2XI Asia-Pacific GP Sprint

Acceleration programme for women-led or gender-balanced fund managers with gender smart investing strategies across the Asia-Pacific region.

with support from:

Meet the Fund Managers

Accelerating Asia Ventures Fund II

Accelerating Asia is launching its second fund focused on pre-Series A startups with untapped potential that are 6-18 months away from institutional funding.

The fund will target ideation-MVP stage startups, and ventures focused on solid product-market fit, startups with a robust product at early stages of customer traction are often overlooked. Learn more.

Fund Managers:

  • In founding Accelerating Asia in 2019 with co-founder Craig Dixon, Amra became the first female founding general partner of a venture capital firm in Southeast Asia.

    This unique perspective has helped Amra steward Accelerating Asia into one of the top startup accelerators in Asia (the portfolio has now crossed US$600 million in valuation). Amra champions startups that make a social impact, including gender-lens investments, which make up 50% of the portfolio.

  • Craig founded Accelerating Asia in 2019 with co-founder Amra Naidoo. With his extensive startup investment experience, including over 100 startup investment rounds, Craig oversees Accelerating Asia’s Venture Capital fund which invests in pre-Series A startups. Under his leadership, the Accelerating Asia portfolio has now crossed a US$600 million valuation from startups all over the region, including Southeast Asia, East Asia, South Asia, and most recently, Middle East and North Africa.

Asia OceanTech Ventures

Asia OceanTech Ventures is an impact investment fund financing and scaling early-stage startups that improve the health of oceans to protect their ecosystem services and carbon storage capacity to mitigate biodiversity loss and climate change.

Through well-rounded Asia-focused ocean networks and resources, they aim to accelerate ocean innovation under three core impact themes - pollution prevention, sustainable seafood, and ocean research.

Fund Managers:

  • Natalie Chung is a leading climate researcher and entrepreneur in Asia. With close to a decade of experience in entrepreneurship, Natalie founded and expanded a climate education startup that has reached over 2 million people. She was selected as the sole Hong Kong representative at the Antarctic Climate Expedition led by Dr Sylvia Earle.

    As the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Asia OceanTech Ventures, Natalie leverages her ocean-climate expertise to source, evaluate, mentor, and upscale portfolio companies to deliver positive environmental and social benefits with the blue economy. She was appointed by the Hong Kong Chief Executive as an advisory member at the Council for Carbon Neutrality and Sustainable Development, and the Green Tech Fund Assessment Committee (GTF) where she works with expert professors to assess the commercialization potential of cutting-edge green technology research and determine their eligibility for grants totaling US$50 million.

  • Shirley Szeto is a seasoned professional with a strong background in venture building and investments within the early-stage startup ecosystem. Shirley has played a pivotal role in leading fundraising efforts that resulted in remarkable 3x valuation step-ups.

    Shirley served as a seed and early-stage venture capitalist at HKSTP Ventures ($75m AUM). During her tenure, she successfully sourced and evaluated over 300 companies, identifying promising investment opportunities in deeptech startups. Shirley also played a key role in co-investing with prestigious firms such as SOSV, 500 Startups, and Horizons Ventures, leveraging their expertise and resources to support the growth of innovative companies across various technological domains, including advanced green materials, modular robotics, and AI solutions.

ARQ Capital SME BDC

ARQ Capital SME BDC is the only Filipino owned, and Philippine based, SME-focused private debt investor that provides customised multi-product debt structures to fully service the critical growth stage of well-positioned middle-market high growth businesses that have the potential to improve operationally, strategically and financially.

ARQ Capital investment strategy combines growth capital with customised business assistance to build stronger companies in the Philippines. Learn more.

Fund Managers:

  • Abigail co-founded ARQ Capital and is its Co-Managing Partner. With a combined 15 years experience in banking and private equity, Abigail drives the company’s overall strategy.

    Prior to ARQ Capital, Abigail was an investment professional for Partners Group, a Swiss-based private asset manager as part of its Asian private infrastructure group. She held roles with regional private equity group Arocrest and investment bank Credit Suisse. Abigail also has experience as a partner at Polestrom Advisors, a boutique advisory company focused on public-private partnership infrastructure projects.

  • Edmund has more than 15 years experience in corporate banking, corporate finance, M&A advisory, and private investments. Edmund executed deals in various industries such as banking, asset management, telecommunications, media, and power and utilities. Edmund also consulted for various local and international companies, including TAEL Partners, a SEA-focused P/E fund, and Sky Cable, then the largest cable tv provider in the Philippines. Edmund is also a Director at AlphaPrimus Advisors, a boutique M&A advisory firm serving conglomerates and family offices in the Philippines. The firm garnered best M&A House for the year 2021 and 2022 for the Philippines by The Asset.

