Short Bio of Felix Tan

As the Managing Director of The FinLab, Felix Tan has led his team to successfully run 3 acceleration cycles and now has 13 portfolio companies across 6 countries selected from more than 1,000 applications across 50 countries. He provides mentorship and guidance to the startups in sharpening of business models, strategic planning, and go-to-market strategies.

Prior to The Finlab, Felix was the Business Development Director at Wong Fong Research & Innovation Centre. There, he was involved in many interesting projects; the most notable of which resulted in the Dendrobium (Singapore’s 1st fully electric hypercar) and the Motochimp (an urban mobility device). Both have garnered worldwide acclaim and reviews.

Felix’s involvement in the SME space deepened significantly while at Performance Leadership where he conducted leadership and management training for top-to-mid level management staff of many local SMEs in areas like strategy, negotiation, innovation, sales, customer service, and conflict management.

Having co-founded Singapore’s 1st internet company, SilkRoute Holdings, in 1995; and its subsidiary, ECNet, in 1996, Felix is no stranger to the technology startup scene. Both companies attracted venture funds totalling US$72.5 million, including US$25 million from Mr Richard Li of Pacific Century Cyberworks. He also helped to raise a US$20 million e-commerce fund under SilkRoute Capital to invest into B2B startups in 1999.

Felix was an active mentor at NTU Ventures where he helped startups refine their ideas and strategies to qualify for various government’s funding. He had also invested his own money into Singapore’s 1st fully articulated action figure kit (Stikfas) that became Singapore’s 1st company to successfully license production to Hasbro, one of the world’s largest toy companies, in 2001.