The rest of the 100 (in alphabetical order by company): Albert Shyy, Burda Principal Investments

Albert Shyy, head of Singapore office of the Burda Principal Investments (BPI), the corporate venturing unit of Hubert Burda Media, is focused on series B and growth stage capital in southeast Asia since moving over from Japan-based games group Gree’s corporate venturing office in Singapore in March last year.

After joining, Shyy told DealSTreetAsia: “BPI actually evaluated all three (China, India and southeast Asia) markets when assessing our entry strategy into Asia, and concluded that southeast Asia was the most interesting opportunity for us at this time. There were several factors but the most prominent was the clear gap in series B or growth capital in this region and our ability to be an early mover in this market.”

As DealStreet reported, Burda had already been a limited partner in venture capital funds in the region, including Jungle Ventures, Kejora Ventures and Golden Gate Ventures, and had direct investments in Thailand-based Medical Departures and Priceza and Vietnam-based search service Coc Coc.

In September 2016, Thailand-based price comparison and ecommerce search engine Priceza raised a series B round of funding and, as part of the deal, BPI acquired the initial stake of previous investor CyberAgent Ventures to own 24.9%.

Shyy has joined the boards at Priceza and his first direct investment for BPI, Zilingo.

In September, BPI lead the $17, B round for Thailand-based fashion supply aggregator Zilingo alongside venture capital firm Sequoia Capital India and other already existing investors.

At the time, Shyy said: “Zilingo is a perfect fit into Burda’s investment portfolio with our history in fashion and ecommerce. They have clearly found a sweet spot catering to a young, up-and-coming demographic as evidenced by their growth and strong repeat rates.”

Developed by Burda’s board member Martin Weiss since 2015, BPI is invested in a portfolio of consumer internet companies in Europe, the US and Asia. In the past, Hubert Burda Media has invested in internet platforms such as Etsy, zooplus, HolidayCheck, or Xing.

These deals had been through Burda Digital Ventures (BDV), a corporate venture fund of German global media group Hubert Burda Media set up in 1999 before the management spun off in 2008 to form Acton Capital Partners as a general partner to manage the fund and new vehicles.

The creation of BPI develops out its global investment operation. While at Gree Ventures for nearly three years, Shyy had been on the boards of Ayopop, Berrybenka and Kudo.

This follows his own entrepreneurial and corporate journey, including a stint at Lazada, an online department store in southeast Asia.