Terence Lee · · 2 min readMonk’s Hill Ventures on departure of team: nothing unusual here
Singapore-based venture capital firm Monk’s Hill Ventures saw a number of key departures recently, specifically partner Stefan Jung and associate Christian Sutardi, reported Singaporean tech blog e27. The news came out just a day before their scheduled May Day party in Jakarta. While the reasons for the departure were not stated in the article, founding partner Kuo-Yi Lim tells Tech in Asia that it wasn’t because of disagreements or an internal spat.
“It’s always been our philosophy that associate and junior folks look to start their own companies down the road […] they work with us on a two or three year cycle, and then we encourage them to start or join a startup as part of their journey,” says Lim. Both have been with the firm for a year plus.
Sutardi left to start an online customized furniture store called Fabelio. As for Jung, Lim will only say that he’s working on “a few ideas.” Lim further clarifies that Jung was a full-time partner and a rung below founding managing directors Lim and Peng Tsin Ong in terms of decision-making power.
“One thing about having good people on the team is they always have a lot of opportunities in front of them. And both Christian and Stefan are stellar folks, so while we are sad to see them go, we are excited about what they plan to do next,” says Lim, adding that he and Ong are committed to the VC firm. As for the departure of content strategist Mona Nomura, Lim adds it’s a non-story since she was a consultant and never a full-time employee.
Sutardi tells Tech in Asia that the firm understands that he would “leave sooner or later”, either to join a portfolio company or his own startup. He joined Monk’s Hill for three reasons: to learn from the partners, understand the venture capital business, and better understand the Southeast Asian scene.
Moving forward, Monk’s Hill is seeking to bolster its ranks. It brought on a director of community in Indonesia and an investment analyst, and will likely bring on two more team members.
The venture capital firm burst onto the scene in May 2014 as part of the ESVF scheme, a Singapore government program to co-invest in series A startups. Ong is an established Silicon Valley entrepreneur, while Lim was the former CEO of Infocomm Investments, a state-owned VC firm.
Monk’s Hill has already sealed a few deals. It led a US$2.5 million round in Singaporean ecommerce logistics startup Ninja Van, and also invested in Indonesian finance portal Compare88. It looks like there will be many more deals to come.
Editing by Daniel Tay
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