James Tan
Managing Partner @ Quest Ventures
Singapore, Singapore
James Tan is a seed investor at Quest Ventures in Singapore focused on SaaS and Internet. James Tan is Managing Partner at Quest Ventures, a top venture capital fund in Asia. Prior to this, James was co-founder and COO of 55tuan, a NASDAQ listed e-commerce group that grew to more than 200 cities and 5,000 employees across China.James is a board member or angel investor in top tier startups in Asia such as 99.co, Carousell, Carro,Ethis, Glife, and Shopback.James serves on several non-profit organisations. He is Chairman of the Social Impact Catalyst – Southeast Asia’s largest youth network for social impact. He is a board member on the Applied Innovation Institute – global leaders in industries, government, and academia for business transformation; and Sports Excellence Business – helping athletes excel with life after sport transition. He is a former Chairman of the Action Community for Entrepreneurship – Singapore’s national voice for entrepreneurship; and former Chairman of the Business Angel Network of Southeast Asia – Asia’s oldest angel investment network.He has been guest speaker at Asia-focused and private equity events such as ITB Berlin, Private Equity Insights, Stanford-PARC Digital Cities, SWITCH, and World Islamic Economic Forum. He has guest lectured at universities including Fudan, IE, NTU, Tsinghua, and UC Berkeley.James was recognised as an outstanding overseas Chinese by the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the State Council of China. He is a recipient of the Alumni Award from the University of South Australia. He received scholarships from both Beijing and Singapore governments for his MBA from Tsinghua University in partnership with MIT. During the first dot-com era, he studied and dropped out of computer science at NUS to work on two-sided markets.For leisure, James enjoys photography and has been featured in ComputerWorld, Readers’ Digest, and commercially represented by Liaison Agency. He backpacks Asia and volunteers in marine conservation as a PADI scuba-diving instructor.Accurate as of Jan 2024
- Total investments:
- 11
- Last investment:
- Lead investor:
- 55%
Last updated:
For AI agents: llms.txt
Industries James Tan invests in
Stages James Tan invests in
Countries James Tan invests in
Round sizes
Round size
- Seed
- $150k–$3.5M
Investment Focus
Industry
- SaaS 2 (18%)
- Internet 2 (18%)
- Automotive 2 (18%)
- Health Care 2 (18%)
- Social Media 2 (18%)
Stage
- Seed 9 (82%)
- Angel 1 (9%)
- Series A 1 (9%)
Country
- Singapore 5 (45%)
- Vietnam 1 (9%)
- Kazakhstan 1 (9%)
- Uzbekistan 1 (9%)
- South Korea 1 (9%)
Investments
| Company | Description | Round | Links |
|---|---|---|---|
Dolbom Dream
|
Dolbom Dream develops smart products to assist the daily lives of families with developmentally disabled children. An online inquiry form is available on the company's website. | Seed / Feb 23, 2024 | |
Vulcan Augmetics
|
Vulcan Augmetics is a Vietnam based startup making affordable, modular robotic prosthetics that can be ordered online and click together as easily as lego, with the long term goal of being the worlds largest brand for upgrading the human body. We are all about building people, both mentally and physically, using technology to maximise what peoplecan achieve. We believe that the closer we are to our technology, the more effective we can be, and so our goal is to make body mounted technology as affordable, convenient and accessible as possible. Prosthetics users are the best starting place and example as they are using body mounted technology already, every single day, and are ideal to help us develop and drive the technology further. If you can build a device to fit over a human-form prosthetic, then it just a matter of time before you can miniaturise and put the same device onto the human body directly. We are all about building people, both mentally and physically, using technology to maximise what people can achieve. Our first phase involves building a range of modular, easily upgradeable prosthetics which we will sell both B2B and B2C, with the modularity making our product easier, more cost effective, and practical to maintain than our competitors. We design extra modules and attachments to help our users regain employment, and sell them upgrades and replacements over time. Longer term we will expand from prosthetics into all types of wearables, from diagnostic and health devices such as Fitbit to AR and VR control systems, all of which can be built over our initial prosthetics technology platform. We will also be expanding our online platform to allow all users to order interoperable products, and late on to connect with designers and local manufacturing facilities which will enable us to also take a role as a royalty generating marketplace. | Seed / Oct 11, 2023 | |
Ion Mobility
|
ION Mobility is a tech and automotive OEM on a mission to create and deliver aspirational and sustainable mobility and energy solutions for everyone. We are committed to creating great products and seamless user experiences for our customers. Our products combine advanced hardware and software technology with human-centred design to deliver smartelectric motorbikes and energy charging and storage solutions that are for everyone to use. Our vision is to be Southeast Asia’s top technology company leading our region’s transition towards a low-carbon economy across Southeast Asia, starting with the ION M1-S. For more information, please visit www.ionmobility.com and ionmobility.substack.com. | $18.7M / Series A / Feb 02, 2023 | |
BILLZ
|
More than 60% of retailers in developing countries are still use papers, excel sheets or outdated software. We are here to digitize the stores and power them with technology to perform on the best level both online & offline.BILLZ is the all in one retail management platform for small & medium sized businesses powered with POS, inventorymanagement, CRM, analytics, E-commerce & financial tools to sustain in a new digital world. | $650K / Seed / May 19, 2022 | |
CTOgram
|
CTOgram is a Kazakhstan-Based Automotive Start-up. | $700K / Seed / Nov 15, 2021 | |
|
Ion Mobility
|
ION Mobility is a tech and automotive OEM on a mission to create and deliver aspirational and sustainable mobility and energy solutions for everyone. We are committed to creating great products and seamless user experiences for our customers. Our products combine advanced hardware and software technology with human-centred design to deliver smartelectric motorbikes and energy charging and storage solutions that are for everyone to use. Our vision is to be Southeast Asia’s top technology company leading our region’s transition towards a low-carbon economy across Southeast Asia, starting with the ION M1-S. For more information, please visit www.ionmobility.com and ionmobility.substack.com. | $3.5M / Seed / Oct 14, 2021 | |
