William Bao Bean, formerly the managing director of telecommunications company SingTel’s corporate venturing unit SingTel Innov8 has joined venture capital firm SOS Ventures as an investment partner for Asia.
Bean will also be overseeing Chinaccelerator, the China-based start-up programme run by SOS Ventures, as managing director.
Bean said: “My focus will remain direct investment in early-stage start-ups, angel through Series A, and will now also be driving the three-month Chinaccelerator programme with two batches of 10 companies per year.
“The goal is to provide international entrepreneurs a gateway into China and emerging Asia, while giving China start-ups a US-style experience and the boost they need to go global”.
SOS Ventures currently manages a $200m fund focused on early stage investments in the software, hardware, consumer services and life sciences markets. It also currently runs six accelerators including the software-focused Chinaccelerator.
While at SingTel, Bean supported China investment activities, leading investments in mobile games developer Yodo1, mobile services provider General Mobile, children’s video platform Lekan and mobile advertiising company Massive Impact among others.
Prior to his role at SingTel Innnov8, Bean was a partner at Softbank China & India Holdings, an early stage venture capital firm backed by telecommunications firm SoftBank and networking technology company Cisco.
– Photo courtesy of LinkedIn