Every band needs a lead singer, and every company a CEO. Strong startup founders attract an all-star team, gel people into one, and set the tone and vision for the rest to follow.
Meet Southeast Asia’s finest 30. Captains of the tech industry, these founder-CEOs are looked up to by their cohorts, and they serve as mentors to the rest.
A quick word on the methodology. The founders are picked only if they’re helming an internet company day-to-day. They’re ranked based on their current company’s revenue, traction, and funding figure, as well as their personal track record as entrepreneurs.
Of course, the list is somewhat subjective, as ranking a founder’s software company against another’s online media startup is near-impossible. But this is our best effort to present you the most inspiring founders we know today.
Ready? Starting from number 30, here are this year’s top founders:
30. Alexis Horowitz-Burdick, Luxola, Singapore
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Alexis is the ultimate hustler. Soon after starting online cosmetics store Luxola, she created a list of 500 investor email addresses and reached out to all of them. That worked, and she raised millions to grow her startup. In 2015, she sold her startup to global luxury brand LVMH, and the deal was considered a win by insiders, estimated to be worth between US$30 million and US$50 million.
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Luxola data
Funding amount: US$15.6 million
Latest funding stage: Acquired
Industry: Lifestyle, Ecommerce
29. Niki Luhur, Kartuku, Indonesia
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The first e-payments entry in this list is Niki Luhur of Kartuku, a company which supplies payment terminals, biometric fingerprint readers, and an internet payment gateway. While the company was started in 2001, Niki returned from studies in the US in 2006 to run it upon his father’s pleading, as the company was struggling. He managed to turn it around.
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Kartuku data
Latest funding stage: Undisclosed
Industry: Enterprise Solution, Finance
28. Ryu Suliawan, Veritrans, Indonesia
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Ryu Kawano (center)
Veritrans is another well-known name in Indonesian e-payments. It deals with credit card, direct debit, e-wallet, bank transfer, and convenience store payments. Ryu, son of a property multi-millionaire, is the man behind the startup. He started as a consultant before earning an MBA from Harvard Business School.
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Veritrans data
Latest funding stage: Undisclosed
Industry: Ecommerce, Payments
27. Victor Lavrenko, Coc Coc, Vietnam
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Challenging Google directly would be a death knell for many companies, but Coc Coc isn’t deterred. Victor has led the company to 3.7 million searches a day in Vietnam, and 8.7 million monthly active users. Can it keep the momentum going? Let’s see what Victor has up his sleeves.
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Coc Coc data
Funding amount: US$34 million
Latest funding stage: Series B
Industry: General Internet, Search & Discovery
26. Arijit Sengupta, Antuit, Singapore
Antuit came out of nowhere to become perhaps Singapore’s top big data startup. Just 18 months old, it raised tens of millions in US dollars from Goldman Sachs and others. It now has 20 clients, including eight Fortune 500 firms. Prior to Antuit, Arijit had a long career in business process management and consulting.
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Antuit data
Funding amount: US$59 million
Latest funding stage: Series A
Industry: Big Data
25. Maria Ressa, Rappler, Philippines
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Fuelled by social media, Rappler has quickly risen to become one of the Philippines’ most-visited news sites, garnering around five million monthly visits, according to SimilarWeb. It has expanded to Indonesia recently. What’s surprising is that the site was started by an old-school journalist, Maria, showing that age isn’t a barrier to a mindset shift.
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Rappler data
Latest funding stage: Series A
Industry: Media
24. Nadiem Makarim, Go-Jek, Indonesia
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Nadiem was part of Southeast Asia’s ecommerce revolution as the head of Zalora Indonesia. Now, he’s partaking in another shake-up: transportation and logistics. Go-Jek is giving GrabTaxi a run for its money in the motorbike booking arena. With the ecommerce wave still ongoing, Go-Jek could ride along with it.
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Go-Jek data
Latest funding stage: Undisclosed
Industry: Lifestyle, Logistics
23. Steven Goh, Migme, Singapore
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Migme started out as a social network for feature phones. It then entered a tough transition phase in an attempt to move on with the times and capture the hearts of smartphone users. Things are looking up. Growth has been strong, and it now sees about 20 million monthly active users in its endeavor to become the mobile entertainment platform for emerging markets.
