Malaysian entrepreneurs make the Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia 2019

KUALA LUMPUR: Several Malaysian entrepreneurs are among the 300 from 23 Asia-Pacific countries listed in the Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia this year.

Forbes said the group of young stars were chosen from over 2,000 entries, heavily researched by a team of reporters and vetted by an A-list of judges for their work in technological innovations and disrupting age-old industries, among others.

The Malaysian entrepreneurs were Aaron Patel, Bobby Ong, TM Lee, Chris Khristie, Michelle Tan, Jin Xi Cheong, Joolin Chuah, Kendrick Wong, Melvin Poh, Sarah Chen and  Wen Shin Chia.

Patel is the chief executive officer of iHandal Energy Solutions, an engineering and contracting firm specialising in improving the thermal energy efficiency of commercial and industrial buildings.

Bobby Ong and TM Lee are co-founders of CoinGecko, a cryptocurrency data aggregator that tracks price, volume, social and developer stats.

The company has collaborated with Western University in Canada and Humboldt University in Berlin in producing cryptocurrency research.  Chris Khristie and Michelle Tan are co-founders of digital media group, INFLUASIA, which caters to the English, Malay and Mandarin-speaking communities of Malaysia via their portals, World of Buzz, Lobak Merah, and NOODOU.

Jin Xi Cheong is the founder of Poladrone, a company which took the drone to the palm oil industry to boost the efficiency in Malaysian palm oil plantations and crop farms.  Joolin Chuah, is an associate in Insignia Ventures Partners who was instrumental in nearly 10 investments in 2018, including promising startups such as igloohome, CoHive and Sayurbox.

She is widely known as the go-to advisor for many entrepreneurs in Southeast Asia and sits on the board of Finhay, a robo-advisory platform in Vietnam.

Kendrick Wong, is the co-founder of Omnilytics, a fashion analytics platform that offers real-time market intelligence data across 75,000 brands.

Omnilytics' big data services are used by retailers worldwide, as well as by financial market clients.  Melvin Poh, 27, is the co-founder of The Asian Entrepreneur, an international publisher and media platform with an active readership in 13 countries.

The Asian Entrepreneur recently partnered the governments of Malaysia, Macau and South Korea to initiate several startup communities and events.

Sarah Chen is a co-founder of The Billion Dollar Fund for Women, the primary goal of which was to tackle the gender funding gap faced by female founders.

The fund hopes to have invested $1 billion in startups driven by women by 2020, and has secured pledges of over $750 million from global investors including Gobi Partners, Golden Gate Ventures, Rethink Impact, Springboard Growth Capital, Backstage Capital and Different Funds.

Meanwhile, Wen Shin Chia is the founder of Green Yards, an eco-products company that makes soaps and candles from recycled cooking oil.

The company, which sources oil from Malaysia's restaurants and households, sells the products online and in gift shops in the country. - Bernama