Sendjoy
|
sendjoynow.com is a platform where everybody can book personalised video gifts from creators, to surprise their loved ones. We currently have musicians, actors, comedians, artists on the platform, and their mission is to spread joy; through words of encouragement for a milestone in life, or sing a song to get through tough times. We want to touchpeople's lives through personalised entertainment; to remind people that it's still important to say "I care about you" out loud to your loved ones.Incubated at IMDA Pixel, we are a young startup founded by two ex-media execs. We are a creative and funny duo. Don't be shy to reach out to us, we look forward to hearing from you! | $150K / Seed / Feb 12, 2021 | |
NodeFlair
|
Career Transparency for the Tech Community (think Glassdoor for Tech Talents)NodeFlair's vision is to be a career recommendation engine for the 25M tech talents globally. We aim to help companies hire the best tech talents with our recruitment products and services.Today, >20% of Tech talents in Singapore make better career decisionsusing our verified career data. We are best known for our payslip-verified salary data. | Seed / Jun 02, 2018 | |
Spiking
|
Spiking is the newest app to excite the financial technology community, brings transparency to the Singapore stock exchange through real-time verified information on trades made by the big-time sophisticated investors. In short, we help you to invest smarter. By following our updates on what big players are trading, retail investors can makebetter investment decisions with greater confidence based on market knowledge they never had before. | $750K / Seed / Sep 19, 2016 | |
Burpple
|
Burpple - great food and local experiences, where people gatherFounded in Silicon Valley by three Singaporeans, Burpple was launched in May 2012 with a mission to help people find the perfect places to enjoy their meals with the people that matter. Three years on, Burpple is now the food discovery platform of choice in Singapore and KualaLumpur. Powered by over two million photo reviews from the community, in 2015 alone, over four million people used Burpple to discover great places to eat – be it for first date, a quick meal nearby, brunch with friends, or a family celebration. We believe that food has a special bonding power, and the idea at the core of our company is simple: enjoyment.Burpple is supported by leading international venture capitalists, Tembusu Partners, SPH Media Fund, Triumph Capital, Silicon Straits, Neoteny Labs, QuestVC, NUS Enterprise and Brad Porteus. For more information, visit www.burpple.com. | $500K / Seed / Jul 13, 2012 | |
| See all 11 investments → | |||
Co-Investors
About Quest Ventures
Quest Ventures is a top venture capital firm in Asia.Venture Capital for Startups. Since 2011, Quest Ventures has focused on an overarching ‘digital economy’ strategy across Asia, and is a top venture capital firm in artificial intelligence, e-commerce and marketplaces, entertainment, finance, food, insurance, logistics, media, property, sports,and the Islamic digital economy. Portfolio companies include industry leaders such as 99.co, Carousell, Carro, Glife, Hepmil, Oddle, Shopback, VulcanPost, Xfers, and Yummy Corporation.Innovation for Enterprises. In partnership with Silicon Valley’s pre-eminent Applied Innovation Institute, Quest Ventures’ enterprise innovation initiative drives industry and corporate transformation for at-risk sectors based on world class research, local knowledge, and collaboration with startups. Sectors covered include alternative food, aviation, banking, insurance, logistics & transportation, oil & gas, and smart cities. Clients include Applied Materials, Coca-Cola, HP, Nissan, and Tencent.Impact Capital for Good. Quest Ventures’ multi-dimensional environment, social and governance strategy was the first in Asia for a venture firm, and supports a range of social good initiatives across Asia for financial inclusion, gender, healthcare and education for all. Impact acceleration initiatives include advocacy, investment, world class partner benefits, and collaborations with the venture portfolio. Portfolio organisations include Ethis, Hatch, and Social Collider.Potential of Asia. Asia’s potential is ultimately realized in its people. By the end of 2021, Quest Ventures’ portfolio of 100+ venture-backed companies operate in more than 150 cities across Asia, creating employment and advancement opportunities for more than 4,400 employees, while our Enterprise and ESG efforts directly impact thousands more.
Quest Ventures Contacts
| Name | Phone | Socials | |
|---|---|---|---|
Gwen Sim
Senior Analyst
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James Tan
Managing Partner
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Lin Pingping
Geek in Residence
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Ong Hui Xian
Analyst
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Varden Toh
Analyst
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FAQ
What does James Tan invest in?
James Tan invests primarily in SaaS, Internet and Automotive startups, most often at Seed and Angel stage. Most of the 11 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in Singapore. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.
What is James Tan's check size?
James Tan typically joins rounds of $150k–$3.5M at Seed. These ranges are 10th–90th percentile round sizes calculated from confirmed public funding rounds, so they are a realistic guide to the rounds James Tan participates in.
When did James Tan last invest?
The most recent investment recorded for James Tan closed in Feb 2024. Shizune tracks 11 investments in total for this profile, including round sizes, stages and portfolio companies, all sourced from confirmed public funding rounds and refreshed monthly.
Is Shizune's investor data accurate?
Yes — every stat on this profile is calculated from confirmed public funding rounds monitored across hundreds of sources since 2020. This profile was last refreshed in Aug 2026 and is updated monthly. Spotted something off? Use the “Suggest an edit” link near the top of the page.
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