Khailee Ng

Khailee Ng (born May 2, 1984) is a Malaysian entrepreneur, investor, and speaker. He is a managing partner and board member of global venture capital firm 500 Global (formerly 500 Startups).^[1]

As an entrepreneur, Khailee co-founded the group-buying platform GroupsMore (acquired by Groupon) and media company SAYS.com (acquired by Media Prima).^[1] Khailee has helped fund over 340 companies across Asia, including technology startups that grew companies valued at over US$1 billion such as Grab, Carsome, and Carousell.^[2]

Khailee's thoughts on entrepreneurship, investing and technology trends have been featured by the Asian Development Bank,^[3] Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund Khazanah,^[4] and international media outlets such as The Wall Street Journal,^[5] TechCrunch,^[6] Bloomberg,^[7] Financial Times,^[8] and Forbes^[9]

Khailee co-founded group-buying site GroupsMore in 2010.^[10] Groupsmore was acquired by Groupon in January 2011^[11] as part of the U.S. company’s expansion into Asia, and rebranded it as Groupon Malaysia.^[12]

Khailee also founded SAYS.com in 2010, a social news and content-sharing platform for youth. In 2013, SAYS.com merged with Catcha Media (part of Catcha Group) to form a new digital media group REV Asia in a deal worth about US$13 million (RM60 million).^[13] Khailee was appointed Chairman of REV Asia’s board of directors following the merger.^[14] In 2017, Malaysia’s largest media conglomerate Media Prima Berhad acquired REV Asia for approximately US$24 million (RM105 million).^[15]

After his entrepreneurial exits, Khailee became a venture capital investor. He joined Silicon Valley-headquartered venture capital firm 500 Global (formerly known as 500 Startups). In 2013, Khailee was appointed 500 Global’s venture partner for Southeast Asia, managing a US$10 million fund under the name ‘500 Durians’ dedicated to investing in the region.^[16] He was promoted to Managing Partner in 2014,^[17] and led the firm’s investments across Southeast Asia with Vishal Harnal. Khailee has raised multiple funds for the region, including the sizing up of ‘500 Durians’ to US$25.7M in 2015,^[18] ‘500 Durians II’ at US$53M in 2017,^[19] and another US$143M for ‘500 Southeast Asia III’ and a growth-stage fund.^[20] Khailee was an early backer of multiple “unicorns” – companies that later exceeded US$1 billion in valuation - including NASDAQ-listed ride hailing platform turned superapp Grab,^[21] Malaysia's first tech unicorn Carsome,^[22] and online marketplace Carousell, among others.^[23] In 2022, Khailee won the Founder Institute’s Global Startup Mentor Award for ‘Highest Rated Mentor’. ^[24] Today, Khailee is a board member and managing partner of 500 Global.

On November 18, 2018, Khailee married Elisa Khong in an online wedding.^[25]