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Migme data
Revenue: US$9 million run rate
Funding amount: US$44.60 million
Latest funding stage: Post-IPO Equity
Industry: Publishing, Social Networking & Communication
22. Achmad Zaky, Bukalapak, Indonesia
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Bukalapak is the Indonesian cousin of Carousell. It saw over US$80 million in transactions in 2014. Unlike Carousell, it’s big only in Indonesia. But given the size of the market, Bukalapak has plenty of room to grow, and Achmad’s entrepreneurial instincts come into play. We wonder what’s next for this noodle seller turned software consultant turned tech founder.
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Bukalapak data
Latest funding stage: Series B
Industry: Ecommerce
21. Ferry Unardi, Traveloka, Indonesia
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ComScore calls Traveloka Indonesia’s top flights search and booking site. SimilarWeb estimates it gets around four million visits a month. First-time entrepreneur Ferry’s achievement is remarkable considering how brutal the online travel industry is. He’s proof that if you find a lucrative, untapped niche anywhere, you can run with it.
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Traveloka data
Latest funding stage: Series A
Industry: Travel
20. Aldi Haryopratomo, Ruma, Indonesia
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Ruma is probably the most unique startup here. Think old-fashioned, tech-enabled, person-to-person commerce, conducted across first- and second-tier cities in Indonesia. The startup matches service providers with field agents, who in turn sell these services to residents throughout the country. Ruma builds the tech that lets agents fulfill orders and transact.
The man behind Ruma is Aldi, a former management consultant who became an employee at Kiva, a microfinance site. While social enterprises rarely become massively profitable companies, Ruma may have found a way to make it happen.
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Ruma data
Latest funding stage: Undisclosed
Industry: Professional Services, Finance
19. Siu Rui Quek, Carousell, Singapore
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Siu Rui Quek, CEO of Carousell (center)
Ride on the subway in Singapore, and you’ll notice how often Carousell comes up on smartphones. That’s how popular the mobile marketplace has become. It’s a busy place: eight million items listed and two million goods sold since 2012, or eight transactions every minute.
And we hear they’re doing well in Taiwan and Malaysia, scoring top five in app store rankings for certain categories, according to App Annie data. I’m not surprised if they have hundreds of millions in gross merchandise volume by now. Their next challenge: monetization.
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Carousell data
Funding amount: US$6.89 million
Latest funding stage: Series A
Industry: Ecommerce
18. Darius Cheung, 99.co, Singapore
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Darius was part of the first wave of startup exits in Singapore, selling mobile anti-virus company TenCube for several millions of dollars. Since then, he has mentored fellow founders in Singapore (including some on this list), and is now back with 99.co, a property search site with backing from Sequoia Capital and Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin.
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99.co data
Funding amount: US$2.16 million
Latest funding stage: Series A
Industry: Consumer Internet, Real Estate
17. Nabilah Alsagoff, Doku, Indonesia
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Doku is widely considered Indonesia’s leading payment gateway. That’s remarkable considering Nabilah has so far taken no venture capital or angel funding and is battling competitors who are better connected and well-funded. You’d also have to consider that Doku was incorporated in 2005, way before the country had a thriving startup scene. No hype, just pure guts.
Doku data
Payment volume: US$520 million
Latest funding stage: Undisclosed
Industry: Payments, Others
16. Aung Kyaw Moe, 2C2P, Singapore
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2C2P claims to have processed US$2.2 billion in transactions in 2014, which is probably the most among all online payment players started in the region. The bonus is that it has a presence in multiple countries, making it a potential winner in this space.
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2C2P data
Funding amount: US$10 million
Latest funding stage: Series C
Industry: Payments
15. Paul Srivorakul, aCommerce, Thailand
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Paul has a thousand things on his plate. He started and sold an ad network, then flipped a daily deals site years later. Now he’s an investor via Ardent Capital, and also the CEO of aCommerce, a logistics and marketing services firm for ecommerce ventures. It sits right in the heart of a logistics revolution in Southeast Asia. Exciting times are ahead.
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aCommerce data
Funding amount: US$20 million
Latest funding stage: Series A
Industry: Logistics
14. Samuel Lim, Reebonz, Singapore
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Many girls dream of owning luxury bags. Samuel Lim dreamed of owning the site that sells them. That was why he started Reebonz, a site for users to buy new and used luxury items at discounted prices through flash sales. Prior to Reebonz, he started a mobile content provider. Could a public listing be next for Reebonz?
