a multi-million dollar business.

In 2016, the real estate graduate turned e-commerce doyenne switched gears and joined Quest Ventures as a venture partner.

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The Business Times

The Business Times of Singapore took a deeper look at the latest funds from Quest Ventures.

“Venture capital firm Quest Ventures is raising two funds – an open fund of US$50 million to US$100 million, and an impact fund of up to US$20 million – The Business Times has learnt.

Quest, a seed stage and Series A investor, is known for cutting first cheques for Carousell, 99.co and Shopback. This is the first time that the firm is raising capital from limited partners (LPs).

Mr Tan believes the time is right to launch the two funds because the right people are in place. Quest recently appointed serial entrepreneur Goh Yiping and industry veteran Jeffrey Seah as partners. They were previously venture partners since 2016 and 2017, respectively.

The primary markets that Quest is targeting are Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam, while the secondary markets are Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and the Philippines.

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DealStreetAsia, e27, Tech In Asia, KrAsia, Yahoo News, and more

Quest Ventures is launching a $50-million fund targeting early-stage, digital commerce startups in Southeast Asia. The Singapore-based venture capital has also named two new partners – Goh Yiping and Jeffrey Seah – who have been venture partners with the firm since 2016 and 2017 respectively.

Goh is the former CEO and co-founder of All Deals Asia. She was also the chief product officer and co-founder of MatahariMall.com, an Indonesian fashion e-commerce site backed by Lippo Group. The firm commented that Goh’s appointment is fresh air in the industry where “female representation at investment funds is still sorely lacking”.

Seah was Southeast Asia CEO at Starcom Mediavest Group (SMG), and former CEO of Mindshare where he oversaw the Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesian markets. “Quest Ventures has an impressive track record in identifying startups that have scaled extensively in Southeast Asia across numerous verticals. I look forward to bring my experience in accelerating ideas with corporations to Quest Ventures,” said Seah.

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