
Innovators of Today
EDGE 35 Under 35 2021 aims to recognise the ‘Innovators of Today’ – a diverse group of people who have contributed to the success to the startup ecosystem in Singapore.
Founders
Founders are the core of any startup ecosystem. They are the ones who are constantly pushing the envelope of possibilities to find solutions to challenging societal issues.

Anthony Chow
Anthony Chow is the CEO and Co-founder of igloocompany, a global leading smart access solutions provider that operates two business lines; igloohome and iglooworks. Backed by investors including Insignia Ventures Partners, Wavemaker Partners and Kickstart Ventures, igloocompany has over 100 employees with 13 regional offices worldwide. Its products are represented by over 100 distributors across 80 countries, and have gained international recognition such as the iF Design Award, Red Dot Design Awards with special mentions in CNA, CNBC, Wall Street Journal.
Prior to starting igloocompany, Anthony led the personalization efforts in Group Digital Life Singtel as part of DataSpark. Anthony graduated with a Masters from Stanford University specializing in big data.
Anthony Chow
igloocompany

Ameer Jumabhoy
utu is transforming tax-free shopping worldwide by empowering travellers with the freedom to obtain a higher VAT refund in 50 countries, something they have been unable to do until now. utu goes beyond digitizing refunds to re-engineer the tax-free shopping business model, eliminating the impact of high fees levied on shoppers. By bringing the worlds of refunds and rewards together, utu unlocks new value in the form of rewards from retailers, airlines, hotels and others.
Ameer Jumabhoy is a co-founder of utu. As well as guiding the company’s overall direction, he leads utu’s consumer technology transformation and community team. This includes the development of customer interfaces on mobile platforms, website, WeChat as well as customer growth, social media, engagement and customer lifecycle management. Ameer holds an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management and a BA in political science and government from Rice University.
Ameer Jumabhoy
utu

Hafiz Kasman
Hafiz Kasman is the Co-Founder of Kinobi, a digital career platform. The platform aims to bridge the education last mile for Gen Z youths; helping them through the transition from finishing formal education to beginning a career. In less than a year, the platform has over 150,000 students from over 200 universities across Southeast Asia, and its Kinobi Z Career Management Platform is used by more than 10 universities.
Hafiz is also the Co-Chair for the Mentoring Alliance for Action Singapore and a serving Executive Committee member for Mendaki Club. Previously, Hafiz was a management consultant at Oliver Wyman and was working on strategy at Hmlet
Hafiz Kasman
Kinobi

Poon Da Qian
Poon Da Qian is the Founder and CEO of BUTLER, a bespoke asset, property and lifestyle management company in Singapore that strives to free up time for working professionals, by supporting and elevating the lifestyle of clients through ultimate convenience.
The firm has grown from a housekeep service company to a management consulting company with over 37 products and services.
Poon is also an Investment Principal at BUTLER Capital, the venture arm of BUTLER and a micro VC focusing on quality early-stage technology companies.
Poon Da Qian
Butler

Damien Sia
Damian Sia is a serial entrepreneur with over ten years experience of running tech start-ups. Capable and well-rounded, he specialises in tech and product development, as well as business planning. In 2018, Damian was awarded the Spirit of Enterprise (SOE) Neo Start-up Award.
A visionary with a can-do attitude, he has founded several successful start-ups such as SeekSquare in 2010, Quotations in 2011, DirectCars in 2012, and Suburb in 2015. Prior to founding Motorist, Damian served as the CEO of DirectCars. He sold his stakes and exited the company in 2015 to found Motorist.
Motorist is currently one of the fastest-growing automotive start-ups in Singapore. Over the past six years, the company has successfully disrupted the automotive industry in Singapore by changing how vehicles are transacted. To date, the company has served over 520,000 motorists and successfully completed over $684 million in vehicle transactions.
Damien Sia
Motorist

