Tech in Asia Tour coming to Hong Kong with a star lineup of investors

Tech in Asia is coming to Hong Kong on March 10 for the third stop in our Tech in Asia Tour. If you’re in town and haven’t got tickets yet, time is running out to see our expert panel of judges pick apart pitches from five startups vying for a free trip to our Tech in Asia Singapore conference on May 6 and 7.

Our five judges include Simon Squibb, CEO of Nest Investments; Tytus Michalski, managing director at Fresco Capital; Takeshi Ebihara, founding general partner at Redbright Partners; Vinnie Lauria, founding partner at Golden Gate Ventures; and Willson Cuaca, managing partner at East Ventures. (Disclosure: East Ventures also invests in Tech in Asia. See our ethics page).

That all-star lineup of investors will warm up with a fireside chat to discuss fundraising and scaling up startups in the region. Next, they’ll hear pitches from the five startup teams. Before they deliberate with each other and decide on a winner, we’ll listen to their thoughts individually on stage. Finally, a champion will be crowned and rewarded with flight, accomodation, free passes, and an exhibition booth for two team members at Tech in Asia Singapore 2015.

The event takes place March 10 at Blueprint, a brand new accelerator and co-working space in Hong Kong. Tickets are free. There will be food. There will be drink. There will be networking. Be there!

Registration

Location

Blueprint
16/F Cornwall House
Taikoo Place, 979 King’s Road
Quarry Bay, Hong Kong

Agenda

6:30pm-7:00pm: Registration
7:00pm-7:05pm: Welcome by Tech in Asia
7:05pm-7:35pm: Fireside Chat with investors: How To Fundraise and Scale in Asia
7:35pm-8:30pm: Pitches by 5 companies (5 mins pitch, 5 mins Q&A)
8:30pm-8:35pm: Peek Into Judges’ Backstage Discussion
8:35pm-8:45pm: Announcement and Closing
8:45pm-9:30pm: Networking

Judges

Simon Squibb, CEO of Nest Investments

As an angel investor for over 18 years, Squibb is dedicated to bringing ideas to life and helping the next generation of entrepreneurs in Hong Kong achieve their dreams.

As founder of multi award-winning, globally respected creative agency, Fluid, Squibb worked with an impressive list of clients and partner brands including Estée Lauder China, Fortune, CNN, Wall Street Journal Asia, Li & Fung, Citibank China and Starbucks. As CEO of Nest Investments, Squibb leverages his extensive network and experience to mentor and develop Hong Kong based start-ups and entrepreneurs.

Tytus Michalski, managing director of Fresco Capital

Tytus Michalski is a managing director of Fresco Capital and is involved in all aspects of investment and operations. He has been investing, working and living in Asia since 1999. Previously, he was chief investment officer of equities at PMA Investment Advisors, an institutional hedge fund, managing the regional equity funds and the equity team. He was a founding member of PMA, which was started in 2002 and acquired in 2006 for over US$200M. Before that, he was focused on equity investment with HSBC Asset Management in Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo and London.

Michalski graduated from the Sauder School of Business at the University of British Columbia (Finance with Honours), is a Leslie Wong Fellow alumnus of the UBC Portfolio Management Foundation and holds the CFA designation. He is an active supporter of startup ecosystem in Hong Kong and Asia with an emphasis on mentorship and education. In his spare time, Michalski enjoys training and teaching traditional Okinawan karate as a third degree black belt.

Takeshi Ebihara, founding general partner of Redbright Partners

Ebihara founded Rebright Partners in 2008, a Southeast Asia focused venture capital.

He first started his career in 1994 at JAFCO, one of the largest venture capital firms in Japan. He also has experience on the other side of the table which sees him founded and managed several internet companies. Some of the companies Ebihara managed were listed in the Tokyo Stock Exchange. He is a mentor at the Founder Institute and a board member of many startup companies in Southeast Asia and Japan.

Vinnie Lauria, founding partner of Golden Gate Ventures

Lauria is entrepreneur turned venture capitalist. He is a founding partner of Golden Gate Ventures, an early-stage VC firm in Southeast Asia with over 17 investments to date. He is a Kauffman Fellow, and a guest lecturer at the National University of Singapore. He was rated by the Founder Institute as highest startup mentor in Asia from a pool of 2,500 mentors.

Prior to setting up Golden Gate Ventures, Lauria built two startups in Silicon Valley: Meetro, a location-based chat service which was dissolved with many lessons learned in 2007; and Lefora, a forum hosting platform which grew to over 100,000 communities and was acquired by CrowdGather in 2010. He founded the Silicon Valley NewTech meetup, featuring hundreds of startups to a monthly audience w/ more than 10,000 members.

Earlier in his career, Lauria spent four years within IBM, helping to shape how IBM was approaching social software for the enterprise. Lauria is a graduate of Boston University’s College of Engineering.

Willson Cuaca, managing partner at East Ventures

Mr. Willson Cuaca is a co-founder and serves as managing partner of East Ventures. Cuaca founded Apps Foundry and serves as its CEO. He is actively involved in building web and mobile products for the consumer market in the SEA region, particularly in Singapore and Indonesia. He holds a B.Comp Science from Bina Nusantara University – Jakarta.