We’re thrilled to announce Mei Chel Tan’s elevation to Partner at 500 Global. 

Mei Chel leads strategy for our expansion into new markets, through establishing early stage funds and programs which are developed exclusively for the needs of the market and its founders, in partnership with governments, institutional investors and corporates. Alongside this, she oversees our Market Strategy team, which executes on these efforts, our Manager Selection team, which recruits our next generation of senior investment talent globally, and our Market Launch team, which deploys our programs around the world. 

Mei Chel joined 500 Global in 2016 as Corporate Counsel for Asia Pacific, facilitating closing of substantial new capital with sovereign and institutional partners, and overseeing our investments across 12 countries. She helped launch 500 Global’s first growth stage SPVs and single-LP funds, demonstrating the firm’s ability to offer select access to opportunities within its portfolio and to partner with strategic investors on bespoke mandates. She is a strong thought-partner who produces goal-oriented outcomes that support a range of stakeholders.  

Prior to 500 Global, Mei Chel worked with Pre-Seed to Series B technology companies and founders on investment structuring, secondary sales, exits, and geographical expansions across Southeast Asia. She is a qualified lawyer, having started her career at a global law firm working with European, American and Asian institutional clients on structuring investment products, and with Fortune 500 clients on investments matters including operational formation, joint ventures and governmental engagements. 

Her leadership will enhance our push as we continue to establish our global, multistage strategy. For more than a decade, 500 Global has been investing in emerging markets around the world. Our approach is to identify regions with nascent and emerging startup ecosystems and double down where we observe strong innate demographics in population and GDP, and drive towards technological innovation from policy makers and consumers. Most importantly, we seek growing ecosystems of creative and resilient founders who are looking to solve big challenges through technology.

We believe these innovative founders and the ecosystems they’ll be driving, will be spread across a select group of 25 fast growing economies which include countries such as Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, UAE, Brazil and more. By 2027, our research suggests that these economies will be larger than both the U.S. and China combined. As such, our efforts will be focussed in these places because their consumers are younger, they’re more socially connected than ever before, and policy makers in those countries are eager to drive economic growth. These factors, plus well timed and deployed capital, give us confidence in our approach. Mei Chel’s appointment to Partner, her experience, and continued guidance will support 500 Global’s drive to invest for the next decade of innovation.