Beacon Fund

Beacon is one of the first (if not the first) gender-focused private debt funds in Southeast Asia that focuses on backing the ‘missing middle’ of women-owned and women-led businesses which are too small for PE, too big for microfinance, do not fit the growth profile of VC and are underserved by banks. Learn more.

Fund Managers:

  • Shuyin is an entrepreneurial impact investor who has launched several innovative funds in Southeast Asia, including two of the first gender lens investing funds in the region: the Investing in Women Fund and now the Beacon Fund. She is passionate about women’s economic empowerment and catalysing gender smart investing in the region. As a Partner at Patamar Capital, one of the most active impact investing platforms in Southeast Asia with over USD 100m AUM, Shuyin established and grew the Vietnam office and spearheads the firm’s gender smart investing strategy.

    Based in Asia for almost 15 years, Shuyin previously held roles at LGT Venture Philanthropy (now Lighrock) and TechnoServe. She currently serves on the Board and Investment Committee of the Equality Fund, the Impact Investing Council of the Global Private Capital Association and is Jury President for South and Central Asia for the Cartier Women's Initiative.

  • Lee brings to the investment community three decades of leadership and operational experience in various commercial sectors. His professional career began as a practicing attorney assisting institutional investors in private placement finance transactions. Later, Lee joined San Francisco-based Venture Out Holdings as President and CEO where he focused its private investment portfolio on operating companies in the recreation vehicle, hospitality, reprographics and real estate development sectors. As a Co-Founder and Partner at Patamar Capital, Lee leads fund operations and has built and sustained the global infrastructure to make and exit investments in an efficient manner.

    Each of these ventures refined Lee’s expertise in building effective organisations, finding and inspiring the best talents, and creating environments where every team member can succeed.

Blueprint Ventures

Blueprint Ventures is an early-stage venture fund that seeks to invest in next generation businesses for the new Southeast Asian consumer.

The fund invests in consumer and consumer tech businesses that targets Southeast Asian’s Millennials, Gen Zs and Gen Alphas. Blueprint's mission is to help Southeast Asian founders unlock Brand Value to outpace, outrun and outlast the competition - drive outsized returns and become the new generation-defining Brands for the new consumers.

Fund Manager:

  • Huiting is the Founding Managing Partner of Blueprint Ventures, a regional Southeast Asian seed stage venture fund focused on investing into the next generation businesses for the new consumer.

    Huiting has almost 15 years of experience in building and investing in consumer-first businesses. Prior to founding Blueprint Ventures, she was a Partner at an early stage venture fund in Southeast Asia where she was responsible for making Consumer and Fintech investments. Two of the 5 companies she has invested into in 2020 are now valued at more than US$700M, and the other 3 companies are in the process of raising up rounds today. Prior to being in venture capital, she spent 8 years in brand management and advertising where she operated large global and regional consumer businesses.

Anathalllo Climate Action Growth Equity Fund I

Enyorra Private Equity is a women-founded and led private equity firm created to integrate net positive environmental and social outcomes with superior financial performance. They provide growth capital for innovative companies at inflection point in the sustainability space.

Leveraging more than 35 years combined extensive private equity, ESG & impact investing experience, and deep knowledge & network in selected high impact sectors, they will invest primarily in fast-growing, innovative, small to mid cap companies in Southeast Asia. Learn more.

Fund Managers:

  • Melissa is responsible for all aspects of the business at Enyorra Private Equity, with a strong focus on investments and ESG management.

    Melissa has over 20 years of private equity investment experience in Asia (Morgan Stanley, IFC, ING, 3i) managing a 1B USD + portfolio and started investing with an ESG and impact lens since 2012.

  • Kimberli leads the accounting, finance, operations, and regulatory reporting at Enyorra Private Equity. She comes with more than 20 years of professional experience including audit, investment management, private equity and venture capital, both in funds and direct investment. She is well versed in fund accounting, capital call and distribution management as well as corporate secretariat functions. Kimberli has hands on experience in various industries including professional services, finance and nonprofit organization.

NEXCatalyst Climate Tech Fund

NEXCatalyst Climate Tech Fund (“NEXCatalyst”) is a blended finance, early-stage fund focused on clean energy and climate tech start-ups in Southeast Asia. It aims to address the climate financing gaps in emerging countries of Southeast Asia, especially in Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Philippines–countries where New Energy Nexus have local accelerator programs.

The fund adopts a catalytic investment approach to de-risk, scale for follow-on investors, and contribute in achieving net zero emissions by investing in the following climate tech verticals: clean energy, energy efficiency & management, e-mobility, energy access, energy storage, agritech, climate fintech, and climate solution enablers. Learn more.

