From Fintech Founder to Silicon Valley Venture Capitalist: The Journey of Benny Liao

In the fintech industry, stories like that of Benny Liao, who started from scratch, are rare. As a fintech founder, Benny began his journey in Indonesia, where he leveraged his deep understanding of the market and entrepreneurial spirit to build a successful fintech platform. In 2018, he secured over $10 million in funding, scaling the company and achieving significant growth. Later, he successfully transitioned into venture capital, investing in high-potential projects such as Heeyo, Bluetape, and others.

Starting from Scratch: The Tough Road to Entrepreneurship

Benny's entrepreneurial journey began in Indonesia, a country where he had no prior connections, no knowledge of the market, and no understanding of the language. Despite these challenges, he decided to dive into the market, launching a company focused on providing financial services for underserved consumers and small businesses.

The early days were far from easy. Benny faced language barriers, a lack of understanding of the complex financial market, and an unfamiliar regulatory landscape. To better communicate with local teams and penetrate the market, he dedicated considerable time to meeting with Indonesian banks, government agencies, and clients to understand the unique needs of the market.

Starting with a small team of just a few people, Benny spent most of his time recruiting, always focused on quality over quantity, steadily expanding the team despite the initial challenges in finding the right fit. Over time, the company grew to 140 employees. Benny frequently traveled between China and Indonesia, personally managing talent acquisition to ensure the team was composed of the best individuals.

From Startup to Funding: A Dual Push of Capital and Growth

Although the company faced many challenges during its early startup phase, Benny always believed that data accumulation and business expansion were the keys to success. As the company accumulated its core user base, and with these users' data, it continuously refined its products. The company's products were tailored to meet the financial needs of individual consumers. These consumer loans were offered through partnerships with both online e-commerce platforms and traditional brick-and-mortar stores. Users submitted their credit information, including salary and other relevant details, and the company assessed borrowers through its proprietary risk control model, which utilized machine learning technology. The typical loan amount was around USD $2,500, and clients could choose the repayment terms based on the loan duration. Users could select from loan durations of 1 month, 2 months, or 3 months. Over time, this model contributed to significant improvements in loan performance, with a noticeable reduction in bad debts, while the market's acceptance of the product steadily increased.

At the same time, Benny never lost sight of the importance of capital markets. Despite the initial lack of interest from investors, he continued to pursue financing opportunities. As the company grew and market awareness expanded, the investment environment began to shift. Investors started approaching Benny, and he successfully closed a $10M+ equity and debt financing deal. This milestone not only validated the market's confidence in the company's business model but also provided the necessary capital to scale further.

Transitioning to Venture Capital: A Leap to Silicon Valley

In 2021, Benny encountered an important opportunity-a potential buyer expressed interest in acquiring his company. After much internal struggle, Benny made the decision to sell the company. The exit marked the end of one chapter and the beginning of a new journey.

After the successful exit, Benny moved to Singapore to reflect on his next steps. Singapore, with its inflow of capital and booming tech scene, was an ideal place to set up a family fund where he made both primary and secondary investments. But despite this transition, Benny's mind never fully left the startup world. He felt deeply connected to the energy of building something from the ground up. He knew he belonged in the startup world and that he could continue his journey from a different perspective.

This time, Benny chose to become an early-stage investor, leveraging his previous experiences to identify outstanding founders and teams and empower them to succeed. Armed with his operational expertise, he sought to provide guidance and capital to the next generation of entrepreneurs, helping them navigate the challenges he himself had faced.

A Career Transition to Acorn Pacific Ventures

In 2023, Benny joined Acorn Pacific Ventures, a venture capital firm based in the heart of Silicon Valley, marking a pivotal career transition. Acorn Pacific Ventures is the eighth fund under Acorn's umbrella, founded by Wufu Chen, a legendary entrepreneur and investor from Taiwan. Based in San Mateo, California, the firm focuses on early-stage investments, particularly in enterprise SaaS, fintech, AI, and supply chain. Acorn's team members have diverse backgrounds in industries ranging from robotics and enterprise software to e-commerce, and they have operated hands-on in the startups they support.

Benny's arrival at Acorn was seen as a major asset due to his diverse background, having lived and worked in over eight cities across five different countries. His experiences in finance, technology, and startups uniquely positioned him to understand both the operational challenges and the investment opportunities in emerging markets. Benny's ability to raise capital, manage teams, and execute on growth strategies made him an ideal fit for venture investing.