Charmain Tan
Charmain Tan is the Founder and CEO of QuickDesk Pte Ltd which provides one-stop digital sales and marketing solutions — as well as training — for SMEs and business professionals. She made Forbes Asia’s 30 Under 30 list for Enterprise Technology in 2019, and Singapore’s inaugural top 100 Women in Tech List in 2020.
Charmain’s main driving force is her mission in impacting nations through the philosophy known to many ‘if you give a hungry man a fish, you feed him for a day, but if you teach him how to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.’ – Lao Tze.
Hence QuickDesk uses the blend of technology and education to transform traditional sales teams to digital sales teams while allowing them to be more effective in sales by automating communications that are repetitive. She then tap on the learnings of developing and growing QuickDesk, to nurture many least and lost through her society – Songkids.
Charmain Tan
QuickDesk

Roy Kek
Roy Kek is a serial entrepreneur with a series of successful ventures in the past years. As the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of EMERGE Esports, he spearheads the esports talent management organisation’s overall direction and growing presence in Southeast Asia.
As Singapore’s rising star in the esports scene, EMERGE Esports has signed over 100 exclusive talents and five global pro-teams since their launch in November 2020. This includes award-winning teams such as KINGSMEN, EHOME, LGD Gaming and BREN Esports. With an established and collaborative ecosystem, EMERGE Esports has worked with nearly 50 partners such as Singtel, Stashaway, Twitter, TikTok and more.
Roy is also the Co-Founder of DIFY, Singapore’s leading integrated communication agency that focuses on brands from emerging industries such as Esports, Blockchain and Fintech. Since its establishment in 2018, DIFY has worked with over 70 blockchain projects, which includes Binance, Huobi and Smart Dubai Government Bodies, to meet their respective communication goals. In 2019, DIFY extended its communication expertise to the esports sector by taking on projects for Singtel PVP, Disney-Marvel, and ONE Esports.
Roy Kek
EMERGE Esports

Ng Junkai
Ng Junkai is the Co-Founder of Janio Asia, a startup providing seamless end-to-end eCommerce logistics solutions for businesses.
Backed by notable investors such as Sequoia Capital, Vertex Ventures and Insignia Venture Partners, Janio has grown to be one of the major players in the logistics scene in the region with a presence in Indonesia, Malaysia, China, Taiwan and Thailand.
Ng Junkai
Janio Asia

Jonathan Eg
Jonathan Eg is the Founder and CEO of Partipost, a crowd influencer platform that connects brands to influencers with the highest brand affinity, helping brands with word-of-mouth advertising. WIth Partipost, anyone can become an influencer – even those with 200 followers/friends – and be rewarded by brands for their authenticity and influence. With more than 650,000 influencers, Partipost has run over 6000 campaigns with 2000 brands in Singapore, Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines.
Jonathan, along with his co-founders Benyamin Ramli and Tony Jen, is very hands-on and involved in the overall strategy, product development, expansion, and growth of Partipost. With the latest Series A funding, Jonathan hopes to push Partipost to become a platform where millions of brands and influencers can benefit.
Jonathan Eg
Partipost

Mobashir Mohammad
Mobashir Mohammad is the Co-Founder and the CTO of Ackcio, a Singapore based startup that builds reliable, effortless, and affordable wireless monitoring solutions for the highly regulated construction and mining industry.
Mobashir has close to a decade of experience in designing and implementing wireless communication protocols that solves the interference problem that plagues the IoT connectivity. The proprietary technology has enabled digital automation of many traditional industries like construction, railways, and mines to continue to make their operations sustainable, efficient, and cost-effective.
To date, Ackcio’s products are used in over 25 markets including Australia, Singapore and Indonesia.
Mobashir Mohammad
Ackcio

Serene Cai
Serene Cai is the co-founder of Speedoc – a virtual clinic and healthcare solution platform that allows users to seek medical care and services from home. Started in 2017, Speedoc has transacted more than 75,000 medical consultations on its platform. In 2020, Speedoc raised $5 million in its series A round.
Serene Cai was also recognised as a Forbes 30 under 30 Asia Honoree in 2021 and shortlisted in SEA’s Top 50 Rising Women in Tech by TechNode.”
Serene Cai
Speedoc

Andrea Baronchelli
Andrea is the Co-founder and CEO of Aspire, the #1 all-in-one finance operating system for growing businesses in Southeast Asia. The company has raised close to US$200 million in funding from top tier VCs. Prior to Aspire, he was the Executive Vice-President and part of the founding team of Lazada Group.
Andrea Baronchelli
Aspire

