Date :    April 17 – 20 (Tuesday – Friday)
Time :    6:30 – 9:30 pm
Venue :    Meng Wah Complex T2, HKU

Abstract:
Raising money to fund a new venture involves entrepreneurs and investors in a challenging and critical process. In order to successfully scale, most new ventures will need to seek outside funding from venture capitalists or angel investors. Therefore, it is critical for entrepreneurs to have an understanding of venture financing from the investor’s perspective. Venture investors must know how to identify potentially successful ventures, how to structure deals with entrepreneurs and how to generate the high returns that characterize successful venture capital investing. 

This workshop is designed to provide participants with an understanding and working knowledge of both sides of the new venture funding process: that of an entrepreneur raising funding and of an investor in new ventures. The course is structured as an experiential learning simulation in which each student team will play the role of a venture capital fund identifying, evaluating and investing in real-world start-up companies. Some of the skills developed will include how to: 
 

• Identify new venture investment opportunities
• Project revenue cash flows for new ventures
• Value a new venture
• Raise money to support the growth of a business
   

About the Speaker:
Douglas Abrams is the founder and CEO of Expara and Expara IDM Ventures, Singapore’s leading incubator fund. He has launched two seed stage (Expara IDM Ventures I and II) and two early-stage venture funds (Extream Ventures and Expara Ventures III) in Singapore since 2007. Douglas is the Managing Director of Expara Ventures Thailand, Expara Vietnam and Expara Malaysia. He was the founding partner of Parallax Capital Management, a fund management company, focused on real estate private equity investment and early-stage venture capital. Prior to coming to Singapore in 2000, Douglas managed information technology at JPMorgan for 14 years. From 1997 to 1999, he was the Global Markets Head of Internet Marketing, and from 1991 to 1997, he was the VP and Manager of Investment Banking Technology.

Douglas is an Adjunct Associate Professor at the National University of Singapore’s (NUS) Business School, where he has lectured on New Venture Creation for undergraduates and Technopreneurship for graduate students since 2001. He has been a Visiting Professor in Venture Capital for the Sasin Graduate Institute of Business Administration at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok since 2007. Douglas was the former Chairman of the Business Angel Network of South East Asia (BANSEA) and has been a Director since 2002. He served on the board of the Media Development Authority of Singapore (MDA) from 2009-2010.

Douglas graduated from the Annenberg School, University of Pennsylvania with a BA in Communications and received an MBA from The Wharton School.

Registration : https://hkuems1.hku.hk/hkuems/ec_regform.aspx?guest=Y&ueid=55370