Rise of the Next 500 Global

In the fall of 2019, Honghao Deng and his co-founder Jiani Zeng joined 500 Global’s accelerator program, as part of Batch 26. Their company Butlr, an MIT Media Lab spin-out, had developed sensors that anonymously track through body heat how people move indoors, to help businesses manage the use of commercial space. Applications include monitoring foot traffic, maintaining clean bathrooms, or activating air conditioning when needed.Butlr was set on deploying its sensors in commercial buildings...

Vishal Harnal has had more than a ringside seat to Southeast Asia’s transformation into a hotbed of innovation. He was an active enabler of the ecosystem–along with Managing Partner Khailee Ng. 500 Global is a prominent backer of the region’s 52 unicorns, according to TechInAsia. They include Grab, Bukalapak, Carsome, and FinAccel. Those companies are now giving birth to a pool of new entrepreneurs, who will further enrich the ecosystem. Waiting to be deployed into those startups, says Vishal...

A techie, Christina Cai stumbled into healthcare when she realized that her AI-enabled technology could unlock insights from previously unused data in electronic health records, wearables and other digital health tools, such as glucose and blood pressure monitors. That information could provide a different assessment of a person’s health risk, and potentially lower the barrier to getting health insurance. As an example, she says people who have diabetes but maintain a healthy lifestyle, can h...

With funding for female founders still dismally low, female investors can make a differenceWhen Ankita Vashistha began making angel investments in Singapore, India, and the U.S. more than a decade ago, she was struck by the dearth of female founders–a problem that persists to this day. In the U.S., female-founded startups still garner only 2% of venture capital funding.This led her to launch her first fund in 2015 and StrongHer Ventures two years ago, both focusing on early stage startups tha...

Happy birthday 500 Latin America! Ten years ago, Managing Partner Santiago Zavala joined 500 Global to help set up our Mexico City office. Things have come a long way since. “It was very hard to get people from the U.S. to invest into the startups because they didn't know the industry,” he recalls of the early days.No more. Last year, Latin America experienced record levels of venture funding, which remained strong in Q1 2022 compared to Q1 2021. Over the past decade, 500 Latin America has m...

500 Global has been helping portfolio companies over the past two years implement ESG policies and practices from the start, by providing resources and guidance. Spearheading the effort is Tracy Barba, who has spent two decades in the impact investing space. On Rise of the Next, Tracy sets the record straight on the difference between impact and ESG — something many people confuse, why the SEC's proposed rules to prevent greenwashing is a good thing, and shares some of the steps she’s ta...