Top 50 Community Angel Investors in Asia in December 2024

Yusuke Sato is the Co-Representative and Co-Founder of Pulit.

Investor | Storyologist | Builder

Managing and Founding Partner of Ideosource Venture Capital, an Indonesia focused venture capital firm dedicated on early-stage to later-stage investments.

After JTB Co., Ltd. and CYBIRD Co., Ltd. as an initial member of Glee Co., Ltd. is responsible for business development. Currently, he is mainly engaged in venture support in the Internet area, investing in venture and venture capital, and served as management advisor for dozens of companies. Hands-on business development, growth strategydevelopment, financing advice, HR organization design support, partner referral and Recruit Support. He is also engaged in business support for ventures in the healthcare and university venture fields. He served as Digital Health Meetup Advisor, NEDOTCP Mentor and Future 2016 Mentor.

Mr. Sugashita joined Polaris as Advisor in May 2011. He is Director and CEO of Sugashita Partners, Ltd since 1998 and provides consulting services to financial institutions and ventures in and outside of Japan. Prior to that position, he was CEO of Lazard Japan Asset Management from 1991 to 1998. His business career also includes positions at DaiwaSecurities and Merrill Lynch Securities, Tokyo Branch. On the academic front, Mr. Sugashita received a BA in Economics from Ritsumeikan University and since 2009 is Special Advisor for the Dean of Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University.

Wei Guo, the founding partner of UpHonest Capital, is an active angel investor in Silicon Valley, focusing on early-stage cross-sector investments. He founded Wei Fund in 2015 and UpHonest Capital Fund I in 2016, invested in well-known companies such as Hims&Hers(NYSE: HIMS), Vicarious Surgical(NYSE: RBOT), Knightscope (NASDAQ: KSCP), Checkr,Lime, Boom, Rescale, Dialpad and more. Since 2015, he has invested in over 400 Silicon Valley startups, over 76 companies with valuations greater than 100 million USD, and 23 portfolio companies that have successfully exited.

Hideto Fujino - President, Cheif Investment Officer @ Rheos

Kotaro Chiba is the founder of ChibaDojo Fund. Kotaro Chiba attended Keio University.

Jun Nishikawa - Co-founder, Executive Vice President, COO @ Eureka

The future is, innovation and creativity from imagination. that can be realized and achieved in a measurable manner with the human and natural resources we have - adam.m

Shuuichi Wada - CTO @ alu Japan

Paul Kuo - Director - Board of Directors @ Tamecco

Ken Takayama - External Audit & Supervisory @ Media Do

Kotaro Chiba is the founder of ChibaDojo Fund. Kotaro Chiba attended Keio University.

Kensuke Furukawa was born in June 2, 1981. He graduated Waseda University majoring Political Science and Economics, and in 2000, he launched "Milkcafe", a student community, which has grown to a site with 10 million PV per month. In 2004, he became the CEO of Media Clip, which operates a rental bulletin board service "ShitarabaBBS". After that year, he had transfer "Shitaraba BBS" to Livedoor, and took charge of starting up the Consumer Generated Media sector. In 2006, he joined Recruit, and took charge of starting up a new business at Business development sector. In June of 2009, he left Recruit, and became the CEO of nanapi （formerly Rocket Start), which operates the How-to Site "nanapi".

2011 At university, participated in the founding period as a director of Atcole Co., Ltd., and started the web service experience.2012 Founded Peroli Co., Ltd., which operates a curation platform for women "MERY" .2014 Founded Peroli Co., Ltd. Sold to DeNA 2015 Jointly established Tokyo Founders Fund as an angel investor and startedinvesting in startups in Japan and overseas 2019 Appointed outside director of FIREBUG Co., Ltd.

Daisaku Harada is the Director of Management Strategy at Mercari. Daisaku attended Chuo University.

Meng Xiong Kuok - Founder & Managing Partner @ K3 Ventures

Masao Ito is a Founder & CEO at User Local.

