Panel Talk Series: Innovation, Venture Market and Hong Kong as an Innovation Bridge between India and China
VIEW EVENT DETAILSIndia-Hong Kong-China Connect 2019
Panel I 8:45am
Panel II 10:30am
Panel III 14:45pm
Innovation and technology is witnessing rapid growth in its scale and speed. India and China, being homes to the world’s largest and most influential entrepreneurial ecosystems, are forging different paths to support their innovative and entrepreneurial ecosystem. Hong Kong, which is among the world's leading international financial centers, with its unique advantages, can develop as an important innovation and entrepreneurial bridge as these Asian companies internationalize. The convergence between these three ecosystems has the potential to play a critical role in the growth, funding and collaborative opportunities for these entrepreneurs and innovators. The panels on “Innovating True Competitive Advantage”, “Towards a More Efficient Venture Market” and “Hong Kong as an Innovation Bridge between India and China” will provide a platform for some of the leading entrepreneurs from India, Hong Kong and China, across industries, to share their experiences of how they build their companies, raised financing and the challenges and potential areas of collaboration between them. The panelists will compare and contrast the three entrepreneurial ecosystems, best practices and their outlook at the collaborative opportunities between Hong Kong, India and China.
Panel I : Innovating True Competitive Advantage
9:00 am – 10:30 am | LQW Room
Tarun Mehta, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, Ather Energy. Tarun conceptualized and started Ather Energy in 2013, along with fellow student and co-founder Swapnil Jain. This is India’s first smart electric scooter that aims to revolutionize two-wheeler driving in India. It is valued at around $400 million. By 2023, Ather plans to set up 6,500 charging stations across 30 cities for its electric vehicles. Tarun and Swapnil Jain were listed on the Forbes 30 under 30 in 2018 and Fortune 40 under 40 list in 2017 and 2019 for the innovative product that is disrupting the Indian auto industry.
Saraansh Dave, Head of New Business Development, Non-SoC Business, CLP Holdings. Saraansh started his energy career working on European smart grid research projects before moving onto strategy and business development roles for a UK utility. Having joined CLP, he focuses on developing new business opportunities across the group with a focus on new energy businesses. CLP Holdings Limited, a company listed on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong, is the holding company for the CLP Group, one of the largest investor-owned power businesses in Asia Pacific. Through CLP Power Hong Kong Limited, it operates a vertically-integrated electricity supply business providing a highly-reliable supply of electricity to 80% of Hong Kong's population. Outside Hong Kong, CLP holds investment in the energy sector in Mainland China, India, Southeast Asia, Taiwan and Australia.
Amit Goyal, Head edX S.E. Asia. Accoladed as the man behind launching world’s cheapest tablet PC ‘Aakash’ with the Government of India, Amit heads the world’s largest non-profit E-Learning portal founded by MIT & Harvard University in S.E.Asia. Prior to edX, he headed Education Solutions business for Samsung, where he successfully launched Ed-Tech products used by educational groups & businesses worldwide like Byju Tab Learning and Tab MBA by Amity.
Ricky Chiu, Founder, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer PHASE Scientific. Lead inventor of the biotech startup’s core technology, which is to empower people with health information, Ricky founded PHASE Scientific while completing his Ph.D. in bioengineering at the University of California, Los Angeles. With U.S. roots, PHASE Scientific has expanded globally with headquarters in Hong Kong and manufacturing, R&D, clinical trial, commercialization facilities in California and Suzhou, China.
Ashish Wadhwani, Managing Partner IvyCap Ventures. He has worked with companies across the investment lifecycle, from incubation to exit. Ashish has led and managed investments across technology, consumer and traditional industries including a NASDAQ listing. He has founded and run his own ventures and has been a member of several boards. He has advised companies globally on business strategy, growth, implementing new business models, value creation and monetisation, M&A and new investments. He holds a post-graduate diploma in management from the IIM Ahmedabad, and a B.Tech. degree from the IIT Delhi.
Henny Sender, Chief Correspondent for International Finance, Financial Times. Based in New York and Hong Kong, Henny joined the FT in 2007. Before joining the FT, she was the Wall Street Journal’s Senior Special Writer for Money & Investing, covering private equity and hedge funds. She has spent ten years in Hong Kong covering regional finance for WSJ Asia and Far Eastern Economic Review, as well as five years in Tokyo at Institutional Investor. (Moderator).
Panel II : Towards a More Efficient Venture Market
10: 45 am - 12:00 pm | LQW Room
Vikram Gupta, IvyCap, Founder & Managing Partner, IvyCap Ventures Advisors Private Limited. Known for setting up India’s First Healthcare and Life Sciences Venture Capital Fund, Vikram has over 20 years of experience in Venture Capital, Business Consulting, M&A strategy and Technology across multiple sectors. IvyCap manages around $110 M across two Funds that have been raised almost entirely in India. Started in 2011, it now become the largest homegrown Venture Capital Fund in India. Vikram has also launched their first Venture Debt Fund of approximately $70 M and an Angel Fund of around $8 M with substantial investments in the Indian Startup ecosystem.
Shanti Mohan, Co-founder and CEO LetsVenture. A seasoned entrepreneur and angel investor with expertise in consumer internet, embedded technology and enterprise, Shanti founded the company in 2013. LetsVenture in over the last six years has become India's largest marketplace for early stage funding, having helped 225+ startups raise close to $100 M.
Apoorv R. Sharma, Co-Founder Venture Catalysts. Leading Asia’s first integrated incubator, Apoorv is the co-founder of India’s first Seed Investment & Innovation platform. Venture Catalysts is a network of about 3,000 angel investors, started in 2016. The firm works closely with angel investors and high-potential ventures, giving them a chance to achieve rapid growth and scale by enabling access to technology, as well as mentorship, business networking and investment opportunities.