Benny quickly leveraged his extensive background in entrepreneurship and startup operations to make an immediate impact in the venture capital space. Drawing on his deep knowledge of building and scaling businesses, he seamlessly transitioned into his new role at Acorn Pacific Ventures. His operational expertise allowed him to quickly contribute to key areas such as deal sourcing, due diligence, negotiation, and execution. Benny's ability to apply his hands-on experience as a founder to evaluate and support startups gave him a distinct edge as a venture capitalist. His approach was not just about investing capital, but also providing continuous strategic guidance to founders and companies, helping them overcome the challenges he had once faced as an entrepreneur.

Notable Investments: Heeyo, Bluetape, and More

Since joining Acorn Pacific Ventures, Benny has made over 10 investments in early-stage companies, many of which have later attracted funding from top-tier investors such as OpenAI, Amazon, a16z, and GV. Some of his most notable investments include:

- Heeyo (Heyboss.xyz) - A company founded by Xiaoyin Qu, a serial entrepreneur, that enables anyone to create apps, websites, and games without coding, using AI. Benny invested in late 2023, and a few months later, OpenAI and Amazon joined as investors. Benny was one of the first to back this company. When asked about his decision to invest, Benny mentioned, "Xiaoyin is an exceptional and extremely smart founder with sharp insight and a clear vision for the future. Her entrepreneurial background is a valuable asset, and I strongly believe in serial entrepreneurs."

- Bluetape - A fintech company providing trade credit and financial services for the construction industry in the U.S. Benny led the Series A round, marking the first major deal after he joined Acorn. The founder of Bluetape had previously sold his previous company, and Benny was impressed by their user-friendly financial products, strong loan performance, and the company's unique go-to-market strategy. At the time of their Series A, Acorn was the lead investor, joined by Chicago Ventures and Plug and Play.

In addition to these investments, Benny has also contributed as an angel investor to other early-stage companies like Palmstreet, Adsgency, Kaizentree, Strella Bio, and Aurapura, using his operational experience to help companies scale.

- Palmstreet - A livestream e-commerce platform that has grown rapidly and is backed by top-tier VCs.

- Adsgency - A customer data platform, also showing super-fast growth and backed by several institutional investors.

- Strella Bio - A pioneering agritech company leveraging proprietary biosensors and AI-driven predictive intelligence to optimize the fresh produce supply chain. The company is backed by Google Ventures, Yamaha Ventures, and Mark Cuban.

- Aurapura - A Brazilian-based online wellbeing platform where users can watch mental health, meditation, and astrology classes via livestream.

- Kaizentree - A New York-based inventory management SaaS company.

Global Network: Leveraging Entrepreneurial Experience to Support Growth

As a venture capitalist, Benny is not just a provider of funds but also a strategic partner for entrepreneurs. Drawing on his entrepreneurial background, he actively helps portfolio companies in multiple areas, including product strategy, operational scaling, hiring, fundraising, and go-to-market strategies.

Benny's involvement goes far beyond just providing capital-he leverages his own experiences to guide startups through the pitfalls that often come with scaling. By continuously engaging with founders, offering his insights and feedback, and brainstorming new ideas, Benny helps these companies make critical decisions that accelerate their growth and market expansion.

His commitment to supporting entrepreneurs remains at the core of his work. Whether he is mentoring founders within his portfolio or offering guidance to startups he hasn't invested in, Benny is always thinking about how to empower the next generation of innovators and help them avoid common challenges.

Looking to the Future: Continuing to Foster Innovation and Support Entrepreneurs

For Benny, venture capital is not just about writing checks; it's about helping entrepreneurs bring their innovative ideas to life. His experience as a founder enables him to identify high-potential entrepreneurs and provide them with the guidance they need to succeed.

From his early-stage success as a fintech founder in Indonesia to his current role as a Silicon Valley venture capitalist, Benny has shown that real entrepreneurs are those who adapt, innovate, and continuously grow. Today, as a founder-turned-investor, Benny is committed to shaping the future of technology and supporting startups that will drive meaningful change across industries and markets.
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Company Name: Acorn Pacific Ventures
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