Reid Hoffman is the Partner of Greylock. He previously worked at Convoy Inc as a Board Member. Reid Hoffman attended the University of Perugia.

Mohammad Maaz

Joined Intelligence in 1999. Established Key Players Inc. in 2005. Consultation with more than 3,000 managers and career counseling for more than 10,000 individuals. In addition, we have invested in more than 55 outside directors, advisors and angels in Silicon Valley and Bangladesh in Japan. Over 100 lectures on careers, entrepreneurship andstartups.

Hikaru Kashida is a data scientist and is currently working at Mercari Inc., Japan.

Michimasa Naka is a member of the Board Of Directors of istyle.inc. He is an experienced Chairperson with a demonstrated history of working in the financial services industry.

Sotaro Karasawa - Chief Technology Officer @ STAR FESTIVAL

Yukihiro Yoshida is managing director at POL.

Eddie Wu is the Co-Founder and Senior Vice President of Alibaba Group. He previously worked at Yahoo as a Heading of Technology Development. Eddie Wu attended Zhejiang University of Technology.

Born in 1978 and raised in Fukuoka prefecture, Kazuma founded paperboy&co. inc. (currently GMO Pepabo) and went on to become the youngest CEO ever (at the time) to take a company public in Japan by taking paperboy&co. public on the JASDAQ Japanese stock exchange. After leaving paperboy&co, he continued his startup trail by foundingBASE, CAMPFIRE, and XIMERA. Kazuma also dabbled in the food services industry via the founding of On The Corner (a cafe) and is active in the startup investment scene. He also started the Liverty-house project which attempts to create shared housing for young people in need.

Carman Chan is one of the top 5 Women to watch in Asia Tech (Nikkei Asian Review). She is a veteran in the technology industry with decades of experience as an entrepreneur with multiple exits, a tech columnist and a globally recognized venture capitalist.Carman is the founder of Click Ventures, a global early stage venture capital firm. ClickVentures has grown into a leading investment manager, and two of its funds are featured as Top 5 Seed Fund (Vintage 2003-2015) in the world and Top 4 Funds to Watch by Preqin respectively. Click Ventures' investments include Spotify (ipo), Docusign(ipo), Palantir, Memebox and Youappi.

Boon Hwee is the founding partner of Credence and Chairman of the investment committee. Concurrently, Boon Hwee is a member of Agilent Technologies Inc, Chairman of AAC Technologies, Yeo Hiap Seng Limited, and Sunningdale Tech Limited.Boon Hwee began his career in 1977 at Hewlett Packard ("HP") and rose to become its Managing Directorin Singapore, a position he held from 1985 to 1990. Boon Hwee's other previous positions include:Chairman of Singapore Telecom Group ("SingTel") and its predecessor organisations for 17 yearsChairman of Singapore Airlines Limited ("SIA") for 4 yearsChairman of Development Bank of Singapore ("DBS") for 4 yearsDirector on the Board of Temasek Holdings Private Limited for 15 years (Boon Hwee also served as a member of the Executive Committee from January 1997 to September 2010)Chairman of the Wuthelam Group for 10 yearsBoon Hwee was named the Outstanding Manager of the Year in 1991 by Business Times and DHL Worldwide. He was conferred The International Herald Tribune Visionary and Leader Honour in January 2003.Boon Hwee contributes actively to non-profit organisations, and is the current Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Nanyang Technological University and a Director of the Hewlett Foundation in the United States.Boon Hwee obtained his Bachelor's Degree (First Class Honours) in Mechanical Engineering from the Imperial College of Science and Technology, University of London in 1972 and his MBA (Distinction) from the Harvard Business School in 1976.

Ryosuke Matsumoto is the Founder / CEO at Kankak. Ryosuke Matsumoto attended Chuo University.

Tetsuro Kouda was born in Sasebo, Nagasaki prefecture in 1985.After graduating from Sasebo National College of Technology, Kouda was admitted to the University of Tsukuba for systems engineering.After graduation, Kouda was hired by Accenture to work in management consultation. Kouda worked with electrical manufacturing in major companies,high-tech business strategy, marketing, and IT consultation. Upon retirement, Kouda and Shiota co-founded Akatsuki.

