Insights
Sarah Chen-Spellings
From the real-world impact of AI and the rise of operator-investors, to the growing influence of women and underestimated founders in the funding landscape. Sarah breaks down what’s happening beyond Silicon Valley, explore how capital and media now move together, and spotlight the billion-dollar ideas driving the next wave of innovation.
- Billion Dollar Moves Episodes, Startups
Executing On Your Purpose & Making Eggs Without Chickens
"If not now, then when? I had no job, nowhere to stay but I had to try. Even if I failed, I would have the peace of mind that at least I tried. I would have always wondered, what if?"
From the rise of Impossible Foods to McDonalds announcing their McPlant menu, plant-based food has undeniably taken the market by storm. Beyond the mainstreaming of veganism, fast-forward to 2021, a global crisis and global lockdowns drove consumers to reassess what they eat and their impact on the planet.
Riding this wave is Clara Foods (www.clarafoods.com), a Silicon Valley venture-backed company making animal protein without the animals. Led by Arturo Elizondo, Clara Foods is disrupting food technology, developing performance protein products and making the world's first animal free egg white protein. Using advanced fermentation to brew protein that is cleaner, greener and kinder to our environment today, this week, we take a personal deep dive with the man behind the vision of eggs without chickens.
- Billion Dollar Moves Episodes, Startups, Venture Capital
Venture Capital in Emerging Markets: SuperApp Wars, SPACs
In today's Billion Dollar Moves Breakdown, we bust some myths on the emerging markets and venture capital with THE emerging markets analyst, Mikal Khoso, VC at Wavemaker Partners, a cross border venture capital firm dual headquartered in Los Angeles and Singapore and has raised over $580M across multiple funds.
- Billion Dollar Moves Episodes, Venture Capital
Building Unicorns Indonesia with Shinta Dhanuwardoyo
Indonesia’s startups have been making headlines in the last few years, including most recently the news that online mall Bukalapak is set to raise $1.5 billion in the country’s largest-ever initial public offering - setting the stage for a wave of tech listings, with fellow unicorns GoTo and Traveloka to follow suit. Home to the region’s largest population, it is no surprise, Indonesia is in it’s primetime for entrepreneurs. This week, we begin to scratch the surface of the Indonesian startup storyline with veteran digital entrepreneur and evangelist Shinta Dhanuwardoyo.
- Billion Dollar Moves Episodes, Startups
Never Too Late To Startup: Building Insurtech with Rosaline Koo
We love rooting for the underdog- but what does it really take to rise despite the odds, as THE underdog? Rosaline Koo founded CXA Group from her living room in 2013 after a storied career with multinationals, with ambitions to transform health benefits for employees. Tune in to her story from risking all her family savings to build her startup; to scaling to over a million users and raising over $50M from the likes of Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin's B Capital Group, EDBI, Openspace Ventures and more.
- Billion Dollar Moves Episodes, Startups, Venture Capital
Enterprise is Eating Venture Capital with Cathy Gao, Sapphire Ventures
We travel today to the West Coast of the United States where it's becoming increasingly clear that Enterprise Tech is dominating venture capital — where every company is becoming a software company. From retailers to established financial institutions and even health providers, the underlying technology has enabled everything from payments to CRM, information management, and so, much more.
But how did we arrive at this inflection point and what next?
Cathy Gao, Partner at Sapphire Ventures, a leading venture capital firm with more than $6.8B in AUM across the Sapphire group weighs in. For nearly two decades, Sapphire has been investing capital, resources and expertise in innovative startups and technology-focused venture funds around the world.
- Billion Dollar Moves Episodes, Startups, Venture Capital
Beyond Series A: Asian Startups in Overdrive
This week, we dive deep with Rajive Keshup in Singapore, Investment Director at Cathay Innovation, an early and growth stage venture capital firm with $1.5B AUM across San Francisco, Paris, Shanghai and Singapore, and closely affiliated with Cathay Capital Private Equity, a global private equity firm with $3B in AUM.
From the lens of a management consultant turned operator turned funder, Rajive talks about what it takes to be an entrepreneur’s first phone call in great and not-so-great times, and the real landscape of growth stage companies in SEA.
- Billion Dollar Moves Episodes, Startups
SOLD MY STARTUP FOR $780M: THE GOOD, BAD, UGLY
This week we went deep on the growing pains of a startup, from PR nightmares to co-founder breakups, the challenge of shifting from a scarcity to growth mindset, and so much more with Jack Smith, serial entrepreneur & investor who sold his startup Vungle, to Blackstone for $780M.
- Venture Capital
How Female Founders & Investors Are Shaking Up Venture Capital
Majority of venture capital investment goes to all-male teams, but investors are recognizing the opportunity of investing into gender diverse teams. Bold systemic change is needed to create an equitable playing field for female founders founders and the funds that invest in them.
- Billion Dollar Moves Episodes, Startups
The Rise of SuperApps with Muneeb Maayr
Ride-hailing giant Gojek and marketplace Tokopedia, Indonesia’s two largest startups, said a couple of days ago that they’ve merged their businesses to form GoTo Group, on track for a $35-$40B IPO end year.
This sets more fuel to the fire of SuperApps rising in Southeast Asia: a trend that is actually moving from East to West. But is it all that it's cut out to be?
From the rise of SuperApps to the unique challenges of the two-wheeler opportunity in a country like Pakistan, to the fear of a meaningless life, Muneeb Maayr, Bykea and I cover it all.
- Billion Dollar Moves Episodes, Startups
Building Biotech with Brian Conn
The Bay Area landscape is still covered with large tech companies and countless tech startups, but the map is increasingly dotted with biotech startups. Apple is making constant strides in healthcare – so much so that Tim Cook RECENTLY said, “that there will be a day we look back and say Apple’s greatest contribution to mankind has been in healthcare.” And believe it or not, Google’s DeepMind is leading the field in protein engineering.
Today, human kind is experiencing a revolution, a revolution in science that will save and transform our lives. From microbiome manipulation, to genomic sequencing biotechnology promises an unprecedented future
But what does it really take to build a biotech company that will last?
In comes my next guest, Brian Conn, who has served as the CFO of numerous biotech companies over two decades where he has raised over $300M for his companies and completed 20 M&A deals.
He’s seen it all, in labs where stress levels are at an all-time high, where millions are burned before a product is seen in market. Currently, Brian is the CFO of a genomic sequencing startup Quantapore, is co-founder of a synthetic biology company Levadura, AND is an advisor for the VC firm General Inception.