Former Rakuten, Khazanah and Ninja Van execs join 500 Global as partners

EARLY-stage investor 500 Global on Tuesday (Feb 21) added three new partners to its South-east Asian team – Saemin Ahn, Shahril Ibrahim and Martin Cu – to lead growth initiatives across the region.

Ahn was the founding managing partner at Rakuten Ventures, where he led investments in over 25 technology companies, including GoTo Group, Carousell and Coda Payments. Prior to that, he held management roles at Google in South Korea and Singapore.

Shahril was the director of investments and head of Khazanah Americas, under the sovereign wealth fund of Malaysia. He helped Khazanah build its presence in the US, investing in enterprise technology, artificial intelligence and robotics. He was also a board member at global fusion energy company, General Fusion, and on the advisory committee for the growth equity venture firm, March Capital.

Meanwhile, Cu was previously Philippines country head of logistics unicorn Ninja Van. He built the Ninja Van team in the Philippines from scratch to over 5,000 employees.

“Saemin, Shahril and Martin add significant investment and operational expertise to support the growing ambitions of our entrepreneurs across South-east Asia,” said Vishal Harnal, managing partner at 500 Global.

With its growth practice, 500 Global aims to scale up the capital and expertise it provides to entrepreneurs. The venture firm has backed over 340 companies across South-east Asia in the past decade, including Grab, Bukalapak, Carsome, Carousell and FinAccel.