William Bao Bean

Managing General Partner

2014

William is Managing General Partner of Orbit Startups the Emerging Markets VC with over US$240m in Total Value Managed. Orbit invests in startups with technology that drives impact by digitizing traditional industries and helps people make more money and have better quality of life, all in a more in sustainable way, including ecommerce, fintech, travel, media, health, education, and logistics across emerging and growth markets in Emerging Asia, MENA, Africa and LATAM. Orbit provides hands-on support for cross border expansion, user acquisition, sales, partnerships, and fundraising. Orbit's program has helped its startups scale to 238 monthly active users. William joined Orbit from SingTel Innov8 Ventures where he was a founding Managing Director. Prior to that William was a Partner at Softbank China & India Holdings, a VC backed by Softbank and Cisco, leading investments in Greater China and South East Asia. William started his career in equity research most recently with Deutsche Bank where he was a top ranked analyst for Internet and Software in Asia and worked on the IPOs for Alibaba, Kingsoft, eLong (Expedia), OnMobile and Infoedge Naukri. William was ranked #3 stock picker in Hong Kong/China and #1 for Technology, Media and Telecom by Thomson Reuters Starmine as well as #3 equity research analyst in Asia for Software and IT Services by Institutional Investor Magazine. William has done over 350 early stage investments including Bitmex in fintech, UShopal in ecommerce, italki in edtech, Videoverse in AI, Carota in mobility, Flickstree in media, ELSA Speak in edtech, Tappytoon in media, Priyoshop in supplychain, Coutloot in ecommerce, and Dastgyr in fintech. He currently is a Director on the boards of Boost Capital, Pandabus, Fleksy, Goama, and italki as well as a member of the Board of Trustees of Blair Academy. He holds a BA from Bowdoin College.

Advisory Board Member

2021

H2 is the premier leadership network for the technology industry, connecting a trusted global community of leaders to support startup ecosystems around the world. Its membership consists of senior executives and entrepreneurs from leading startups and top global firms in major innovation hubs worldwide.

China Chapter Co-Chair

2016 - 2021

H2 is the premier leadership network for the technology industry, connecting a trusted global community of leaders to support startup ecosystems around the world. Its membership consists of senior executives and entrepreneurs from leading startups and top global firms in major innovation hubs worldwide.

Director

2007

Venture Partner

2023

William joined Orbit, a rebrand of Chinaccelerator MOX SOSV and a member of the SOSV Consortium, in 2010 as a mentor and full time as Managing Director and SOSV General Partner in 2014. Orbit is the first accelerator to launch in Asia in 2010 and the longest running startup program in emerging markets in the world, and the first in Asia to have a unicorn go through its program Bitmex in Fall 2015. Orbit is the Emerging Markets VC investing in tech companies that digitize traditional industries and help people make more money all in a more sustainable way including ecommerce, fintech, media, health, education, and logistics across emerging and frontier markets Emerging Asia, the Middle East, Africa and the Americas. Orbit provides hands-on support for cross border expansion, user acquisition, sales, partnerships, and fundraising. Orbit's ecosystem has helped our startups scale to 238m monthly active users.

General Partner

2014 - 2022

William joined Orbit, a rebrand of Chinaccelerator MOX SOSV and a member of the SOSV Consortium, in 2010 as a mentor and full time as Managing Director and SOSV General Partner in 2014. Orbit is the first accelerator to launch in Asia in 2010 and the longest running startup program in emerging markets in the world, and the first in Asia to have a unicorn go through its program Bitmex in Fall 2015. Orbit is the Emerging Markets VC investing in tech companies that digitize traditional industries and help people make more money all in a more sustainable way including ecommerce, fintech, media, health, education, and logistics across emerging and frontier markets Emerging Asia, the Middle East, Africa and the Americas. Orbit provides hands-on support for cross border expansion, user acquisition, sales, partnerships, and fundraising. Orbit's ecosystem has helped our startups scale to 238m monthly active users.

Managing Director

2010 - 2014

Singtel Innov8 is the corporate venture arm of Singtel. Innov8, launched with usd250m in capital from SingTel Group, is focused on investing in and driving innovative services and technology from around the world. As a founding Managing Director supporting China investments I led investments in companies including Yodo1 (mobile games), GMobi/Carota (mobile platform), Lekan (children's video platform) acquired by Conde Nast, DeMyst.Data (unstructured data driven credit scoring), and Massive Impact (mobile advertising) acquired by GMobi My focus was global with a special focus on China. I was based in Shanghai and Beijing.

Partner - SoftBank China & India Holdings

2007 - 2010

Focused on early stage investments in technology, media, and telecom companies in Asia excluding Japan and Korea. As a Partner at Softbank China & India Holdings, a venture capital firm backed by Softbank and Cisco, I led investments in Silk Road Telecom (SRT) - in mobile enterprise cloud SaaS, Playspan - a payment platform acquired by Visa (NYSE: V), Punch Entertainment - a mobile game developer acquired by DeNA (Tokyo: 2432), and Peacesoft - a Vietnam eCommerce and payment platform backed by eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) and MOL Group (NASDAQ: MOLG).

Vice President

2002 - 2007

Research analyst focusing on Internet, Software, Telecom Equipment and Hardware sectors in Asia and responsible for China TMT. William was among the top 3 Internet equity research analysts in Asia from 2005. In 2005, he was ranked #1 stock picker in Technology, Media and Telecom, and #3 overall in Hong Kong/China by Forbes/SCMP/Starmine. In 2006 he was ranked #3 All-Asia analyst for Technology/Software and IT Services by Institutional Investor Magazine Asia. William worked on IPOs including Alibaba, Kingsoft (Lei Jun of Xiaomi's first company), Naukri, Rediff and eLong (Expedia China).

Vice President

2000 - 2001

Associate

1997 - 2000

Associate

1996 - 1997

Technology analyst