F is for fake: investors on why founders cry Ivy League

IN JULY, Tech in Asia broke the story on how Anne Cheng, a Singaporean entrepreneur and artificial intelligence (AI) startup founder, fabricated her doctorate from Stanford University. It marked the fourth time this year that we had questioned education-related claims made by founders in South-east Asia.

The three prior instances involved founders from different industries. Vizzio CEO Jon Lee’s University of Cambridge PhD proved to be a sham, and he later stepped down from the Singapore-headquartered AI firm.

Various online sources cited that Moehammad Ichsan, CEO of Indonesia-based waste management startup Octopus, has a master’s in business from the University of California at Berkeley, but Tech in Asia could not find any records indicating that.