Khailee Ng
Khailee Ng is a Malaysian entrepreneur, investor, and speaker. He is a managing partner and board member of global venture capital firm 500 Global.
As an entrepreneur, Khailee co-founded the group-buying platform GroupsMore and media company SAYS.com. 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.
Khailee's thoughts on entrepreneurship, investing and technology trends have been featured by the Asian Development Bank, Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund Khazanah, and international media outlets such as The Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch, Bloomberg, Financial Times, and Forbes
Career
Groupsmore
Khailee co-founded group-buying site GroupsMore in 2010. Groupsmore was acquired by Groupon in January 2011 as part of the U.S. company’s expansion into Asia, and rebranded it as Groupon Malaysia.
SAYS.com
Khailee also founded SAYS.com in 2010, a social news and content-sharing platform for youth. In 2013, SAYS.com merged with Catcha Media to form a new digital media group REV Asia in a deal worth about US$13 million. Khailee was appointed Chairman of REV Asia’s board of directors following the merger. In 2017, Malaysia’s largest media conglomerate Media Prima Berhad acquired REV Asia for approximately US$24 million.
After his entrepreneurial exits, Khailee became a venture capital investor. He joined Silicon Valley-headquartered venture capital firm 500 Global. 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. He was promoted to Managing Partner in 2014, 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, ‘500 Durians II’ at US$53M in 2017, and another US$143M for ‘500 Southeast Asia III’ and a growth-stage fund. 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, Malaysia's first tech unicorn Carsome, and online marketplace Carousell, among others. In 2022, Khailee won the Founder Institute’s Global Startup Mentor Award for ‘Highest Rated Mentor’. Today, Khailee is a board member and managing partner of 500 Global.
Personal life
On November 18, 2018, Khailee married Elisa Khong in an online wedding.