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500 Global Appoints Mei Chel Tan as Partner

Introducing Mei Chel Tan as Partner at 500 Global. Image Credit: Minnie Ang

Courtney Powell

COO & Managing Partner, 500 Global

Published

08.06.23

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.

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500 STARTUPS PROGRAMS AND EVENTS ARE OPERATED BY 500 STARTUPS INCUBATOR, L.L.C. (TOGETHER WITH ITS AFFILIATES, “500 GLOBAL”) AND THE FUNDS ADVISED BY 500 STARTUPS MANAGEMENT COMPANY, L.L.C. DO NOT PARTICIPATE IN ANY REVENUE GENERATED BY THESE ACTIVITIES.

ALL CONTENT PROVIDED IN THIS BLOG IS PROVIDED FOR GENERAL INFORMATIONAL OR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY.  THE VIEWS EXPRESSED HERE ARE THOSE OF THE INDIVIDUAL 500 GLOBAL PERSONNEL, OR OTHER INDIVIDUALS QUOTED AND ARE NOT THE VIEWS OF 500 GLOBAL OR ITS AFFILIATES. CERTAIN INFORMATION CONTAINED HEREIN MAY HAVE BEEN OBTAINED FROM THIRD-PARTY SOURCES, INCLUDING FROM PORTFOLIO COMPANIES OF FUNDS MANAGED BY 500 GLOBAL. 500 GLOBAL MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS AS TO THE ACCURACY OR INFORMATION CONTAINED THEREIN AND WHILE 500 GLOBAL HAS TAKEN REASONABLE STEPS TO ENSURE THAT THE INFORMATION CONTAINED THEREIN  IS ACCURATE AND UP-TO-DATE, NO LIABILITY CAN BE ACCEPTED FOR ANY ERROR OR OMISSIONS. IN ADDITION, THIS CONTENT MAY INCLUDE THIRD-PARTY ADVERTISEMENTS OR LINKS; 500 GLOBAL HAS NOT REVIEWED SUCH ADVERTISEMENTS AND DOES NOT ENDORSE ANY ADVERTISING CONTENT CONTAINED THEREIN. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHOULD ANY CONTENT PROVIDED IN THIS POST BE CONSTRUED AS INVESTMENT, LEGAL, TAX OR ACCOUNTING ADVICE BY 500 GLOBAL OR ANY OF ITS AFFILIATES.

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Courtney Powell

COO & Managing Partner, 500 Global

Courtney Powell is tasked with helping venture capital firm 500 Global scale globally and explore new opportunities across both new and existing markets. She is responsible for driving day-to-day operations across the team to pursue 500’s mission of uplifting people and economies through entrepreneurship. Her ties to 500 Global go back to 2012, when she founded PublikDemand, a member of Batch 4 in 500’s Seed Accelerator. She went on to become CEO of Agent Pronto, one of the largest real estate agent referral services in North America, which was ultimately acquired by Fidelity National Title Group. Most recently, Courtney was the Head of Corporate Development at Keller Williams, the largest real estate franchise in the world. During her tenure, she established the company’s first corporate innovation program, and worked with Keller Capital to invest and acquire tech companies in the real estate space. Courtney was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in 2012, received the Twilio Doer Award in 2013, and became a Google Business Leader in 2015. She attended the University of Texas at Austin and studied French and Corporate Communication.