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Reebonz data
Funding amount: US$50 million
Latest funding stage: Series C
Industry: Lifestyle, Ecommerce
13. Nix Nolledo, Xurpas, Philippines
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You’ll often hear stories of entrepreneurs who try and try again until they succeed. Nix is one of them. With Xurpas, he found his gold mine. The company, a mobile content provider, did not receive a single cent of funding from external investors en route to its IPO. But with Philippines becoming a more robust startup ecosystem, Nix is paving the way for a new generation of Filipino tech entrepreneurs.
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Xurpas data
Revenue: US$19 million run rate
Latest funding stage: IPO
Industry: Gaming
12. Malcolm Rodrigues, MyRepublic, Singapore
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Malcolm Rodrigues (first row, center)
MyRepublic is an internet service provider that took aim at the dominant telcos with dedicated internet plans for gamers. It introduced Teleport, which lets people use sites like Netflix and Hulu Plus, circumventing geographical restrictions. It was the first to introduce a consumer-friendly 1 Gbps fibre broadband plan, and has also expanded to New Zealand. Now, it is on a quest to become Singapore’s fourth telco. Malcolm, a former exec at StarHub, knows how to keep his former bosses on their toes.
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MyRepublic data
Revenue: US$20 million annualized
Funding amount: US$37.5 million
Latest funding stage: Undisclosed
Industry: General Internet, Internet Infrastructure
11. Roger Egan, Redmart, Singapore
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Redmart is a pioneer of online grocery shopping in Singapore, with Roger, a former investment banker, at the helm. Its slick user experience made the local supermarkets’ websites look feeble by comparison. The startup built its logistics arm from scratch, and recently ventured into a marketplace model, where it uses its delivery fleet to bring indie merchants online. Now, with competition from fellow startups Honestbee and HappyFresh, Roger aims to keep the company ahead with planned expansions to Hong Kong and Indonesia.
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Redmart data
Funding amount: US$59.9 million
Latest funding stage: Series B
Industry: Lifestyle, Ecommerce
10. Razmig Hovaghimian, Viki, Singapore
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Razmig had many failed ventures before Viki. He started a pizza delivery service, and exported used Levi’s jeans to Europe. Both failed. But at Stanford Business School, he turned a class project into Viki, which became a video site well known for its subtitling tool that crowdsources translations from users. It built an audience by specializing in Asian content, and convinced Rakuten to acquire it for a rumored US$200 million. He’s rumored to be working on his next startup.
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Viki data
Funding amount: US$24.30 million
Latest funding stage: Acquired
Industry: Video
9. Nguyen Duc Tai, The Gioi Di Dong, Vietnam
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The Gioi Di Dong is like the Best Buy of Vietnam. Again, it’s not a name foreigners are acquainted with. But it’s huge, and probably makes the most money out of all the companies here. So, Tai could easily top this list based on that criterion, if not for the fact that most of its sales comes from offline sales. Having said that, TGDD are experts in omnichannel, guaranteeing the delivery of a smartphone within 30 minutes of an order through the website. Tai’s meticulous and barebones operational genius are key to why this company will likely become a $1 billion omnichannel electronics behemoth.
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The Gioi Di Dong data
Revenue: US$370 million
Latest funding stage: IPO
Industry: Enterprise Solution, Ecommerce
8. William Tanuwijaya, Tokopedia, Indonesia
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The amount of money Indonesian shopping site Tokopedia raised from investors was jaw-dropping. Never had a startup with a local founder raised so much money. In six short years (check out its history here), Tokopedia has become the leading example of the country’s ecommerce and tech startup potential. It’s an achievement for William, a first-time entrepreneur and career engineer.
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Tokopedia data
Funding amount: US$100 million
Latest funding stage: Series E
Industry: Consumer Internet, Ecommerce
7. Steve Melhuish, PropertyGuru, Singapore
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Think property search in Singapore, and the name that comes up is PropertyGuru. Perhaps the leading service of its kind in Southeast Asia, PropertyGuru offers a plethora of online tools and information for property seekers and renters to find the best deal. Led by the affable Steve, the company claims to have 10 million monthly visits across its sites, and is gunning for a public listing sometime next year.
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PropertyGuru data
Funding amount: US$183 million
Latest funding stage: Series D
Industry: Consumer Internet, Real Estate
6. Ganesh Kumar Bangah, MOL, Malaysia
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Ganesh is the architect behind MOL, one of the leading e-payments company born out of Southeast Asia. It’s still growing, doing about US$550 million in payment volumes with a huge focus on gaming. That’s courtesy of a virtual currency called MOL Points, which can be used to buy games, content, and services.
Though it received a battering on the stock market, the worst might be over. Note: though Ganesh is not strictly the CEO anymore, he’s still very active in running the company as executive chairman, hence his inclusion in this list.
