Core Team

Brian Chen

INVESTMENT ASSOCIATE

Brian is the Investment Associate of the XA Network and actively engages with stakeholders from across the Southeast Asian technology startup ecosystem. Brian is especially keen to speak with founders with a strong focus on using technology to solve Southeast Asian specific challenges. 

Before joining XA, Brian was at MDI Ventures, the CVC arm of Telkom Indonesia, where he focused on Fintech, Social Commerce, Gaming, and Esports. Prior to MDI, Brian rose from Investment Analyst to Principal at Protege Ventures, the first student-run VC in Southeast Asia, and led research and education for new student analysts. He also co-founded an Esports startup, a fantasy league for Esports reaching out to 4,000 users from across the Philippines and Indonesia.

Our Advisors

David Thevenon

General Partner, Balderton Capital

David is a General Partner at Balderton Capital, based in London. He was previously at SoftBank where he was a Managing Director for SoftBank International and one of founding partners of SoftBank’s Vision Fund. 

At SoftBank, David invested in, and worked with, some of the most innovative and visionary founders in technology globally, and supported them as they grew into market-leading companies. David’s investments include Didi Chuxing, Grab, Ola, Lemonade (NASDAQ:LMND), SoFi and Kabbage (bought by American Express).

Prior to SoftBank, David had a 10-year tenure at Google, where he worked on partnerships for products that touched billions of users, including leading global product and business partnerships for Google’s Android platform.

Maya Hari

Non-Executive Director, Aviva Singlife Holding

Maya Hari is the former VP & Managing Partner for Twitter APAC. Maya’s focus at Twitter was to drive leadership and adoption of Twitter’s new technologies and products among brands, advertisers and agencies.

Prior to Twitter, Maya spent over 15 years in the digital media, mobile and eCommerce industries across the US and in Asia Pacific region for brands such Samsung, Google, Microsoft & Cisco. She was also responsible for launching and bringing internet and mobile offerings for top tier publication titles such as Vogue, GQ and Condé Nast Traveller in Asia.

Maya has an MBA from INSEAD and an MS in Engineering from Utah State University. Outside of work, Maya is an art and design enthusiast, amateur photographer and an urban farmer.

Sze-Meng Soon

CEO, GONETZERO

Sze Meng is the CEO of Sembcorp’s carbon management business – GoNetZero™ leading and supporting customers’ net-zero ambitions.

He held senior leadership roles at JD.com, SingTel, PayPal, Visa and Temus and was a consultant at McKinsey and Monitor Deloitte. He was a board member of Go Jek, Tiki, JD.ID and JDL Express Indonesia. He serves as a Board Member of the Singapore Institute of Technology and Focus on the Family Singapore, and an Advisory Council member of XA Network.

He graduated from Stanford University and Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University.

John Wood

CEO and Founder, U-Go

John Wood is the Founder of U-Go, a non-profit organization that aims to help ambitious and promising young girls in low-income countries to pursue tertiary education by providing financial scholarships funded by individuals and corporations in high-income countries.

Prior to U-Go, John founded Room to Read, one of the fastest-growing social enterprises in history.  Room to Read has brought the lifelong gift of education to 20 million children in 17 low-income countries.  Prior to this, John served in numerous executive positions with Microsoft, including as Director of Marketing for APAC and Director of Business Development for the Greater China Region.

John’s main focus is now on “helping people I trust and admire to build some of the world’s next great companies. John is on the Board of Asia Partners, where he is also an LP. He is the Asia Partner for Concentric Equity, a $2 billion Chicago-based family office. John is also a Senior Advisor to and an investor in both Green Monday Holdings and abillionveg.

John has written five books, including Leaving Microsoft to Change the World, which was named by Amazon as one of the ten best business memoirs of the year. At the invitation of President Bill Clinton, he served four terms on the Advisory Board of the Clinton Global Initiative. He is a Henry Crown Fellow at the Aspen Institute, a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum, a former member of YPO San Francisco. He was named by Goldman Sachs as one of the world’s 100 most intriguing entrepreneurs, was given a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Tribeca Film Festival and was awarded the World Children’s Prize by Queen Silvia of Sweden..

Binny Bansal

Co-founder & Executive Chariman, xto10x Technologies

Binny is the Co-founder and Executive Chairman of xto10x, a scaling platform for growth-stage companies, and an active investors and mentor to startups in India and Southeast Asia. 

Prior to starting xto10x, Binny co-founded and served as CEO of Flipkart, the largest e-commerce company in India. Under Binny’s leadership, Flipkart grew from a humble online bookstore in 2007, to India’s first e-commerce unicorn. In 2018, Walmart acquired a 77% controlling stake in Flipkart for US$ 16 Billion, valuing the company at around US$ 20 Billion. Today, it is a titan in e-commerce, servicing multiple product categories such as consumer electronics, fashion, lifestyle, and also has a B2B Wholesale marketplace. 

Binny is also Advisor to 021 Capital, and a Board Advisor to Udhyam Learning Foundation, Blackbuck, GreyOrange, and Acko. Binny started his career as a Software Engineer, working at Sarnoff, then Amazon. He graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, with a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Engineering.