500 Startups appoints Khailee Ng managing partner

• Popular speaker, successful entrepreneur with two GroupsMore and Says.com
• Has made over 30 investments across SEA in last 7mths for 500 Durians

SILICON Valley’s 500 Startups has announced the election of two new managing partners, Bedy Yang and Khailee Ng (pic above), a Malaysian and a Digital News Asia Digerati50.
 
Ng is a popular speaker in the startup scene in South-East Asia and a successful entrepreneur, having founded Malaysian group-buying site GroupsMore which was later acquired by Groupon, and Says.com, which later merged with select Catcha Media subsidiaries to become Rev Asia.
 
Ng started with 500 Startups as an entrepreneur-in-residence and mentor with the fifth batch of the 500 Startups Accelerator. He also participated in its Geeks On A Plane trip through Japan, Shanghai, and Hong Kong in 2011.
 
He later founded the investment firm’s South-East Asia focused fund called ‘500 Durians.’ In the past seven months, he has made over 30 investments across Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, and Malaysia, including Malaysian finance comparison group, iMoney.my, 500 Startups said in a statement.
 
500 Startups said it is the world’s most active venture capital investment firm according to CB Insights, and has invested in over 850 companies in 40 countries since its inception in 2010.
 
It was was founded by Paypal and Google alumni, and is headquartered in Silicon Valley. They see the election of non-Silicon Valley leadership as part of their global strategy.
 
Over a quarter of 500 Startups’ 850 companies come from outside of the United States, from across 40+ different countries, the firm said.
 
The team itself is diverse, now over 40% female, with about one-third of the born outside the United States, collectively speaking over 20 languages including English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Swedish, Portuguese, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Cantonese, Malay, Indonesian, Hindi, Punjabi, Gujarati, Tamil, Bulgarian, Russian, Farsi and Hebrew.
 
“The best entrepreneurs can come from any country. And they may serve customers from all around the world,” said its founding managing partner Dave McClure (pic).
 
“You’re going to need a combination of local experts and a global platform to support them. And Khailee (Ng) possesses all of those global-local qualities to help grow 500’s presence in South-East Asia and beyond,” he added.
 
Ng was a self-taught web developer who learned how to code from the Internet at the age of 15 while still studying at school.
 
He pursued further studies overseas, but returned to Malaysia to build his businesses. He started his first business with the help of the Technopreneur Seed Grant administered by national ICT custodian Multimedia Development Corp, and subsequently received funding from local venture capitalist Teak Capital.
 
Today, he believes in giving back to the Malaysian startup ecosystem. Aside from his work with 500 Startups, he is a board member of the Malaysian Global Innovation and Creativity Centre (MaGiC), whose chief executive officer Cheryl Yeoh was also an entrepreneur in 500 Startup’s portfolio.
 
“It’s time to connect entrepreneurs to global funding, mentorship, and networks, no matter where they are from. There’s no reason why the next global company cannot be built by a Malaysian,” said Ng.
 
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