Fund Managers:

  • Yeni has close to 20 years of experience in clean energy and carbon offset project origination, development, valuation, and investment in the Asia Pacific region, encompassing both independent power projects and early-stage clean energy companies. Her experience and expertise are cultivated through her previous works at multinational utility companies such as Engie and the AES Corporation. Yeni is a CFA charterholder and holds an MBA from the National University of Singapore (NUS).

Matanataki Impact 1

Matanataki, a woman-founded and led business development company based in Fiji, is raising its first impact fund to deliver long term risk capital and hands on active ownership to reef-positive and women-balanced SMEs across waste management, fisheries, agriculture and tourism in the Pacific. Leveraging the team’s local and international experience as business operators and regenerative systems practitioners, the goal is to accelerate the region’s transition to regenerative production and to build local economies that respect and restore Pacific reefs, oceans and people. Learn more.

Fund Manager:

  • Jodi Smith is Founding General Partner of Matanataki, which has been operating in Fiji since 2016. Since 2020 Matanataki has been a key origination partner to the UN’s Global Fund for Coral Reefs, a 10-year, $625 million blended finance vehicle. Matanataki’s “interconnected deal flow” approach, designed by Jodi to strengthen supply chains and amplify impact in Small Island Developing States, was profiled in the 2023 Financing the UN Development System report. Jodi is a fifth generation Chinese Fijian, who forged a career in business management after 20-years of making studio films including The Matrix. She has 15+ years of business development, turnaround and operations experience internationally, and is a specialist in developing and operating primary industry companies in Fiji. She was CEO of Ranadi Organics, turning it around to become Fiji’s first indigenous woman-led, women-focused, organic agriculture exporting company, a “game changer” for women who typically work ad-hoc, informal jobs, in a country which has one of the world’s highest rates of gender-based violence.

  • Kanchan Wali-Richardson is Matanataki’s Impact Lead, and manages communication and research & development. Kanchan has 11 years of experience across landscape architecture, regenerative systems research, land and marine management, participatory design and communications design. She holds an MFA from Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, and a Master of Landscape Architecture from Harvard University Graduate School of Design.

  • Richard has 25+ years of business start up, business development and change management experience working with both small and large businesses across the globe. He has National Organic Sector governance experience and served in roles at CEO and GM level, including a Chief Executive role at New Zealand’s largest organic retailer, Huckleberry. Having managed businesses through a number of successful mergers and acquisitions, Richard knows first-hand the challenges brought on by change. Richard has extensive governance experience at national body level, supporting the development of cross-party sector initiatives with both local and international reach. Richard specialises in business development, organisation structure, strategy, governance, operational management, change management, manufacturing, mergers and acquisitions, and licensing and franchising.

She Loves Tech Asia Emerging Outliers Fund

The She Loves Tech Asia Emerging Outliers Fund is a pre-seed and seed-stage venture capital fund investing in women-led startups in Southeast Asia, with particular focus on Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam. It aims to play a catalytic role, mobilising at least 3X of additional capital for startups post investment through its global network effect and proprietary founder program. 

Recognized as a global leader in Women and Technology, She Loves Tech holds the world’s largest pipeline and database of women tech founders. Our key program, the She Loves Tech Global Startup Competition is the world’s largest acceleration platform for women and technology, operating in 76 countries across 6 continents and has worked with 15,000+ startups over 9 years. Startups have raised more than 400m USD post competition. Learn more.

Fund Managers:

  • Rhea See is the Co-founder and Co-CEO of She Loves Tech, the world's foremost and largest tech acceleration platform for women. Under her leadership, it expanded from one country to over 70, boasting a pipeline of 15,000 women-led tech startups from 107 countries. To date, startups have raised $400M post-competition. With She Loves Tech, she aims to unlock 1B usd worth of capital for women.

    Rhea is building a premier digital platform for investors to discover and fund women-led technologies. She extends her influence as a Venture Advisor for Kaya Founders and other Southeast Asia-based funds. Her profound expertise in diversity and entrepreneurship garners attention from the UN, governments, Fortune 500 companies, and more.

  • Michael Cui is a Partner of Teja Ventures and former Vice President of Lebox Capital, a venture capital fund investing in companies with data driven models in China and USA, including: Prisma, Lehua Entertainment, Yi+, EHANG, among others. Michael has over a decade of cross border VC investment experience in the US and China, as well as a background in computer engineering focusing on machine learning and artificial intelligence. Michael led entrepreneurial and technology ecosystem building for Peking University's BIMBA business school.

  • Virginia Tan is the Founding Partner of Teja Ventures, Asia’s first gender lens VC fund. Her background was in law and strategic investments in emerging markets, where she covered more than USD30 billion worth of commercial transactions at 2 magic circle firms. Teja Ventures was inspired by her leadership of She Loves Tech and Lean In China and She Loves Tech, two of the world’s largest communities for women. Lean In China is China’s leading professional women’s community of more than 100,000 members across more than 25 cities and 100 universities in China.