NUS MBA Team Huat Ventures emerged as winners at the Venture Capital Investment Competition (VCIC) Southeast Asia Regional Finals 2019! The results come after intense and high performances from five regional universities including AIM, CEIBS, CUHK, Sasin and NTU. The team also won the Entrepreneur’s Choice award, where the start-up entrepreneurs participating in the competition voted for the venture capital team they would like to partner with the most.
NUS MBA emerge as regional champions for Venture Capital Investment Competition
Team Huat Ventures (from left: Varit Wanatbodeekun, Yamini Sharma, Soe Myat Hein, Snigdha Nahar and Alexander Adam Sheldon)
Carrying on the strong track record achieved by NUS were team members hailing from diverse backgrounds with various strengths: Alexander Adam Sheldon (Project Management, Manufacturing), Snigdha Nahar (Legal and Strategy, Renewable Energy), Soe Myat Hein (Project Management, Energy), Varit Wanatbodeekun (Financial Advisory, Investment Banking) , Yamini Sharma (Product Marketing, Demand Generation)
In the competition, participating teams take the role of venture capital (VC) firms and are judged on their performance in three primary areas inherent in the investment process: 1) due diligence, 2) valuation, term sheets and negotiation, and 3) pitch to VC partners. The competition was particularly challenging as, within 2 hours after pitches by the start-ups, the team had to analyse three startups, and prepare an investment summary with a terms sheet. Shortly after, they had to finalise their negotiation strategy and pitch within 30 minutes.
Soe Myat Hein said, “The whole experience had been nothing less than a roller coaster ride as we had to overcome a steep learning curve to understand the intricate valuation and deal terms inherent to the VC industry. It was also a rewarding experience as we got the opportunity to interact with practicing top VCs participating as judges and network with peers from several schools from the region.”
Leading up to the competition, the team also had help from faculty supervisor Assistant Professor Ng Weiyi and Professor Andrew Delios together with NUS MBA alum Nikhil Kapur (Class of 2015).
Soe added, “It has been a very demanding journey with many late nights of preparation, but the receiving top honours gave us another boost of energy and motivation.”
The team will be flying to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill next month for the Global Final 2019.