A Primer on DD: What investors will look at during due diligence

After months of endless investor pitching and meetings, you’ve finally secured interest in your company. The next big hurdle you will face is due diligence - the process where the investors go through evidence supporting your claims of how promising your company is. Due diligence can seem never-ending and frustrating for founders. Producing one tiny concerning document can result in a series of interrogation delaying closing your funding round.

Join us to hear SeedLegals’ Lester Ho, RealVantage’s Keith Ong, and Veremark’s Daniel Callaghan as they discuss what investors are looking for during the due diligence process, how to best prepare the documentation investors will ask for. Also, take this opportunity to learn how to get ahead of potential issues and make a better impression on investors.

About the speakers

Lester Ho

Legal, SeedLegals

Equal parts lawyer and techie.

Lester puts law and code together to remove the transactional frictions in the funding process that startups often experience.

Prior to joining SeedLegals, Lester was an associate with Dechert LLP and Allen & Gledhill LLP where his practice focused on private equity and venture capital transactions across various sectors. I helped investors and startup founders navigate the complexities and nuances of the fundraising process, which was often unnecessarily difficult and painful for both sides.

Prior to that, Lester was a law clerk with the Singapore Supreme Court. He received his LLB (First Class) in 2016 from the National University of Singapore, where he graduated as the valedictorian of his class. He received his BCL (Distinction) from the University of Oxford in 2021.

Lester is a self-taught coder. He is qualified in Singapore and is in the process of seeking qualification as a solicitor in England and Wales.

Keith Ong

Co-founder & CEO, RealVantage

Keith Ong is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of RealVantage. In his role as the CEO, Keith spearheads RealVantage's real estate investment, asset management, business development and capital raising activities.

An industry veteran in real estate private equity with over 20 years of experience, Keith transacted in excess of USD 3 billion across geographies, sectors and real estate investment spectrum.

Some of the key transactions that Keith has executed include - a USD 300 million Grade A office in China, a USD200 million Grade B Office in Hong Kong, a USD400 million retail portfolio of 5 shopping centres in Malaysia and several office and shopping centres in Australia. Apart from direct acquisition, Keith has also been involved in joint venture development, asset-backed vehicle acquisitions, structured and mezzanine financing opportunities.

Prior to co-founding RealVantage, Keith held senior positions at ARA Asset Management, one of the largest Private Equity Real Estate firms in Asia Pacific. He was primarily responsible for deal origination and acquisitions in ARA's private fund group and was a key team member in the USD1.2 billion ARA Asia Dragon Fund from inception to divestment. In addition to this, Keith also successfully asset-managed several asset enhancement strategies and joint venture projects. Apart from ARA, Keith spearheaded the Investment Management functions at Firmus Capital and Rockworth Capital Partners investing in core and value-add mandates and managing assets for family offices. He grew the AUM in Australia by more than AUD600million over a span of 3 years.

Keith graduated with an MPhil (Land Econ) from the University of Cambridge and BSc (Real Estate) from the National University of Singapore.

Daniel Callaghan

CEO, Veremark

Daniel Callaghan is CEO of Veremark, a world-leading background and pre-employment screening platform for fast-growing businesses.

With more than a decade in innovation around the Future of Work, Daniel built one of Europe's top freelance marketplaces and previously ran the digital innovation and investment unit across APAC for the world's largest recruitment company, Adecco Group.

He is an internationally published author on career development and has degrees from IESE Business School and Durham University.

This session is moderated by Francesca Shippey, Head of Sales at Lanturn.

Francesca has over 6 years of experience working in the corporate services industry. Francesca joined Lanturn in 2021 and now leads the Sales Team across Corporate and Fund services. Francesca has lived in Singapore for over 15 years and has a Master of Business Administration degree.

About Lanturn

Lanturn offers UX-driven corporate and fund services for high-growth companies and asset managers. With us, you'll have unparalleled technology and an expert team giving you peace of mind so you can focus on achieving your goals. For further details, please visit: https://www.lanturn.com/