500 Global adds three partners in Southeast Asia

The three recruits are Saemin Ahn, Martin Cu, and Shahril Ibrahim. Ahn was previously a founding managing partner at Rakuten Ventures, where he led investments in over 25 companies, including GoTo, Carousell, Epic, and Coda Payments. Before that, he worked for Google in Korea and Singapore.

Ibrahim joins from Khazanah Nasional, where he was a director of investments and established the Malaysian sovereign wealth fund’s presence in the US. Investments focused on enterprise technology and deep technology, specifically artificial intelligence, machine learning, and robotics.

Cu was previously Philippines country head at Ninja Van, a logistics start-up that has received substantial VC funding and achieved a valuation in excess of USD 1bn. He built the Philippines team from zero to more than 5,000 employees, creating a network with 97% national coverage.

“Martin, Saemin and Shahril add significant investment and operational expertise to support the growing ambitions of our entrepreneurs across Southeast Asia,” said Vishal Harnal, a Singaoore-based managing director at 500 Global, in a statement.

“We will continue to add top talent and winning skill sets to our team in this strategically important region and build on our track record of success.”

500 Global was founded in 2010 and entered Asia the following year. Its largest-ever global fund closed on USD 140m in 2021. The firm has also raised a dedicated Southeast Asia fund and separate country vehicles for the likes of Thailand and Vietnam. There are also accelerators in Indonesia and Cambodia.

Southeast Asian unicorns in the 500 Global portfolio include Grab, Bukalapak, Carsome, Carousell, FinAccel, and eFishery.

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• Topics
• Southeast Asia
• People
• GPs
• 500 Startups
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