Our Circle event, Mentors for Show Me The Money! will be held on Wednesday, 1st April 2020.
There are ways for you, as a business owner, to find money for your company. Let our experts guide you through the various ways you can apply for grants and successfully pitch your business to investors.
Nicole Denholder, Next Chapter Crowdfunding and Raise Platforms
Nicole Denholder is the founder of the Next Chapter Crowdfunding and Raise platforms.
Next Chapter Raise is a community for female entrepreneurs and women-owned businesses in Asia to improve their access to funding. Next Chapter Crowdfunding is a reward-based crowdfunding platform. Through these platforms, Nicole has worked extensively with female
founders and investor changemakers to understand the issues facing female entrepreneurs entrepreneurs who are looking to fund and scale their businesses.
Nicole was previously a Director at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in London and Hong Kong in PwC’s US IPO and Advisory practices working on large-scale projects across Europe and Asia.
Nicole is on the Board of the Women Entrepreneurs Network in Hong Kong and was previously a member of the Australian Chamber of Commerce Women in Business Network’s Executive Committee.
Since starting Next Chapter, Nicole is a regular speaker on Crowdfunding and Funding for Female Entrepreneurs at events such as FinnovAsia, HKU's Future City Summit, StartupNext, HKTDC Conferences, American Chamber of Commerce and the Australian Chamber of Commerce.
Nicole is passionate about female entrepreneurship and becoming a catalyst to change how women access funding.
Wong, Kin Wai, SHINGO
WONG Kin Wai is the founder of SHINGO, a business and management consultancy service for providing, among others, ISO consultation, third party inspection and operation review, as well as assist with Hong Kong Government funding applications.
Kin Wai is a QMS lead auditor in International Register Of Certificated Auditors, both in Hong Kong and China and an EMS auditor in China
Certification & Accreditation Association, International Register Of Certificated Auditors.
On top of that, he is a Certified LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® facilitator and a Certified Six Bricks & DUPLO® Play Box facilitator and runs frequent management training LEGO® workshops.
Kin Wai has in-depth knowledge about the Hong Kong Government funding application process and will providing tangible and applicable advice on the available Governmental grants for SMEs and how to access them.
Christine Yu, Lapidary
Christine Yu is Founder and Managing Director of Lapidary, a venture focused on impact investments and venture building in South East Asia (Philippines, Thailand and Myanmar) and select Hong Kong opportunities. Lapidary both invests in and incubates early to mid-stage, for-profit and mission-focused companies across a wide spectrum of social and environmental impact mandates.
Prior to founding Lapidary, Christine spent a large part of her career in the institutional capital markets, serving in various corporate debt sales roles for HSBC in both Hong Kong and New York. Whilst at HSBC she witnessed the rise of the Asian debt markets in G3, offshore RMB and local Asia currencies, as well as the first Asia G3 currency green bond. Before her credit sales career, she worked for two start-ups.
Now, with Lapidary, she is combining the three personal objectives she finds most relevant, interesting and sustainable: pursuing her interest in earlier stage companies, driving innovation in social entrepreneurship and making a positive impact.
Christine is also an active angel investor and leads the Hong Kong chapter of AngelVest, a Greater China-focused angel investing group with a network of angels across the region. An advocate for developing women leaders in Hong Kong, she currently serves as a Co-Chair of the Advisory Committee for the Mentoring Program of The Women’s Foundation. Christine has also recently co-founded a non-profit organization focused on obliterating the gender investing gap called ‘Girls Just Wanna Have Fund$’(www.gjwhf.org). GJWHF aims to provide a community of support and education to help women along
in their investing journeys. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of Chicago, and an MBA from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
Ada Lam, HSBC
Ada currently leads the Innovative Business and Ecosystem Partnership team of Commercial Banking HSBC, driving the bank’s proactive engagement with the innovation and technology ecosystem, delivering banking and beyond banking support to start-ups and entrepreneurs in turning their business vision into reality.
Prior to that, for more than 10 years she had extensive experiences covering various commercial banking areas including commercial lending, international trade, cash management as well as cross-border solutions.
Ada holds a Bachelor Degree of Information Engineering, and is member of Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants and Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.
