2023

TechNode Global

The Science Fund, a Kazakhstan national institute for scientific and technological development, has on Monday announced that it has signed an agreement with Singapore-based venture capital firm Quest Ventures to bolster the vibrant emerging startup and innovation ecosystem in the country.

The Science Fund said in a statement that the firm and Quest Ventures have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to embark as knowledge partners to drive startup innovation and investments in the country.

“We are excited to join forces with Quest Ventures in our pursuit of innovation and growth in the startup industry. With a significant presence in Singapore and across Asia, Quest Ventures brings valuable international experience, best practices and an extensive network that aligns with our key goals of strengthening the local technology commercialization and venture capital ecosystem,” said Abdilda Shamenov, Chairman of the Board of the Science Fund.

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The Astana Times

Managing Partner at Quest Ventures James Tan provided statistics on the venture capital invested into Central Asia startups, noting that “for the last four years, the region has received only $150 million, which is a drop in the ocean.” With a focus on early-stage digital commerce investments, his Beijing-based company deploys funds across Asia.

In Tan’s view, having no back-up support, Central Asian startups head to Silicon Valley at some stage of their development. “The United States has nearly 49% of the world’s global venture capital market,” he noted.

Local limited partnerships (LP), in his opinion, should be interested in supporting the local funds, saying that “the companies focus not only on the startups themselves, but also on the interests of local LPs.”

During his speech at the opening of the Digital Bridge Forum on Oct. 12, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev outlined the importance of attracting international players to Kazakhstan’s venture capital market.

“We need their competence and high-quality expertise of projects. Domestic institutional investors, including the Baiterek national holding can become key partners. In addition, it is necessary to develop mechanisms and tools to ensure participation in venture funds of various financial institutions – second–tier banks, insurance companies, and microfinance organizations,” said the head of state.

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JTC

The vibrant community of diverse startups, incubators, venture capitalists and ecosystem partners within LaunchPad offers opportunities for knowledge-sharing and collaboration. LaunchPad has played host to startups which have generated more than S$400 million in total startup revenue.

There are over 40 incubators and accelerators of varied backgrounds that are running structured incubation programmes at the two LaunchPads. The terms accelerator and incubator might seem like they have the same meaning: to help start-ups grow. They often used interchangeably but differ a lot from one another. While one helps established businesses grow quickly, the other helps to flesh out the details when starting a new business.

Incubators help entrepreneurs develop their ideas into a business model and usually don’t provide any funding to the startups. Incubators, such as NTUitive and ACE.SG, are usually non-profit run by academic or government institutions. Accelerators, like Quest Ventures, help developing start-ups speed up growth by providing structured guidance, professional mentorship and access to capital.

Embracing a state of constant learning

Quest Ventures has been at LaunchPad for more than a decade, and at one point, was the largest private sector tenant with 15 units for the various startups they were working with. “Today, we occupy Singapore’s luckiest office at Blk 71, #03-14 – it was our first office and the birthplace of many unicorns,” said Mr James Tan, Managing Partner of Quest Ventures.

Quest Ventures has backed more than 100 companies, three companies stand out – Carousell, Shopback, and Xfers – and they are all at LaunchPad. “They have strong founders, humble despite their successes, and continue to grow at incredible paces,” added James.

Since 2011, Quest Ventures has focused on an overarching digital economy strategy in Asia. Basic technology buildout such as ecommerce, payments, logistics needed to invested in and implemented. “Everything that we take for granted now, but without which today’s new disruptive technologies or business models would have greater difficulties taking off,” said James.

Always leading the industry, in 2018, Quest Ventures was the first venture capital firm in Southeast Asia to embrace Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) principles. Quest Ventures has started four funds in the last four years, and this includes the Metaverse Fund which advances ideas in Web 3.0 and backs entrepreneurs to take the state of the internet to the next level. The fund focuses on cutting-edge technologies that will underpin the new generation of internet. According to James, the startup world evolves, it does not stand still. New ideas and possibilities keep the staff in a state of constant learning that is exciting for Quest Ventures.

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KrASIA

Vulcan Augmetics specializes in the development of affordable, high-performance sensor technology to augment the capabilities of prosthetics. The company’s prosthetics are modular in design, making them more adaptable to the needs of users.

The company is aiming to improve the accessibility of prosthetics in developing countries where amputees remain an underserved demographic. With an estimated 57 million amputees globally, of which over 500,000 reside in Vietnam, Vulcan Augmetics hopes to help them find employment and regain independence through its solutions.

“We are delighted to have received seed funding from Quest Ventures. Together with raiSE, they have demonstrated understanding and empathy for the problem we are solving and the vision to see how our technology can scale. They have been instrumental in securing early pilot programs. Making assistive technology accessible is a global challenge that will impact two billion people by 2030, and a huge opportunity for us to realize the potential of the [physically impaired] community,” said Rafael Masters, co-founder and CEO of Vulcan Augmetics.

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BusinessWorld

STATE-OWNED enterprise investor National Development Co. (NDC) partnered with Singapore-based venture capital firm Quest Ventures to drive startup innovation and investments in the Philippines.

“We are excited to join forces with Quest Ventures in our pursuit of innovation and startup industry growth,” NDC General Manager Antonilo DC. Mauricio said in a statement.

Mr. Mauricio said that Quest Ventures’ footprint in Singapore and across Asia will be valuable in “enhancing local venture capital ecosystem and promoting sustainable investments.”

The collaboration aims to leverage the combined expertise and resources of the two companies.

NDC will be leveraging on its newly established Philippine Innovation Hub, which will house the headquarters of the Startup Venture Fund, the Philippine E-commerce Platform, and the Philippine AI (artificial intelligence) Research Center.