Stanley Chia
Stanley Chia is the Co-Founder and COO of Cialfo, a startup on a mission to make higher education accessible for 100 million students by 2025. Founded in 2017, Cialfo has found its way into more than 1600 schools across over 100 countries, and has recently raised $15 million in Series A funding.
Before starting Ciafo, Stanley was the founder and managing director of Envisage Education, a social enterprise that empowers youths to create positive change in their communities.
Stanley spends his free time volunteering as an Entrepreneur in Residence at The Sandbox in Ngee Ann Polytechnic, where he mentors and supports young entrepreneurs in their startup journey. He also co-chairs the SGTech Edtech committee in order to help grow a sustainable edtech ecosystem in Singapore.
Stanley Chia
Cialfo
Technology Builders
Many of the greatest innovations today are driven by advanced technologies. These technologies must be developed and managed by individuals, for them to achieve their potential.

Derrick Lee
Derrick Lee is the Co-Founder and CTO of Accredify. With more than 900 clients in nine markets, Accredify has grown to become APAC’s leading service provider for organisations to create and issue verifiable documents. To date, the firm has verified more than 7 million documents worldwide.
Founded in 2019, Accredify’s first vertical was the higher education sector, assisting some of the world’s top universities and adult learning institutions in the creation and issuance of digital graduation certificates and transcripts.
In the fight against COVID-19, Accredify worked closely with the Singapore government to co-develop and issue verifiable digital COVID-19 test results. The firm also developed Singapore’s first COVID-19 workforce management tool, called Accredify START, to help organisations reopen offices safely during the pandemic. Accredify-issued COVID-19 medical records are now recognised in 82 countries and 70 airlines.
Derrick Lee
Accredify

Sim Yanchuan
Sim Yanchuan, is the CTO and Co-Founder of Bot MD, a Y-Combinator backed startup with the mission of Empowering Doctors around the world. As a leading Natural Language Processing (NLP) research scientist at Singapore’s A*STAR Infocomm Research (I2R), he developed Bot MD’s proprietary A.I. chat engine to integrate a wide variety of hospital information systems to provide instant answers to doctor and patient queries.
Since 2018, Bot MD has been used by over 18,000 doctors globally, including clinicians in healthcare institutions and clinics in Singapore such as Tan Tock Seng Hospital, Changi General Hospital, Khoo Teck Puat Hospital, National University Health System, Parkway Healthcare and Northeast Medical Group.
The Bot MD A.I. can also be used to power any consumer messaging platform such as WhatsApp to provide patients with home monitoring care and access to hospital services. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Bot MD was used to provide vital signs monitoring to over 4,000 COVID patients in Singapore. The Bot MD Care platform has subsequently expanded to include monitoring of hypertension, diabetes and chronic kidney disease patients across Southeast Asia.
Sim Yanchuan
Bot MD

Chuong Phan
Chuong Phan is Co-Founder and CTO of Silver Factory Technology – a nanotechnology startup that specializes in the production of high-quality plasmonic nanoparticles and manufacturing of ultrasensitive sensing platforms with in-house formulas. In 2021, it developed a breathalyser test called TracieX, which makes detection of possible COVID infection faster and more comfortable. With other verticals in the development pipeline such as toxic gas detection and other disease diagnosis, the company aims to create new gold standards in the field of chemical detection and healthcare.
Chuong graduated with a PhD in Chemistry from Nanyang Technological University and was previously a Research Fellow with the university leading the commercialization of ultrasensitive analytical platforms for real-life applications.
Chuong Phan
Silver Factory Technology

Jia Zhunan
Jia Zhunan is the Co-Founder and CEO of Breathonix, a deep-tech venture pecialising in advanced breath analysis technology for the early detection of various diseases including COVID-19 and lung cancer.
As CEO and Co-Founder, she plays a role in the creation and rollout of Breathonix’s proprietary breath sampling device and data analysis of Covid-19, early-stage lung cancer, as well as misdiagnosed Tuberculosis.
Jia Zhunan
Breathonix

Oh Chu Xian
Oh Chu Xian is the Founder of Magorium – a deep-tech technology company that focuses on transforming plastic waste for construction purposes. Awarded for her innovation through the TechNode Best Sustainable Solutions Winner in 2020 and competitions such as Ideasinc 2020 and ExtremeTechChallenge Singapore 2021, Oh Chu Xian was also recognised as a Forbes 30 under 30 Asia Honoree 2021.
Oh Chu Xian
Magorium
Capital Drivers
Capital plays an important role within the startup ecosystem, providing startups with the resources to kickstart their innovations. Our Capital Drivers make this possible, pushing for the growth of local companies.

