Meet select team members

• Mario Aquino

  Mario has 20 years of investment, business building and entrepreneurial experience in big data and advanced analytics. He brings a wealth of experience in digital innovation, fintech, cybersecurity and artificial intelligence. As FutureLabs Ventures' Managing Partner, he leverages his expertise to build scalable, next generation digital ventures and tech investments.

  Prior to FutureLabs, Mario was a Partner at McKinsey & Company, where he founded McKinsey Solutions and McKinsey New Ventures in Asia-Pacific. While leading McKinsey New Ventures, Mario invested, built and scaled a portfolio of 20+ fintech, consumertech, healthtech, and energytech start-ups that have become global players in their fields. During his tenure, he also spearheaded the growth of McKinsey New Ventures' team to over 500 professionals in Asia-Pacific.

  Mario was also the Managing Director and board member of risk analytics firm Moody's Analytics in Europe, the Middle East and Africa; where he was instrumental in making a number of transformative acquisitions and internal investments within financial technology and advanced analytics. During his nine years stint at Moody's Analytics, the firm grew into a US$1 billion revenue company.

  Previously, Mario was a financial analyst at Lehman Brothers in London, focusing on high-tech and high-growth sectors.

  Mario obtained a Bachelor of Business Administration in International Business and Finance at Milan's Bocconi University summa cum laude, before obtaining his MBA at University of Chicago Booth, Graduate School of Business in 1999.

  

  Mario Managing Partner

• Joachim Vandaele

  Joachim possesses over 15 years of experience within financial services, technology, innovation and family offices. In his current role at FutureLabs Ventures, Joachim guides startups, alongside providing innovative ideas and strategic direction to ventures that can foster large scale impact. He also advises on the smart allocation of resources in cash crunch situations, in addition to identifying and integrating new companies.

  He is also currently the Managing Partner and co-founder of Zephyr Ventures. The firm acts as an investor, advisor, shareholder and director to a number of companies across various sectors. All of Joachim’s entrepreneurial and equity ventures sit within this company.

  Previously, Joachim was the Managing Director of Found8. The company provides a network of innovation studios comprising coworking spaces and collaborative communities that enable entrepreneurs and innovators to work on advancing ideas and fostering change.

  Joachim also served as the CEO at the Trusted Family Office for five years. Trusted Family is a secure private technology platform used by the world's most respected high net worth family businesses and family offices. Within this role, he built an international presence and ran offices in three regions. He continues to be a board member of Trusted Family Office.

  Additionally, Joachim was Partner and Country Director at Finalyse, a leading consultancy in valuation and risk management. He led the firm’s international expansion strategy, defined and executed the general investment plans, redesigned organisational models as well as ran international awareness and change management programmes. In 2019, he became a lecturer at INSEAD, one of the world’s leading and largest graduate business schools. He teaches an MBA course and serves as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence; helping students create new ventures and advising those actively working in ventures with insightful feedback.

  Joachim holds a Master in Economic and Investment Sciences from Odisee, a Master in Banking and Finances from Ghent University, as well as an MBA in Entrepreneurship from INSEAD.

  

  Joachim Founding Partner

• Kent Lin

  Having worked for over five years in start-up and management consulting, Kent Yeyang Lin has built an extensive network of entrepreneurs and angel investors in China and Southeast Asia. At FutureLabs Ventures, he focuses on talent management and acquisition, in addition to venture building and finances, while also seeking to bridge the investment and entrepreneurial ecosystems between Southeast Asia and China.

  Prior to FutureLabs, Kent was a Management Consultant at McKinsey & Company, where he advised leading companies, financial institutions and governments on building digital venture as well as devising growth plans for top banks, investors, logistics and real estate companies from China.

  Before that, Kent was a Partner at NTU ShARE, an organization he co-founded that offers corporates a new way to do consulting, build innovation ecosystems and access to top talent. Within two years, Kent established ShARE in Singapore, where he grew the team from 4 people to over 30 passionate student consultants. ShARE currently creates product strategy projects for startups operating in various verticals including fintech, edutech and e-commerce.

  Additionally, he was the founder and CEO of Easy Ace, an innovative online education platform he founded that caters to the growing need of home tuition in Singapore and Southeast Asia. Kent spent over two years expanding the platform to help realise its vision to become the region’s largest online education platform.

  Kent is a firm initiator and passionate contributor to several entrepreneurial communities that gather the world’s top enterprising talents. This includes the McKinsey Angel Network, the McKinsey Alumni in Southeast Asia, the McKinsey Alumni in China. He also collaborates with venture capital investors & mangament consultants in Southeast Asia, building communities such as PEVC @ Southeast Asia and with Nanyang Technological University (NTU) Consultants.

  Kent holds a Bachelor in Aerospace Engineering from Nanyang Technological University.

  

  Kent Chief of Staff

• Tamanna Dahiya

  A highly motivated innovation and change leader, Tamanna possesses over 15 years of experience in innovation, strategy and talent management with corporates and start-ups. As the Venture Director at FutureLabs Ventures, she provides hands-on experience and coaching in building corporate ventures and startups, effectively bridging the best of both worlds together.