“Quest Ventures is delighted to join the NDC in these important efforts to transform the Philippines’ startup and innovation ecosystem by improving access to venture capital,” said April Ong Vaño, head of environment, social and governance at Quest Ventures.

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Malaya Business Insight

The National Development Company (NDC), the government’s investment arm, has signed a memorandum of understanding with Asian venture capital firm Quest Ventures to become knowledge partners in driving startup innovation and investments in the country.

In a statement, NDC said the collaboration aims to leverage the combined expertise and resources of both parties to address the potential of the Philippines startup and innovation ecosystem.

For this collaboration, the NDC will leverage its newly established Philippine Innovation Hub, the headquarters of the Startup Venture Fund, the Philippine E-commerce Platform and the Ph AI Research Center.

The MOU was signed in Manila by Anton Mauricio, general manager of the NDC and April Ong Vaño, head of Environment, Social & Governance at Quest Ventures.

Mauricio said Quest Ventures brings valuable cross-border insights, best practices and extensive network to the partnership aimed at enhancing the local venture capital ecosystem and promoting sustainable investments.

Ong Vaño said Quest Ventures will bring its venture capital courses and accelerators and will implement Philippine-specific programs to address new sectors of opportunities such as sustainability.

Quest Ventures has a portfolio of over a hundred venture-backed companies operating in more than 150 cities across Asia. These include industry leaders such as 99.co, Carousell, Carro, Glife, Hepmil/ PGAG, Oddle, Shopback, VulcanPost, Xfers, and Kraver’s Canteen. Its enterprise innovation clients include Applied Materials, Coca-Cola, HP, Nissan, and Tencent.

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深圳卫视

未来可期！

“一带一路”走过十年，供应链产业链价值链加速融合，共建伙伴由共生而共赢，由共赢而共享。如今，越来越多的中国企业家们行走在“一带一路”上，他们打造出生产、技术、销售、服务的完备产业链，拉近了中国与世界的距离。第三集《造链》，讲述中国企业探索当地、扎根当地、服务当地的故事。

求索创投管理合伙人陈中参加了深圳卫视节目制作。

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BusinessMirror

The National Development Company (NDC), the government’s investment arm under the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), recently inked a series of agreements with an international venture capital firm to drive start-up innovation and investments in the country.

NDC General Manager Anton Mauricio underscored the importance of the agreement with Quest Ventures, noting that the venture capital firm’s “significant footprint” across Singapore and Asia brings “valuable cross-border insights, best practices and extensive network that aligns with our key objectives in enhancing the local venture capital ecosystem and promoting sustainable investments.”

The MOU was signed in Manila between Anton Mauricio, General Manager of the NDC, and Ms. April Ong Vaño, Head of Environment, Social & Governance at Quest Ventures; and witnessed by Mr. Jerahmeel Chen, Chief Innovation Officer at iHub.

At a media briefing last Friday, NDC Assistant General Manager for Corporate Communications Group Leopoldo Acot explained that under the firm’s start-up venture fund, counterpart funding should transpire between NDC and a co-investment partner.

Jerahmeel Chen, Chief Innovation Center of NDC, explained further at the same briefing, “The challenge of SVF is we always have to have a coinvestment partner. Even if we want to invest in a start-up, we have to ask them to present to the accredited CIPs and then if one of them will invest then tsaka we will invest.”

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Manila Standard

The National Development Company (NDC), an attached agency of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) tasked to support companies and industries, and Quest Ventures, a top venture capital (VC) firm in Asia, signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to embark as knowledge partners to drive startup innovation and investments in the country.

NDC general manager Anton Mauricio and Quest Venture head of environment, social and governance April Ong-Vaño signed the agreement in Manila on Monday.

“We are excited to join forces with Quest Ventures in our pursuit of innovation and startup industry growth. With their significant footprint in Singapore and across Asia, Quest Ventures brings valuable cross-border insights, best practices and extensive network that aligns with our key objectives in enhancing the local venture capital ecosystem and promoting sustainable investments,” Mauricio said.

Ong-Vaño said the regional venture capital firm was encouraged to partner with NDC to transform the Philippines startup and innovation ecosystem by improving access to venture capital.

“We look forward to bringing our crowd favorites such as venture capital courses and accelerators to important hubs in The Philippines. We also look forward to implementing Philippine-specific programs to address new sectors of opportunities such as sustainability,” she said.

Quest Ventures portfolio companies include industry leaders such as 99.co, Carousell, Carro, Glife, Hepmil/ PGAG, Oddle, Shopback, VulcanPost, Xfers, and Kraver’s Canteen. Its enterprise innovation clients include Applied Materials, Coca-Cola, HP, Nissan, and Tencent.

Quest Venture is known for uplifting communities in emerging economies in Southeast Asia and Central Asia, through the infusion of capital and technology. It received recognition as VC of the Year in 2022.

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TechNode Global

NDC said in a statement that the NDC and Quest Ventures have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to embark as knowledge partners to drive startup innovation and investments in the country.

It said the collaboration aims to leverage their combined expertise and resources as well as to strengthen linkages between government and private sector.

The NDC will leverage its newly established Philippine Innovation Hub (iHub) for this collaboration.

It is noted that iHub is also the headquarters of the Startup Venture Fund (SVF), the Philippine E-commerce Platform (PEP), and the Ph AI Research Center (PAIR).

“With their significant footprint in Singapore and across Asia, Quest Ventures brings valuable cross-border insights, best practices and extensive network that aligns with our key objectives in enhancing the local venture capital ecosystem and promoting sustainable investments,” said Anton Mauricio, General Manager of the NDC.

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