A Busy February - One Door Closes, And Several New Doors Open!
It is a busy February at North Ridge Partners and we are pleased to share some company-wide updates.
Chris Tran leaves the firm.
Our colleague Chris Tran, who spent over a decade with us (mostly in Singapore) has left the firm. We had some great times with Chris across the region - investing, restructuring companies, doing deals, and engaging in his favourite pastime - eating steak and drinking beer. We thank Chris for his long-term dedication to the firm (and for giving countless speeches and webinars!), and we wish him well as he seeks out new challenges.
We set up as a tech investment bank across the Asia Pacific region nearly 20 years ago because we believe in the rise and rise of the digital economy - and in particular of the Asian digital economy. We are more committed to that vision than ever, and with the hires and promotions we announce below, have the team to execute on the vision.
We look to the next stage of our growth in Asia with renewed vigour and optimism.
Shauraya Bhutani is promoted to Director.
We are excited to announce the recent promotion of our colleague Shauraya Bhutani to Director. Congratulations Shauraya!
Shauraya has been deeply involved in all of NRP’s transactions in Southeast Asia since joining in 2016 and has worked across key markets and sectors including e-commerce, fintech, travel tech and SaaS, to name a few.
He will continue to execute regional transactions while also leading innovation efforts for NRP (see Innovation, below).
Kevin Waller joins NRP.
We’re delighted to welcome our new Partner Kevin Waller, who will join our Singapore team on 1 May.
Kevin has been located in Singapore since 2017 and is a seasoned tech expert with venture capital origins and hands-on transactional experience across the corporate finance spectrum.
Most recently he has also been a core member of Ooredoo’s(1) M&A team, working on delivering several mega tech infrastructure projects during 2020. Prior to that, he was Head of Strategy for Asia Pacific Internet Group (the Rocket Internet/Ooredoo JV), where he structured multiple capital raises for the portfolio and executed nine tech exits.
We are proud to have recruited an experienced venture capitalist into our ranks. Kevin understands the venture business, brings deep knowledge of digital technology and tech infrastructure, and knows how to get deals done.
(1) Ooredoo Telecom is Qatar’s national telco, spanning 10 markets in MENA and SEA
John Moore joins to head up our New Zealand operations.
It’s also great to welcome our new Partner (and old friend) John Moore, who is now running our New Zealand business from Auckland.
John has nearly 30 years’ experience in investment banking across Asia and Australasia. He has advised hundreds of companies on complex transactions. Before teaming up with NRP, John ran his own advisory firm, prior to which he worked for a local investment bank as Head of Equity Capital Markets. Before that he spent 12 years with ABN AMRO, most recently as Head of Investment Banking, South East Asia and Co-Head of Equity Capital Markets, Asia. Despite having run some of the region’s largest transactions, he is passionate about helping tech entrepreneurs to grow and exit their businesses.
New Singapore Office.
From March we will co-locate with our shareholder PrimePartners at 16 Collyer Quay. PrimePartners became a 33% shareholder in NRP in May last year, and we are already seeing the fruits of this new partnership. Moving in together will speed up our collaboration and will enable us to deliver a more complete set of equity, debt, M&A and advisory services across the private and public markets.
Innovation.
Our founder DNA leads us to constantly look for ways to reinvent investment banking. It strikes us as odd that investment banks still operate the same way they did last century. NRP continues to innovate and develop new tools and processes to transform the transaction process, and serve our clients and investors better. Many clients will know us for our Transaction-Ready Diagnostic tool, and for the Deal Accelerator workshops that we run to get companies ready for their fund raising or M&A transactions.
The Diagnostic is an online test that provides an objective assessment of a company’s investment attractiveness and transaction-readiness. It is built based on a decision-making algorithm which uses conjoint-analysis as its foundation. We will shortly launch v2 of our Transaction Diagnostic tool – a significant upgrade.
Watch this space!
About North Ridge Partners.
North Ridge Partners works with technology companies across Asia Pacific to achieve transformational outcomes. We are experienced deal-makers who have built, run and sold numerous technology companies and are uniquely positioned to advise on strategic positioning, M&A and capital raise. Our DNA reflects years of experience in building, funding and exiting companies.
Founded in 2003, we have teams on the ground in Singapore, Australia, and New Zealand and work with a global network of like-minded partners.