Keito Noguchi is a Brave group Representative Director, and Angel Investor.

Richard Qiangdong Liu is the founder of JD.com (NASDAQ: JD) and has been their chairman and chief executive officer since the company’s inception. Born in a small rural village and raised in relative poverty, Liu’s commitment to operating his business with honesty and integrity has seen it grow from a tiny stall in a shopping bazaar to the thirdlargest retail company globally by revenue. The company reported an annual revenue of $82.9 billion for 2019, and while Liu’s net worth himself is estimated to be upwards of $12.7 billion he remains humble -- when Fortune magazine identified him as one of their “World’s Greatest Leaders” they singled him out as having “few of the trappings of a celebrity CEO.” With heavy investments in technology such as AI, big data, and drones, Liu’s vision for the future of his company is one that continues to break the mold of traditional retail and ecommerce businesses while staying true to its roots in customer loyalty and trust.Liu was born and raised in a village called Chang’an in the eastern coastal province of Jiangsu, China. A part of the Suqian prefecture-level city system in the northern area of the province, Liu’s family had been forcibly resettled there after the rise of communism in the late 1940’s. In fact, prior to the revolution his family had been wealthy shipowners who transported goods along the Yangtze river and the ancient imperial canal from Beijing in the north to Hangzhou in the south. However, by the time Liu was born his parents were poor farmers, struggling to make ends meet and support both him and his grandparents who lived with them. Although Liu was born in the 1970’s, his village still lacked the modern day conveniences that were readily available in other parts of the country such as running water, electricity, and even paved roads. Nutritious food was also scarce, and from June to September they had access to corn which they would stretch to make meals such as cornmeal porridge, corn pancakes, and dry cornbread, all of which were so tough that Liu has said they could make your throat bleed. The rest of the year the family would eat sweet potato, either boiled, formed into pancakes, or dried. In his final year of secondary school, Liu applied to universities located in Shanghai and Beijing, believing only large cities would give him the platform he needed to do more and see more. He excelled in the rigorous college entrance exams he took, and was accepted to Renmin University -- then known as the People’s University of China -- in Beijing. However, the trip to Beijing was going to cost him around $75, an exorbitant sum to rural farmers at the time. His family was unable to afford the train ticket on their own, but thankfully his friends and neighbors had full faith in his ability to achieve and contributed whatever they could spare towards his education.At Renmin University, Liu studied sociology with the thought that he may enter politics, but he soon found that even with his classes and homework he had a considerable amount of free time in Beijing. He got a job at a small business who couldn’t afford a photocopier hand-copying letters, and also began to teach himself computer programming. The latter endeavor turned out to not only be a fun way to pass the time for Liu, but also one of his very first entrepreneurial ventures. The recent policy shift in China toward market reforms and embracing some aspects of capitalism created an influx of businesses that needed computer programmers. With Liu’s calm demeanor and trustworthy nature, he quickly became a popular choice and had soon made more money than he had ever dreamed of in the lucrative business. With the funds, he purchased a personal computer and cell phone -- two very expensive items at the time -- and was even able to have a new house built for his parents in the village. On June 18th, 1998, Liu took his 12,000 yuan (about $1,760) he had saved during his two years at Japan Life and used it to purchase inventory and rent a 4-square-meter booth in one of the many technological bazaars in Zhongguancun. Calling the company Jingdong, this was the start of what would eventually become JD.com, and the date on which he opened up shop has become known as “618” day and accompanies a promotional blitz that has become a nationwide phenomenon rivaling the United States’ Black Friday. Before all that though, he was simply a one-man booth selling magneto-optical drives, a type of optical disc drive similar in appearance to a floppy disk capable of having data written and rewritten upon it. In 2003, Liu’s business hit a snag when the SARS epidemic caused widespread fear and panic, with most consumers electing to stay home in order to avoid catching or spreading the virus. This had a devastating effect on China’s economy, and many retail stores including Liu’s were forced to temporarily shutter. In an effort to continue generating revenue and keep himself in business, Liu began posting his products to online bulletin boards, and after one of his customers happened to find him and vouch for his decency and honorableness he was able to keep his business alive by selling his electronic goods online. After Liu was able to re-open his stores, he also designated one employee to work full-time posting his products on the internet. By the time the year was over, it was clear to Liu that the burgeoning e-commerce industry was the perfect match for his business aspirations, and began plans to move his company entirely online. At the time, the internet was still a place people were wary of purchasing items from, but Liu’s work building a trustworthy brand enabled him to get a head start in gaining the trust of the consumers. Nonetheless, he worked extremely hard to build JD.com into a premiere e-commerce service, launching JD.com in early 2004. He elected to live in his office in order to save money on rent, and wrote the initial code for the website himself. He wanted to get to know his customers and their needs as closely as possible, and so he alone answered all of the customer inquiries that came through. In order to make sure no questions went very long unanswered, Liu would set an alarm clock for himself to go off every two hours during the night so that he could wake up and answer any questions that had been asked. He even handled much of the deliveries himself. For Liu, having control over the quality of his service was one of the key differentiators between his business and his competitors. Liu extended this idea in 2007, when he made the decision to take his entire logistics network for the e-commerce site completely in-house. For Liu it was an imperative step towards not only being able to curate his e-commerce service to tailor-fit his customers, but also open up previously untapped markets such as third and fourth-tier cities whose consumers previously had to travel miles in order to purchase the goods they needed. This strategy has proven to be a key to the company’s atmospheric rise, with 90% of its deliveries now arriving either the same or next day. Liu has frequently been recognized for his work on JD.com and the Chinese online ecommerce industry as a whole. China’s largest television network CCTV awarded him the “2011 China Economic Person of the Year” and he has also been named the “2011 Chinese Business Leader” and was noted as one of Fortune China’s “2012 Chinese Businessmen.” According to Forbes, Liu is currently #165 on the list of 2020 billionaires, #40 on China’s Rich List of 2020, and #25 on the Richest in Tech 2017 list, and was also ranked #48 on Fortune’s “World’s Greatest Leaders” list. In reference to Liu’s ranking, Fortune remarked that Liu had “few of the trappings of a celebrity CEO” and little corporate ego. Liu is often invited to speak at some of the largest forums in the world such as the World Economic Forum in Davos on topics such as the ecommerce industry, technological advancements, and to share his business development story as a means to inspire others, but even with this and working 16 hour days, he still spends one day a year working as a delivery person for JD.com.

