A Better World through Venture Capital & Empowering World Changing Entrepreneurs by Tiffine Wang
2022 is finally coming to an end and life is returning to some level of normalcy, well, except for the war and riots that’s starting to break out in different parts of the world....
I’ve now been in Venture Capital and Tech/Innovation for over 10+ years. I met some good people along the way, but I also have to acknowledge that there were plenty of very terrible human beings that actually taught me a few lessons as well (perhaps stories for another day). But there’s never a day that I forget about my primary driver in life, to make the world a little better for humanity.
I’ve been lucky to meet a few in my life where our views of the world are aligned, many of which I’ve invested in. I want to share a few of them with you today.
Being in the heart of Silicon Valley, I was exposed to some of the greatest minds in my younger years. Making the decision to avoid government work and politics when I was younger, fundamentally, I believed that technological innovation is key to the sustained welfare of society and economic growth. The introduction and distribution of new technology and innovations significantly impact the world as we know it. Perhaps I’m getting older now but I still remember the pre cell phone era and how much it has changed since then.
Accessing the Rest of the World
The expansion of the internet and smartphones gave us access to each other through platforms like FB, Twitter, Linkedin and more. I’ve always been so fascinated by people who lived in the other side of the world. Wondered what they were like, I feel happy to live in the world we created together, connected.
Future of Work
Along with the growth of the internet, digital work platforms have led to a remote economy that is growing to become a stable way of earning for much of the workforce. Many believe this is only for white collar workers but this is also impacts blue-collar workforce and who can gain employment through multiple platforms through ecommerce, delivery, ride sharing, and logistics, giving people control over their own schedules. Others get jobs through remote work to earn from the ease of their home. Covid has certainly accelerated this be it for good or for bad.
With that said, the the remote work space is still evolving and there’s still a lot of kinks that need to be worked out.
This has also shifted the venture capital world, along with my partners, our fund has always had a global first mandate, to invest all the over the world even though we sat in Silicon Valley.
Just a few years ago, this was not normal.
One of our investments is Multiplier, a startup that supports companies dealing with multiple people in different countries. The platform helps to manage contracts, onboard new team members, and helps to process their payments in local currencies without any hassle. They’re also partnered with another company we recently invested in, called Hybr1d.io which handles remote IT and laptops. Hybr1d offers services like remote work support and help desk services, and it provides tracking for all remote connections in a single device. It also offers onboarding and offboarding services, time tracking, device supply and security, and round-the-clock customer support. A perfect solution for any entrepreneur looking to scale and grow their business.
Financial Inclusion
The role of technology in financial inclusion is significant especially if you consider the cost of living arbitrage. Financial inclusion ensures that individuals and businesses access profitable and low-cost financial products and services. These need to satisfy the requirement for trading, payment processing, savings, and debt and insurance in a dependable and viable way.
Lyte Ventures, run by a passionate scrappy serial entrepreneur in Singapore, is focused on the creator economy, Lyte offers innovative payment and financial management solutions that helps creators to manage their finances and access loans. The reality is, Dennis built this solution for the younger version of himself when he couldn’t get a loan to buy a home even after successfully selling his last startup.
Digital Healthcare
Digital health is a cross-section of multiple specialties, applying software, hardware and healthcare services. Under the umbrella of digital healthcare are mobile health apps, wearable healthcare devices, telehealth, and telemedicine. Stakeholders in this field are patients, healthcare practitioners, research specialists, app developers, and medical device manufacturers and distributors. Getting proper care can be a nightmare, be it cost or access. Many people die due to inefficiencies.
There’s 2 topics that I want to share today, The first one is mental health. Intellect offers online mental well-being support to its users through workplace and individual offerings. What I love about Intellect when I first met the founder, I could tell he truly understood the problem end of end. Mental Health touches so many parts of a person’s lives and it touches many people. It’s difficult to treat. Intellect is in over 10+ countries now. They started out in Asia, a traditionally underserved area when it comes to mental health, I'm happy to be part of their journey to push this along.
One of the things that I hated when working in human services was watching the children suffer. They didn’t choose to be here. This was what we discussed when I met the founder of Blueberry Pediatrics which offers 24/7 access to pediatric care. It treats most generic problems like colds, flus, allergies, stings and bites, stomach issues, and sleeping problems in children. The goal is to offer affordable and convenient treatment for simple issues that would require a lot of time and money if treated conventionally. Every one should have access to care.
While this above is not a comprehensive list of ideas and startups, these are just a few on my mind today.
Hopefully you can join me in making the world a little better together.
What topic do you care about?