Chia Jeng Yang
Chia Jeng Yang is Principal at Saison Capital, a venture capital firm focusing on Pre-Seed to Series B companies globally across Southeast Asia, India, Africa and the US. Jeng Yang focuses on direct and fund of fund investments, and invests across fintech, embedded finance and consumer/marketplaces. Jeng Yang is also a writer on technology business models at messyproblems.com
He is also the co-founder of Fintech Angels Operators, an angel investor network consisting of executives from major fintech firms including Grab Financial, PayPal, and Stripe.
An active contributor to the local startup ecosystem, Jeng Yang is also the Co-Founder of Shaper Impact Capital, an impact investor newsletter connecting thousands of social enterprises and impact startups with thousands of impact investors and angels globally.
Chia Jeng Yang
Saison Capital

Jeremy Au
Jeremy Au is the Head of Strategic Projects at Monk’s Hill Ventures, a venture capital firm investing in early-stage startups across Southeast Asia. He previously cofounded and led CozyKin, an early education platform acquired by Higher Ground Education, and cofounded Conjunct Consulting, an impact consulting social enterprise with hundreds of clients.
Jeremy actively contributes to the startup ecosystem by hosting BRAVE Southeast Asia Tech, a global top 10% podcast. He profiles authentic journeys of founders, VCs and rising stars across Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Philippines and Malaysia.
Jeremy has been recognised by Forbes 30 Under 30, Prestige 40 Under 40 and multiple other awards. He is a former Bain consultant, holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and graduated from UC Berkeley. He is also a speaker and trainer for numerous entrepreneurship, leadership and community engagement events.
Jeremy Au
Monk's Hill Ventures

Amra Naidoo
Amra Naidoo is the Co-founder and General Partner of Accelerating Asia, an early-stage VC accelerator that invests in and accelerates pre-Series A startups from Southeast and South Asia. Its portfolio includes over 40 startups that have collectively raised over $30 million to date. Accelerating Asia recently launched Fund II with a target corpus of $20 million.
Amra also actively contributes to the local startup ecosystem as the APAC Regional Lead for Shaper Impact Capital, a community-led volunteer project that helps to connect thousands of startups with a social impact, with thousands of impact investors and angels, globally.
She has been interviewed and featured as a guest author on industry blogs, including The Straits Times, Techcrunch, Reuters and named as one of Harpers Bazaar’s Women Who Inspire Others.
Amra Naidoo
Accelerating Asia

Foo Tiang Lim
Foo Tiang Lim is the Co-Founder and Partner at Forge Ventures (https://www.forge.vc), a seed-stage venture capital firm that partners with founders building the future in Southeast Asia. FV invest with high conviction, leading seed and pre-seed financing rounds and working hand-in-hand with founders from Vouch, Dropezy and Marathon to get from zero to one.
Tiang was previously a Partner and part of the founding team at SeedPlus, a leading seed fund in Southeast Asia backed by SGInnovate, Jungle Ventures, Cisco, and IFC. While at SeedPlus he invested and worked with category-defining companies such as CardUp, Homage, Neuron Mobility, Rukita and Qoala etc.
Prior to VC, Tiang launched Evernote’s operations in Singapore and Asia Pacific, and served as a product manager at a fintech startup in Singapore before that.
Tiang is also an active angel investor, and had been involved with numerous Singaporean startups including Xfers, Jenfi, Arrow, Geniebook and Epiphany.
Foo Tiang Lim
Forge Ventures

