S03E28: Hypergrowth of a Venture Capital Career in Southeast Asia, Evolution of Family Office Startup Investing, and the Rise of Philippine Startup Unicorns with Gentree Fund VP Mark Sng

On Call with Insignia Ventures

Over this season, apart from our portfolio founders, we've been able to talk to a couple of interesting venture capitalists from different parts of the world like Brazil and Canada and hear their thoughts about Southeast Asia. In this episode, we're back with another venture capitalist, and now doing this in conjunction with Insignia Ventures Academy, Asia’s first experiential VC accelerator. You can expect to have more episodes with mentors and alumni from the 12 week-program as well.

One of them is Mark Sng, Vice President of Gentree Fund, the venture capital fund of the Sy family office, the family behind one of the largest conglomerates in the Philippines. He talks about his career going from private equity to corporate development to venture capitalist as well as the evolution of the Philippines’ startup ecosystem and what’s exciting in the market these days.

Transcript

Timestamps

00:46 Paulo introduces Mark Sng, VP of Investments at Gentree;

01:44 Philippines’ Startup Ecosystem Rising;

02:57 Mark’s Career Part 1: TAEL Partners (PE Fund);

04:58 Mark’s Career Part 2: Gojek Corporate Development;

06:34 Mark’s Career Part 3: Go-Ventures;

08:24 Mark’s Career Part 4: Gentree Fund;

11:20 Impact of more family offices and corporates setting up funds in Southeast Asia;

14:30 Comparing PE, Corp Dev, and VC from skill sets POV;

17:04 Value of regulatory clarity in attracting investors;

19:45 Thinking beyond the Philippines for market;

20:47 Rise of elephants and unicorns in the Philippines;

22:41 Rapid Fire Round;

About our guest

Mark Sng is the Vice President of Gentree Fund, the venture capital fund of the Sy family office, the family behind one of the largest conglomerates in the Philippines. Mark previously spearheaded the Singapore office launch for Go-Ventures and supported the ventures team as Head of Singapore and Vietnam Coverage. Before Go-Ventures, he was with Gojek’s Corporate Development Team, where he was part of the team that led the acquisition of Coins.ph in the Philippines. He also supported growth equity transactions into family-run businesses at TAEL Partners: a SEA growth equity fund with a focus on the Philippines, Vietnam, and Indonesia markets.

Music: Cool Upbeat Background Music For Videos by MorningLightMusic

Tags: startup, Southeast Asia, founder, entrepreneurship, business, technology

The content of this podcast is for informational purposes only, should not be taken as legal, tax, or business advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security, and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any Insignia Ventures fund.

--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/oncallinsignia/message