Chris Sirise

Angel investment in Startups, that makes a difference.

A network for entrepreneurs building in stealth. Submit your information here so investors can find you: harmonic.ai/get-discovered

In Southeast Asia (SEA), unicorn exits and tech company listings have proven to offer founders and investors unrealistic expectations, given the maturity of the market. This dilemma has left founders in a challenging position as they have to optimise for the outsized outcomes investors that follow Western narratives desire, while facing the reality of the consumer landscape. At LiquidX, we aim to shift this narrative and demonstrate that it is possible to achieve large-scale outcomes by using a distinct approach to company building. Through a holding company (holdco) structure, we will build multiple cash flow-positive businesses that can, but do not necessarily have to, rely on venture scale narratives. The usual arguments against this approach are as follows: 1) The focus of founders will be divided, hence ineffective. 2) We won’t be able to get top-tier talent to build companies this way. 3) That Venture scale outcomes are not possible. We believe all 3 arguments above are false narratives, and aim to prove that this new (to tech) model of company building is the optimal approach for emerging markets. Along this journey, we aspire to ensure that everyone involved enjoys the process.

Saison Capital is the venture arm of Credit Saison, one of Japan’s largest consumer credit companies. We invest in Seed to Series A companies across South East Asia and India. Although the mandate of the fund is sector agnostic, we like to work with founders that are building platforms or ecosystems that have the potential to distribute financial services to the underbanked.

Antler is one of the most active early-stage investors globally. The firm leads in ‘Day Zero’ investing, an approach to venture capital focused on partnering with founders pre-launch. Antler systematically removes capital and network constraints for early-stage technology entrepreneurs by providing co-founder matching, deep business model validation, initial capital, expansion support, and follow-on funding. The firm is present in 27 cities across most leading technology ecosystems globally and has made over 1,300 investments into early-stage startups. Antler has been repeatedly recognized by Pitchbook as the world’s most active angel and seed-stage investor.

Angel investment in Startups, that makes a difference.