Wei Shi Khai
Wei Shi Khai is the Co-Founder and COO of LongHash Ventures, a Singapore-based blockchain accelerator and venture capital fund. Its US$15 million fund invests in tokens and early-stage blockchain companies, focusing on Web 3.0 infrastructure components and decentralized finance (DeFi).
To date, LongHash has accelerated over 30 companies, with its portfolio raising a combined US$25 million. Shi Kai is also a frequent speaker and writer on Web 3.0 and the future of blockchain.
Wei Shi Khai
Longhash Ventures

Sng Khai Lin
Sng Khai Lin is co-founder and Chief Investment Officer (CIO) of Fundnel, leading the group’s Corporate Development Division and responsible for the organic and inorganic development of the group’s new business units.
Under her wing, Fundnel has secured USD540 million in essential funding for private companies and private equity and venture capital funds as of 2020.
Khai Lin was integral in Fundnel’s founding membership of Hg Exchange; in her role as Director, Khai Lin represents Fundnel’s commitment to increase access and liquidity in the private capital markets. She also serves as Vice-President of the Singapore Fintech Association.
Sng Khai Lin
Fundnel

Ng Yi Ming
Yi Ming Ng is the CEO of Tribe – a technology ecosystem platform that connects tech talents to global opportunities. Tribe has worked with more than 100 leading organisations such as EY, Nielsen, IBM, Temasek, Ubisoft and many more.
Yi Ming also serves as an Entrepreneur in Residence at INSEAD, supporting promising MBA students with their entrepreneurship pursuits. Yi Ming was recognised as a Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia Honoree in 2020.
Ng Yi Ming
Tribe

Jay Lim
Jay Lim is a Venture Partner at Global Founders Capital (GFC), a global venture capital fund headed by the CEO of Rocket Internet. GFC invested in Facebook, Linkedin, as well as Traveloka and Nium within SEA.
On behalf of GFC, Jay led several deals in companies such as Webuy, Reap and Finantier. He is also an active angel investor and owns several F&B brands in Singapore. Prior to this, he worked in investment banking and also founded a fintech startup.
Jay Lim
Global Founders Capital
Social Entrepreneurs
While we live in a privileged society, there are still social issues within our community, especially with the COVID-19 pandemic. Social drivers are those who tackle them and generate impact beyond themselves.

Ng Yau Xuan
Ng Yau Xuan is the Co-Founder and Director of Advisory Singapore, a youth development initiative that aims to provide youth in Singapore free access to resources they need to make informed education and career choices.
Since 2016, Advisory has engaged with over 140,000 students and youth through its online repository of interviews with working professionals, its industry panels and learning journeys with firms, as well as its careers-based mentorship and schools-based career guidance programming.
Yau Xuan oversees the operations, marketing and tech divisions in his role on a pro-bono basis, while juggling a full time role with the Ministry of Finance.
Ng Yau Xuan
Advisory Singapore

Calvin Wee
Calvin Wee is the Co-Founder of The Young SEAkers (TYS), a nonprofit organisation that aims to nurture a community of ASEAN youths who are passionate about advancing the interests of the ASEAN-China region. TYS is currently in all 10 ASEAN countries and China.
As part of TYS, Calvin has helped to organise 28 webinars on various topics on ASEAN and China, bringing together reputable leaders in the private, people, and public sectors around the region to share valuable insights and inspire the youths to achieve more when COVID-19 struck.
Calvin Wee
The Young SEAkers

Andrew Tan
Andrew Tan is the Country Manager for Singapore at Wantedly, and also Co-Founder of Makan for Hope Festival 2021, a mentoring and charity fundraising campaign supported by many venture capital firms in ASEAN and tech industry leaders, which raised close to $250,000 for Fei Yue Community Services.
Andrew is passionate about building ecosystems to help people help others, and actively contributes back by mentoring startups with his experience accumulated at The Shiok Collective, BeMyGuest, One Belt One Road Venture Capital and more.
Andrew Tan
Wantedly

Sazzad Hossain
Sazzard Hossain is the Founder and CEO of SDI Academy, a social enterprise launched in 2013 to help the country’s migrant workers overcome daily challenges by improving their English. He has since expanded its services to include computer skills, financial literacy and entrepreneurship and has trained over 18,500 migrant workers.
Sazzad is also an Obama Foundation Leader and an Ashoka Fellow, and was previously recognised by Forbes 30 under 30.
Sazzad Hossain
SDI Academy