  Before FutureLabs Ventures, Tamanna was the Director of DHL’s Asia Pacific Innovation Center. There, she was instrumental in setting up the Innovation Center platform and defining its customer-centric innovation approach. She led customer engagements and trends research projects on topics of relevance to future of logistics including robotics, augmented reality, omni-channel and blockchain with close collaboration of business units and start-up partners. Over a period of three years, this center engaged with more than two hundred customers from across industries on innovation relevant to their business operations.

  Growing up representing her state in five different sports, Tamanna instinctively relates to the game-changing potential of high performing teams. She started her career with a talent management start-up in India that got acquired by Manpower Inc. She then moved on to join a Fortune 500 company where she was involved in different areas ranging from internal consulting on operations and strategy to new product development. Among other things, she developed and launched a new global product focused on warehousing services that has since grown into one of the most profitable products for the business world-wide. She has lived and worked in the United States, Europe and Asia and is well-versed with the innovation ecosystems and work-cultures across these continents.

  Tamanna holds an MBA from Emory University, Atlanta and a Post-Graduate Diploma in Human Relations from the Management Development Institute in Gurgaon, India.

  

  Tamanna Venture Director

• Simas Ceckauskas

  Equipped with years of experience in management consulting, Simas has served as an advisor to large enterprises and has established a track record in scaling startups. As a Venture Associate at FutureLabs Ventures, Simas is dedicated to helping startups transform into established corporates by guiding their pursuit of innovation and entrepreneurial growth.

  In his capacity as an entrepreneur and advisor, prior to joining Futurelabs Ventures, Simas founded and sold his own company, served in large enterprises and scaled startups—namely by providing advice to seasoned professionals and aspiring entrepreneurs alike. It is within this period that Simas found himself at the juncture between the two ecosystems, whereby he was exposed to the entrepreneurial talent underpinning the startup scene as well as to the scale and structure of established corporate powerhouses.

  With citizenship in the United States, European Union and Australia, Simas views himself as a global citizen and has lived abroad in seven cities. He is thus open to embracing fresh ideas and looks out for new business ventures. He is highly eager to engage and collaborate with founders to bring great ideas to fruition.

  Outside of his career, Simas is an avid student of philosophy, having immersed himself in the readings of sophists such as Seneca, Marcus Aurelius and Lao Tzu. He seeks to apply their teachings to his daily work when engaging with entrepreneurs and corporates.

  Simas holds an MBA from INSEAD, a Master in Finance from ESADE and a Master in International Management from the CEMS Global Graduate School Alliance.

  

  Simas Venture Associate

• Giuseppe Manai

  Giuseppe has over fifteen years of experience and is skilled in executing big data strategies in start-ups, governments and corporations. As a Venture Founder at FutureLabs Ventures, he is driven by a passion to create businesses underpinned by social values, which he does by seeking the confluence between science and products.

  He is also one of the co-founders of the ACM SIGKDD chapter in Singapore. A strong advocate in providing professional advice to tech teams who are driven to excel, Giuseppe focuses on building products that leverage techniques such as optimisation, time series analysis and forecasting, trajectory data mining, anomaly detection, network analytics, collaborative filtering, supervised and unsupervised learning, nonlinear dynamics, chaos theory and numerical simulations.

  Prior to joining FutureLabs, Giuseppe was the Data Science and Product Director at Dataspark, a spin-off of Singaporean telco firm Singtel that focuses on mobility intelligence and other telco products. He also worked at various data science roles at organisations such as SAS and the Irish Revenue Authority.

  Giuseppe holds a PhD in Physics from Trinity College Dublin. There, he specialised in experimental and numerical studies in nanotechnology and material science, working on low temperature scanning tunnelling microscopy.

  

  Giuseppe Venture Founder

• Farid MN

  Farid has over 15 years of regional experience in business development, management, marketing and sales. During this time, he spent 12 years as a serial entrepreneur, founding several successful ventures within fintech, biotech and agritech; of which he exited after their acquisitions.

  Throughout his career, Farid has built an extensive network in Southeast Asia’s B2B startup space. As a Venture Founder at FutureLabs Ventures, he leans on this expertise in managing startups—particularly in terms of venture building, fundraising, scaling, strategy, market entry, business development, mergers & acquisitions, turnarounds, as well as partnerships and alliances.

  He also possesses significant experience in Singapore’s public sector. In April 2018, Farid was appointed by Singapore’s Ministry of Education as a member of the Board of Governors at Nanyang Polytechnic Singapore. Previously, he was a Board Director in the Civil Service College (steered by the Singaporean Prime Minister’s Office) and Mendaki SENSE education and training organisation. Farid holds a Bachelor's Degree in Professional Accountancy from Murdoch University in Perth, Australia and participated in the Advance BioManagement Programme at the University of Berkeley, California.

  

  Farid Venture Founder