Venture Building for Electric Mobility - with ION Mobility
Entrepreneurship
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Synopsis
In this Venture Creation in Asia Fireside Chat, we bring together Founders | Entrepreneurs and Investors | Angels | Mentors | Venture Builders in a moderated fireside chat session to share stories of venture building - highlighting the fact that venture building is a sustained and team-based effort.
In this fireside chat, Yen-Lu Chow, AIM’s founding executive chairman, will go one-on-one with James Chan, a cross-industry Venture Accelerator & Builder and Serial Entrepreneur over the past 16 years. At Infocomm Investments (now SGInnovate) James was rolling out the red carpet for venture-funded tech startups to set up engineering teams in Singapore, before switching hats to becoming a venture capitalist managing an early-stage seed fund.
This was followed by venture accelerating and venture building activities out of his personal vehicle Silicon Straits, which saw him overseeing GreyOrange's market entry into SE Asia and Japan alongside building up a software services team in Vietnam that was later acquired by Grab in 2017. He then switched industries yet again to invest and partner with Wecash China for the expansion of their fintech credit and lending business into the markets of Indonesia, Vietnam and India; building out teams from scratch across Asia to over 500-strong and an annual ARR of US$40m, exiting from his fintech stakes in late 2018.
James later established his first proper start-up with ION Mobility in the electric two-wheeler industry (changing industries yet again) in late 2019 and into 2020, subsequently raising US$25.5m across two funding rounds, soft-launching their inaugural “Mobius” M1-S electric scooter for Indonesia and growing his 130+ strong team of designers, engineers and sustainability advocates across their offices in Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam and China.
A dynamic group of entrepreneurs, designers, and engineers committed to bringing together advanced technology and human-centered design to lead the transition to electric motorbikes for a cleaner and greener mobility.
ION Mobility is pushing the frontiers of what is possible by developing desirable products as clean alternatives for urban users, to alleviate urban air pollution, and to lead the inevitable transition to EVs across Southeast Asia, by constantly pushing the boundaries of innovation and design to create an electric riding experience that doesn’t compromise on quality or style.
James Chan
Founder & CEO of ION Mobility
James Chan is the founder and CEO of ION Mobility, an electric mobility company focused on Southeast Asia with teams across Singapore, Jakarta and Shenzhen. ION's products combine advanced hardware and software technology with human-centered design to deliver smart electric motorbikes and energy storage solutions that are for everyone to use. The company has raised over US$6.8 million in funding since its founding in late 2019.
Trained as an electrical and computer engineer, James has been a public servant, venture investor and serial entrepreneur over the past 16 years at organizations he started or was a part of; across industries the likes of fintech, internet, 3D printing, robotics and automation, venture capital and public policy and industry development, in and about the start-up ecosystems of Southeast and East Asia.
Yen-Lu Chow
Founding Executive Chairman WholeTree Foundation / Over-The-Rainbow; Asia Institute of Mentoring | Founding Partner Fatfish MediaLab | Executive Mentor YSI SEA | Founder of the Deep Human Movement
A former Apple Distinguished Technologist, Yen-Lu is an award-winning entrepreneur, technologist, venture catalyst & angel investor, mentor & advisor turned author and keynote speaker, mental wellbeing champion, social innovator & change-maker, ecosystem builder, philanthropist and humanist.
As an angel investor and venture catalyst in the tech ecosystem, Yen-Lu has mentored young entrepreneurs and businesses for many years. He has made significant contributions to the Singapore tech and entrepreneurship ecosystem, serving on countless startup business plan competitions internationally, government panels on innovation and entrepreneurship, and as mentor and advisor to the major universities. He co-founded a business angel fund in partnership with the Singapore government, served as a director of Business Angel Network SEA, executive mentor and adjunct professor to NUS Enterprise, mentor to INSEAD, plus numerous panels on entrepreneurship and innovation internationally. As an expert and practitioner in speech recognition and language processing (with 6 international patents and having worked in the field for over 20 years since early 1980’s while leading Apple’s initiative in this area in the early 1990’s), he was an early pioneer in the application of AI with a strong base in the tech space.
He is on a life mission to help bring about a kinder, gentler, more inclusive, more just, and sustainable world.
About Asia Institute of Mentoring
Asia Institute of Mentoring (AIM) is a non-profit volunteer based organization with a mission to bring mentoring to the spotlight in Asia, raise the quality of mentors and the standard of mentoring, bringing mentoring to all facets of society to impact millions of lives.
We are committed to create an Asia-based people-powered mentoring movement to move people … to learn, to share, to give forward, to transform, to harness the deep human potential, and create social impact – bringing about a kinder, gentler, more inclusive, just and sustainable world for all.
Join us as a member here.