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MOL data
Revenue: US$45.9 million
Industry: Payments
5. Anthony Tan, Grabtaxi, Singapore
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Instead of picking a career in massive family business Tan Chong Motors, Anthony struck out on his own. What a ride it’s been. From humble days as an unknown firm in Malaysia, his team hustled towards becoming Southeast Asia’s top taxi booking app.
GrabTaxi clocks in at seven rides a second, and is trying to fend off Uber and Go-Jek in the transportation and logistics sphere (though it has lots of catching up to do with Uber in the user experience department). Now, with backing from Chinese peer Didi, it begins a new chapter.
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Grabtaxi data
Funding amount: US$680 million
Latest funding stage: Series E
Industry: Consumer Internet, Logistics
4. Maximilian Bittner, Lazada, Singapore
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Gripe about Rocket Internet’s work culture and high turnover rate if you want, but you can’t deny it placed an unprecedented bet on ecommerce in Southeast Asia, which gave investors more confidence in the future of online shopping.
Max has played an instrumental role in turning the company into a household name in ecommerce. He also successfully oversaw its transition from a direct sales model into a marketplace for buyers and sellers.
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Lazada data
Revenue: US$154 million
Net operating loss: US$153 million
Funding amount: US$686 million
Latest funding stage: Series F
Industry: Ecommerce
3. Le Hong Minh, VNG, Vietnam
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If you’re not from Vietnam, you’d be forgiven for not knowing VNG. But in the country, it’s a big deal. Formerly an investment banker, Minh turned his interest in gaming into a sprawling business. He’s now the leader behind one of Vietnam’s largest internet companies.
Like Garena, VNG is also a games publisher that’s spreading its wings into social networking. It owns the dominant chat app in Vietnam, Zalo. But unlike Forrest and friends, VNG is intensely focused on one country, and it doesn’t seem like that’ll change soon. Nevertheless, with Vietnam being a tough-to-conquer market for outsiders, it’s a viable strategy.
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VNG data
Revenue: US$100 million
Industry: Lifestyle, Gaming, General Software
2. Forrest Li, Garena, Singapore
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Forrest Li (right)
Gamers in Southeast Asia would know Garena as the way you could play pirated copies of Warcraft 3 online. But from there, it’s gone on to become the region’s top games publisher, bolstered by an investment from Chinese internet giant Tencent, which helped it cement exclusive rights to distribute the popular game League of Legends in Southeast Asia.
There’s been a few missteps. It acquired the rights to distribute online shooter Firefall, which became a dud. It distributed a blatant rip-off of a popular Blizzard game. But overall, it’s been successful.
Instead of sitting still, it’s evolving. It launched investment arm Garena Venture. It’s moving beyond gaming, creating a chat app called BeeTalk. It launched Shopee, its take on popular mobile marketplace Carousell.
For steering Garena into a name synonymous with online gaming in Southeast Asia, Forrest deserves a spot on this list.
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Garena data
Revenue: Over US$200 million
Valuation: US$2.5 billion (unofficial)
Industry: Gaming, Social Networking & Communication
1. Min-Liang Tan, Razer, Singapore
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He’s called the Tony Stark of gaming. A social media rock star, Min-Liang has a loyal following on Facebook, with whom he shares anything from jeremiads about the state of the tech industry, photos of him with adoring fans, to sightings of people with Razer gear.
His company is a dominant force in gaming devices, but it has a new ambition: to become a lifestyle gadgets powerhouse. A product the company has been promoting is the Nabu, its take on a smart wearable on the wrist.
Min-Liang’s thinking escapes convention and is sometimes controversial.
He blames HP and Dell for causing the PC industry’s decline, and then launches into a pitch about how Razer is going to reverse this through its Blade gaming laptops.
He once told a roomful of students in grades-crazy Singapore that wasting time or getting an ‘F’ for their exams is okay. He inculcates a product-obsessed culture by throwing in hypothetical scenarios during job interviews, like: “Your wife just gave birth, but we really need you to stay back and finish this.”
Whatever he’s doing, it’s working.
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Razer data
Revenue: US$250 million to US$300 million (estimated)
Funding amount: More than US$50 million
Valuation: US$1 billion (unofficial)
Latest funding stage: Late Stage
Industry: Hardware
Update on October 5: The article incorrectly mentioned that Samuel Lim of Reebonz was the co-founder of Zuunbo.com. He was not.
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