2018

Tạp chí Thế Giới Vi Tính

Quest Ventures brings 3 Singapore startups to Vietnam as part of the Runway to the World program organised by SIHUB.

“Đây là những startup đầy tính sáng tạo khởi nghiệp trên các nền tảng công nghệ mới, đặt mục tiêu tìm được ít nhất 1 khách hàng Việt Nam trong 3 tháng tiếp cận thị trường.
Runway To The World: đưa startup Việt ra thế giới

Sau buổi hợp tác mở rộng cung cấp thông tin và kết nối doanh nghiệp Việt – Hàn, Saigon Innovation Hub tiếp tục mang đến cơ hội giao lưu, học hỏi cho cộng đồng khởi nghiệp đổi mới sáng tạo TP.HCM với 2 hệ sinh thái khởi nghiệp phát triển trên thế giới là Malaysia cùng Singapore.

Theo bà Nguyễn Phi Vân – Chủ tịch hội đồng cố vấn Saigon Innovation Hub, đây là các startup xuất sắc đã được Malaysian Global Innovation and Creativity Centre (MAGIC) và Quest Ventures đã tiến hành tuyển chọn hồi tháng 5/2018 để đưa sang Việt Nam tìm kiếm cơ hội kinh doanh thuộc chương trình Runway To The World.”

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Deal Street Asia

“Eatsy Technologies, a Singapore-based food & beverages technology startup, has raised S$550,000 ($404,000) led by Quest Ventures, that invests in technology startups.

The round also saw participation from Wee Teng Wen, founder of The Lo & Behold Group, and RedMart co-founders Roger Egan III, Vikram Rupani and Rajesh Lingappa.”

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Human Resources Director Magazine

“Transformation doesn’t take place overnight; it is a journey that requires patience and push – especially if you’re looking to transform an entire organisation. This is what HRD learned when we spoke to Juliana Ang, chief human resources officer at NTUC Income.

The homegrown insurance company was recently ranked first in the inaugural Applied Innovation Institute Singapore Insurance Innovation and Digital Benchmark, which ranks the innovation and digitisation efforts of 25 insurers in Singapore. For Income, the journey to achieving such high acclaim began in 2014 when they foresaw the need to reimagine the typically traditional sector of insurance early.

“We realised the need for dedicated focus, hence the beginning of the formation of an ecosystem that comprises the C-suite, employees and like-minded external partners to seed, mobilise and effect change,” Ang said.”

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The Business Times

Jeffrey Seah, venture partner at Quest Ventures, weighs in on the Trump-Kim S$20 million question: What’s it worth to the Singapore brand campaign?

“Singapore was the place because of its learned ability to execute a complex Mice event in a short time, and a population that is used to the personal, professional and security disruptions from Mic events, road closures and congestion from F1s and international marathons to Cristiano Ronaldo and South Korea boyband visits.

The summit will reinforce Singapore as the Alpha choice for Mice events, further cementing and embellishing Singapore’s lofty Mic destination position.

The 9-5 capabilities have been augmented by the 5-9 activities of the two integrated resorts in the past 10 years, and now complemented by burnished credentials of executing big, security-conscious, multi-party Mice events in a short turn-around time.”

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Singapore Business Review

The Business Angel Network of Southeast Asia (BANSEA) has appointed James Tan as its chairman to take charge of the region’s oldest angel investment network.

Tan serves as managing partner of venture capital firm Quest Ventures and co-founded NASDAQ-listed e-commerce startup 55tuan. He succeeds Dr Mark Hon who will remain on the board of directors as Immediate Past Chairman.

Under the new leadership, BANSEA aims to elevate the region’s angel investment scene to the next level by focusing on two key areas, education and investment.

“We will continue to build strong global partnerships to encourage greater investment collaboration across the funding lifecycle and geographies. I am grateful for the work that the previous board of directors led by Dr Mark Hon has done, and look forward to building on its momentum,” Tan said in a statement.

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Singapore Business Review

“… businesses operating in any one of the verticals Grab has targetted have more than enough reason to worry as startups with the mission to disrupt industries now have a significant backer in Grab, said James Tan, managing partner at Quest Ventures.

Startups that make it into Grab Ventures can leverage on its advanced tech platform, regional footprint as well as a vast network of drivers, delivery partners and merchants across the region. Moving forward, these startups may be tightly integrated into the platform or even outrightly merged under the Grab brand and platform if they prove they could add further value to the business, Tan pointed out.”

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Marketing Magazine

Jeffrey Seah, venture partner at Quest Ventures said, “Every player in the content creation and distribution business is searching for a global platform with the advent of OTT players of all forms, and the new mega and irregular players like Netflix, Amazon, Apple and Tencent. Fox presents an immediate upgrade in capability and market knowledge for both Disney and Comcast to that global reach.”

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Various

Quest Ventures managing partner James Tan, in his role as deputy chairman at ACE, has led a group of Singapore corporations and tech startups on a business mission to Paris, France, together with Enterprise Singapore and SGInnovate.

The delegation met with Hello Tomorrow, AXA Innovation, Paris Region Entreprises, Station F, Bpifrance and others for market access and innovation collaborations.

Ambassador Zainal, Singapore’s Ambassador to France, hosted a welcome dinner for the Singapore delegation. Various stakeholders, including Minister for Communications and Information & Minister-in-charge of Trade Relations, Mr S Iswaran spoke at the VivaTech conference held on the final day of the business mission.

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Singapore Business Review

James Tan, managing partner at Quest Ventures also expects large rounds to continue to dominate headlines, and for angel syndicates driven by experienced angel investment networks such as BANSEA to gain prevalence. In addition, he anticipates a “rejuvenation” of seed stage deals which slowed down in 2017.

With venture capital activity poised to boom, competition for both talent and deals is heating up. Tan said that the most notable venture capital activity in 2018 so far would be the entrance of corporations into venture investments, particularly from Series B onwards.

… But Tan said there needs to be a stronger government push for deep-technology investments as private investment firms are not actively investing into this space. Government support could help the deep-technology companies zero in on their real-world applicability. Right now, these firm “are mostly solutions looking for problems to solve at the moment.” said Tan.

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