How do unicorns and up and coming startups invest their resources to accelerate their growth?

We speak to three (3) panelists at different financing rounds to shed light on what they’re investing on to accelerate their growth, proactive team spending, and tips on how up and coming unicorns manage their expenses.

Key points to cover:

• What are startups spending for at different growth stages (early stage, late stage, unicorn / growth stage)
• Breaking misconceptions about spending: What you should and shouldn’t do
• Proof points for startup growth: What are signs of healthy corporate spending
• Starting a proactive spend culture and best practices to fuel your startup’s growth

Meet our moderator and panelists:

Ruddy Wang, COO of Spenmo (Moderator)

Ruddy is the COO at Spenmo, a software company offering a seamless accounts payable experience for small and mid-sized businesses. Ruddy has nearly two decades of experience as an international leader at prominent organisations like Facebook and Uber. He managed public policy for Facebook in APAC and Latin America, and at Uber he launched 100+ cities across Brazil and ran one of Uber's largest and most profitable business units.

Mohandass Kalaichelvan, Co-Founder and CEO of Spenmo (Panelist)

Mohandass started his career as a management consultant with BCG. He then moved to Grab where he led regional strategy and launched multiple financial services products in SE Asia. Today, he heads Spenmo, an aspiring payments software unicorn.

Michele Ferrario, Co-founder and CEO of StashAway (Panelist)

Michele has 16 years of experience in the financial industry and in consumer Internet. He was former CEO of Zalora Group and the co-founder of Rocket Internet in Italy and Pakistan. Before that, he worked as an Investment Manager at Synergo and as an Engagement Manager at McKinsey.

Michele earned his MBA at Columbia Business School and his Bachelor of Science in Finance at Bocconi University in Italy. He’s also been invited by Singapore’s Minister of Finance to be a member of the Committee for the Future of the Economy.

Zi Yong, Chief Operating Officer of Carro (Panelist)

Zi Yong is the Chief Operating Officer of Carro, SEA’s largest marketplace for cars. At Carro he looks after PPT, People, Process, Tools, to ensure operation excellence and scaling the business. Prior to Carro, Zi Yong was at Ant Group, where he work with Paytm, and was part of the team that help built Paytm into the largest India digital payment and financial services platform.