Florian Fenner

Prof. Dr. Hellmut Schütte joined INSEAD's faculty in Fontainebleau, France, in 1981 after a successful career in the areas of marketing and investment banking covering a period of 11 years. As Senior Affiliate Professor of International Management, he teaches and does research in the area of international business and international marketingwith a special focus on Asia. His present work is concerned with markets and consumers in Asia, with the emergence of China and India, and with the regionalisation of the strategies and organisational structures of multinational firms. Professor Schütte studied economics and business administration in Germany and obtained his doctorate from the University of St.Gallen, Switzerland. He was visiting professor at the University of Tokyo, a visiting professor at Boston University, and visiting scholar at Harvard University.Up to the fall of 2006, Professor Schütte was the Dean of INSEAD's fast growing Asia Campus located in Singapore. It comprises of state-of-the-art facilities, a faculty of 40 full-time resident professors, and welcomes 300 MBA participants and 2500 executives per year.Prof. Dr. Schütte has lived and worked in nine different countries, and taught in seminars in about 40 countries all over the world. He is a well-known speaker in conferences and business meetings and is actively involved in various executive programmes, board and advisory roles and consulting assignments. He is a regular contributor to the World Economic Forum in Davos and other places in the world. Professor Schütte is the author of many articles and of five books. The third edition of this bestselling book "Strategies for Asia Pacific" (co-author P. Lasserre) appeared in 2006.Prof. Dr. Schütte is a permanent resident of Singapore and is a devoted offshore yachtsman.

