Mukaya “Tai” Panich has been serving as chief venture and investment officer at SCB 10X, the digital technology investment arm of Thailand-headquartered financial services firm Siam Commercial Bank, for the past year.
Panich has more than two decades of experience working and investing in the technology industry, spanning from Silicon Valley, New York to Singapore.
“Opportunity to work with highly passionate and driven startup founders and invest in companies at the cutting-edge of disruptive technology and innovation” was what attracted her to corporate venture capital (CVC), she said.
“My greatest success has been to drive SCB 10X investments in the blockchain and decentralised finance (DeFi) space, where we aim to be the leading player in Southeast Asia,” she added. “Blockchain and DeFi startups have the potential to meaningfully impact the financial sector in multiple ways.
“My biggest challenges are to turn down some very passionate entrepreneurs because we are very selective about the investments we make. I may not be able to invest in a startup because my mandate is different or it does not fit into our strategic area, but I would like to encourage the founders to not give up.
“I would like to help drive SCB 10X to be the leading regional CVC in Southeast Asia and for SCB 10X to become one of the top investors in blockchain and DeFi sectors in particular.”
Prior to joining SCB 10X, Panich was in the investment management industry for 14 years. In her previous role, she was a portfolio manager, running a Pan-Asia fund for Pictet Asset Management for five years, where she specialised in investing in publicly-listed technology companies globally, with a focus on Asia.
She explained: “I was an engineer by background, having graduated at an undergraduate level in electrical engineering and computer science with honours in three years from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and a master’s degree in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT.
“Subsequently, I earned an MBA from Harvard Business School. I started my career as one of the early engineers at a Silicon Valley semiconductor startup, SiByte, which was acquired by Broadcom for $2.2bn. My passion is to solve tough problems and help entrepreneurs further their goals.”