Samir Shah, Founding and Managing Partner, Peak Venture Partners. An experienced investor in global capital markets for over 20 years in Hong Kong and New York, Samir has worked in the trading divisions of Goldman Sachs and Salomon Brothers prior to founding an investment fund in Hong Kong. Currently based in Mumbai, he has founded Sattva Capital, a private investment group with over 30 investments across stages and sectors, including a recent “Unicorn”. Domain expert in AI, Tech, Energy, Fintech, Water & Agriculture.
Karena Belin, Founder WHub and Angel Hub. Karena since 2013 has been a leader in the startup scene. She has been a speaker, mentor and judge at events and organizations which include WebSummit, RISE Conference, Techstars programs, TechSauce, Google EYE. She is also a member of the FinTech Association of Hong Kong (FTAHK) and The Indus Entrepreneurs Network (TiE).
Angad Banga, COO The Caravel Group. Leading a diversified global conglomerate, Angad has direct operational and managerial oversight for the Groups Asset Management, Investment, Finance and Operational functions. He leads investments in Startups and LBO transactions across the Asia-Pacific region. He also ran the Asian Leveraged Finance business for KKR Capital Markets Asia, where he helped finance some of the largest highly structured private equity acquisitions in Asia.
Panel III : Hong Kong as an Innovation Bridge between India and China
3:00 pm - 5:00 pm | LQW Room
Thomas Cheung, Founder, Chinagrowth Group. Currently Deputy to The 13th National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China, Thomas is a Member of the Basic Law Promotion Steering Committee, an External Member of The Council of City University, Chairman of the KOL Project HK, Chairman of the China Dream Foundation Limited and Committee Member of the Cross Straits, Hong Kong and Macau Collaborative Innovation Alliance. He is the founder of several corporate and investment companies, including Chinagrowth Ltd., which invests in real estate and renewable energy.
Jamil Anderlini, Asia Editor, Financial Times. Overseeing the Financial Times (FT) newspaper coverage for the Asian region from Afghanistan to Antarctica, including China, India, Indonesia and Japan, Jamil has worked as Beijing Correspondent and Deputy Beijing Bureau Chief before he was named Beijing Bureau Chief in 2011. He has had the overall responsibility for China’s coverage at the FT. He was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and short-listed for both Foreign Reporter of the Year at the Press Awards in the UK and for the Orwell Prize, the UK's most prestigious prize for political writing.
Jayne Chan, Head of StartmeupHK, Invest Hong Kong. Heading StartmeupHK at InvestHK, the Hong Kong government department responsible for attracting and retaining Foreign Direct Investment into Hong Kong, Jayne’s focus is aimed at helping founders of innovative and scalable startups and related communities to set up or expand in Hong Kong. StartmeupHK provides a one-stop service platform to support companies setting up in the city and for local and overseas startups to share their success stories and stay updated on Hong Kong’s startup ecosystem.
Peter Yan, CEO, Cyberport. (Invited). Head of the innovative digital community having around 1,400 technology companies. Cyberport is managed by Hong Kong Cyberport Management Company Ltd., and is wholly owned by the Hong Kong SAR Government. It is committed to nurturing a vibrant technology ecosystem by promoting entrepreneurship among youth, supporting start-ups on their growth journey, fostering industry development by promoting strategic collaboration with local and international partners.
Mr. Atul Babu, Senior Vice President & Head of International Business PCCW Solutions. Mr. Babu’s role involves driving growth for the company by advising CXOs on Digital Transformation, Technology decisions, IT Strategy and Management. He has successfully opened new markets and new businesses and has led Transformation Programs, End-to-End IT Outsourcing and Business/ IT Services with global teams for the entire lifecycle - right from idea stage to implementation and ongoing Operations. He has delivered talks on emerging trends, Role of AI in Digital Transformation, Marketing Automation, Analysis and Evolution of Cloud Computing in Asia.
Syed Musheer Ahmed, MD FinSTEP Asia, Founding Board Member FinTech Association of Hong Kong. He provides advisory on Fintech & Digital ecosystems in Asia, is launching the first cross border program for B2B Indian Fintech firms to scale and expand into Greater China and SE Asia. He has an extensive background in financial services and technology, having been a global markets trader for a decade, and a management consultant following his MBA. He is a member of United Nations ESCAP ESBN) Youth and Women Entrepreneurs Taskforce (YET) and co-founder of IndiaTech Hong Kong, a platform for bridging India and China Greater Bay Area.
Anson Bailey, Head of Technology, Hong Kong Head of Consumer & Retail, ASPAC, KPMG China. As Partner in the Hong Kong office, Anson heads the Consumer & Retail Practice in the ASPAC region and is part of the KPMG Global Consumer & Retail Steering Group, Global Technology Innovation Centre and is the Cluster Leader for the Technology, Media & Telecoms Practice. He has led number of thought leadership reports and executive briefings including Global Mobile Payments, Consumers & Convergence, Mobilizing Innovation: The Changing Landscape of Disruptive Technologies, The Rise of the Digital Multi-tasker, MNCs in China, Made in China 2025 and Connecting Hong Kong – Perspectives on our Future as a Smart City .(Moderator)
Technology and Innovation Series
From Silicon Valley to the Greater Bay Area and beyond, the global economy is now in the midst of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. In 2019, the Asia Society Hong Kong Center has inaugurated The Technology and Innovation Series to convene the world’s visionary vanguard to explore the latest trends, insights and projections on how the next phase of innovation and disruptive technology will shape the Asia-Pacific region and beyond.
Event Details
Asia Society Hong Kong Center, 9 Justice Drive, Admiralty, Hong Kong