23/07/2018
Introducing the mentors for week 13:
1.Koichi Saito – Founder & General Partner of KK Fund
Koichi Saito is founder & General Partner of KK Fund, a venture capital fund investing in seed stage internet and mobile startups across South East Asia, Hong Kong and Taiwan.Launched in 2015, KK Fund has made more than 10 investments including EventPop and Giztix across four themes: marketplace, fintech, logistics and media/entertainment.Koichi previously worked at IMJ Investment Partners as Director and responsible for IMJ’s investments throughout Southeast Asia. Prior to IMJ, Koichi worked at Private Equity Fund founded by George Soros, and was engaged in several corporate and hotel acquisitions.Koichi holds a Master of Business Administration degree from IE business school in Spain.
2.Eitan Lavie – Investor, Legal and Global Networks, Chairman of AGW Group
Eitan is an investor and shareholder in various companies and startups from the pre-seed to IPO with focusing on innovative technology. In addition to investment and consulting to these companies while they grow, he’s also utilizing his vast network to advance these companies and strengthen their core marketing and sales in different sectors, such as Technology, Manufacturing and Production, Defense, etc.Highly experienced in complicated ventures and investments, as entrepreneur, a lawyer or an investor both in Israel and overseas, mainly in the technology sector, mergers and acquisitions and joint ventures. As part of his international activity Eitan maintains a wide range of work relationships and cooperation with various organizations and companies worldwide. Within his scope of activities, Eitan established branches in New York, Paris, London, Tel-Aviv and Hong Kong.
3.Monthida McCoole – Investor
Monthida, a Thai national and long term Singapore resident, is actively involved in the startup accelerator space – first with JFDI.Asia and now with muru-D (wholly owned by Telstra). With her in-depth knowledge of startup accelerators and close-ties with the community, she has developed a solid network of the stakeholders in the ecosystem including entrepreneurs, investors, and government organizations. Monthida has invested in several early-stage digital companies in Southeast Asia including Silent Eight and Sonru. With her previous investment banking experience at JP Morgan, Monthida now works closely with entrepreneurs to advise on finance-related issues and to support their investor engagement.
4.Pachara Yongjiranon (Billy) –Managing Director, SpeakPro Training
I have experience in sales, recruitment and talent development. I have trained for many corporations but mainly financial services and technology. My passion is training people at all levels and I have coached top executives as well as operational staff.I have professional experience with both Thai and multinational organizations in the recruitment, training, and on-line marketing industries. My functions cover across recruitment, CSR projects, employee relations, organizational development, and speech coaching.