Yeoh Wan Qing
Wan Qing is the Co-founder and Chief Product Officer of Hatch, an impact-driven startup at the intersections of digital accessibility and social innovation. The company started with a dream for a more equitable world where opportunities are readily available and accessible to those who deserve them. Today, Hatch runs a digital skills academy with programs that cater to the everyday folk, alongside a digital media agency which offers one-stop solutions to small and medium-sized organisations.
As part of its social mission, the company adopts an intentional approach in tackling systemic socio-economic barriers. That means going to where support is most needed and working with ecosystem partners to create lasting and impactful change. Amongst its impact-focused programs is a digital employability program for out-of-school and at-risk youths as well as a digital skills program for low-income tertiary students. These programs are often first of its kind, made possible by the company’s close network of both industry and social sector organisations.
Wan Qing is drawn to the delicate space of complexity between certainty and chaos, where she immerses herself in the process of exploring and creating. She treasures the authentic encounters with people she meets and enjoys learning about why they do the work that they do.
Yeoh Wan Qing
Hatch
Ecosystem Builders
Ecosystem Builders are often the unsung heroes of any startup community. They facilitate important connections in the entrepreneurship scene, which often form the spark for collaborations. They are the glue that binds the moving parts together.

Andee Chua
Andee Chua is the Co-Founder of Kampung Collective, a community for community builders across Asia. With over 600 community builders across different industries and verticals, Kampung Collective seeks to be a safe space and support network for community builders to share, learn and help one another grow in this space.
He is passionate about working with the youths and spends his time volunteering with National Youth Council, local universities, and youth organizations to run entrepreneurship programs and mentoring the younger generation. Andee is also an ambassador and mentor of She Loves Tech, an international non-profit organization that is committed to closing the funding gap for women entrepreneurs.
Andee Chua
Kampung Collective

Sai Surya Yarlagadda
Sai Surya Yarlagadda is the Co-Founder and CEO of Young Sustainable Impact Southeast Asia (YSI SEA), a social enterprise running 5-month incubation programmes for young entrepreneurs across the region to start sustainability ventures, using the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals and Innovation tools as a framework.
Backed by Temasek Foundation Ecosperity, the philanthropic arm of state investment firm Temasek, YSI SEA has built a community of 13,000 young entrepreneurs and incubated 27 startups around Southeast Asia.
After seeing the overwhelming demand for the sustainability programmes with over 3,500 applicants over 3 years, Surya and his team have recently launched Interseed, a digital platform bringing the Southeast Asian sustainability ecosystem together to help impact founders, young professionals and the community at large collaborate meaningfully to scale their sustainable impact.
Sai Surya Yarlagadda
Young Sustainable Impact SEA

Joyce Tay
Joyce is the Chief Strategy Officer at StartupX, the innovation consultancy she co-founded, and Director for Startup Weekend Singapore, one of the largest startup communities in Southeast Asia. She was formerly the Programme Head for BLOCK71 Singapore & Indonesia. Prior to that, she kickstarted a few startups, was part of Singapore’s national broadcaster’s first venture builder, and launched a digital venture for a financial institution. In her role at StartupX, she has developed and launched accelerators in the sustainability, arts and smart cities space across Southeast Asia, including HyperX, the world’s first sustainability hackcelerator co-developed with Temasek.
Joyce Tay
StartupX

Elise Tan
Elise Tan is the Co-Founder of Makan for Hope (MFH). MFH Festival connects entrepreneurs, investors, innovators, and industry leaders to support and inspire each other through life’s lessons, experiences and encourage the spirit of giving back. This year, they raised $120,000 for Fei Yue Community Services.
MFH also runs Mentor for Hope, a mentoring and charity fundraising initiative involving venture capital firms and corporate professionals. Under Elise’s leadership, the initiative saw more than 250 mentors contribute over 500 mentoring hours, raising over $43,000, with the support of Temasek Foundation.
Elise is actively involved within the local startup ecosystem and is currently the Director of Communications and Community at Vertex Ventures, a Temasek-backed venture capital firm.