Igor Rybakov - Co-Founder @ Larix

Magda joined Balderton in 2018. Prior to Balderton, Magda spent three years at Goldman Sachs, where she first worked in the financing group covering Nordics and later moved to the Consumer, Retail & Healthcare M&A team, where she was an associate and worked on a number of Nordic transactions. Before joining Goldman Sachs, Magda was involvedin politics and worked in startups. Magda has an MSc in Business & Economics from Lund University, where she was admitted to the Venture Lab for a one-year entrepreneurship programme. She also studied Business at Copenhagen Business School.

Naoki Aoyagi is a Senior Vice President at GREE, Inc. and Chief Executive Officer of GREE International, Inc. He joined GREE, Inc. in March 2006 from Deutsche Bank, where he had specialized in tech and media sector IPOs and M&A advisory work. At GREE, Aoyagi oversaw the Company's partnership with KDDI and its IPO before leading thedevelopment of GREE’s global operations, a role he continues today. Aoyagi earned a bachelor's degree in policy management from Keio University in 2002.

Born in 1975, Kenji Kasahara grew up in Osaka Prefecture. He graduated from the Department of Economics at the University of Tokyo. Inspired by the case studies of IT business he studied in a university seminar on management strategy and by the rapid rise of Internet business in Silicon Valley in the USA, he started up “Find Job !”, an online jobinformation site, in 1997. In 1999 Kasahara established eMercury, Inc. (mixi, Inc.) and assumed the post of representative director.

Dan Neary is a Vice President of Asia Pacific at Meta. He attended DePaul University.

Roger Ehrenberg is the founder and Managing Partner of IA Ventures, a firm that invests in companies creating competitive advantage through data.

Cai Wensheng is the CEO of 265 Science and Technology. Wensheng is notorious for using cyber squatting tactics to register thousands of domain names. He has reportedly made several million dollars as a result. In 2003 he established Huayu Network Science and Technology and the 265 Network.

Jing Qi

Yamamoto Kento - Directors CDO @ COUNTERWORKS

Takahiro Mitsuura - Director @ GO

Shintaro Tabata - Senior Vice President and Head of Corporate Sales @ Line

Shirley Wong is an entrepreneur with more than 20 years of experience in the IT industry. She co-founded Frontline Technologies Corporation Ltd in 1994 and it was listed on the Singapore Exchange in March 2001. Under her stewardship, the company has grown from a team of 8 to 5000 workforce spread across 11 countries in Asia Pacific. The performanceof the company caught the attention of British Telecom Global Services which subsequently acquired it. The company was renamed as BT Frontline Pte Ltd. Shirley was appointed Managing Director of BT Frontline Pte Ltd to stabilise the acquisition.Shirley serves in several infocomm industry committees, including being the councilor of Singapore Infocomm Technology Federation (SiTF), member of National Trust Council (NTC) and Co-Chair of Cyber Security Awareness Alliance and Council member of Temasek Polytechnic IT School Advisory Council.She is also active in the start-up scene. She has worked with a number of start-ups and is helping them to secure funding, access resources, build market connections and go to markets. She is incredibly passionate about entrepreneurship and is excited to help build the start-up community in Singapore.As the Managing Partner of TNF, Shirley will be looking out for high potential start-up that has tenacity and capability to make things happen. She will be matching start-ups with the respective investor mentor to ensure that proper guidance and resource is made available for them to be successful.Those who know Shirley will tell you that despite her glamorous front, she is grounded and very approachable. She indulges in simple joy such as a walk round her neighborhood with her family. She is just at ease in moving from the tennis court to the mahjong table. She enjoys a friendly game of both as she feels that both activities help her to unwind and to bond with her family and friends.

Lu Fan is the founder of Xiaopet Technology.

Kensuke Naito - CIO (Chief Information Officer) @ SmartHR