I am a partner at Golden Gate Ventures in Singapore. Golden Gate Ventures is an early-stage VC firm in Southeast Asia with over 25 investments to date. Golden Gate Ventures invests in internet & mobile startups regardless of sector: ecommerce to payments, mobile applications to SaaS platforms. Companies include online grocer RedMart.com, mobile payments platform Coda Payments, and webbased developer software Nitrous.io. Golden Gate Ventures has been ranked as a global Top 50 startup investor by Mattermark comparing over 300 incubators, accelerators, and VC firms based on web traffic, mobile downloads, employee count, and social media reach.

Venture capital has showed and continues to show strong growth in South East Asia and has driven much of the increase in deal count in recent quarters of 2015. It helped push capital invested in South East Asia to US$3.7 billion.

I am a proud father of 2 children and married to my lovely wife Marijke. I studied Management and Control of information science. After my graduation, I worked briefly as a project manager at one of the largest insurance companies in the Netherlands, after which I started my own IT business. In 2007, I founded my own venture fund focused on Dutch SME’s before joining Golden Gate Ventures as a venture partner and later as a partner. As a former vice chairman of the Economic Development Board Rotterdam I have had various positions on a societal and administrative level. As a result of which I have been able to build an extensive international network.

In 2011 and 2014 I studied Financial Analysis for Business Valuation, and Private Equity and Venture Capital at Harvard Business School in Cambridge. I have over 17 years entrepreneurial and managerial experience. I truly believe in a balanced life. I have various hobbies. Sports is one of my favorites. I was a member of the Dutch Karate Team for 3 years during my late teens. I love to run and trying to be a competitive cyclist. I ran the marathons of Rotterdam and New York and in 2016 I finished the marathon in Singapore. In June 2017 I was able to complete one of my life goals, to finish the Ironman 70.3 in Hawaii.