35 S’pore Talents Got Into Forbes’ 30 Under 30 Including Sprinter Shanti Pereira

On 16 May 2024, Forbes released their 2024 edition of its popular “30 Under 30 Asia”.

This year marks the ninth edition of the list, and it features “300 young entrepreneurs, leaders and trailblazers across the Asia-Pacific region, all under the age of 30”.

Wait, I thought there were supposed to be 30 people on the list. Where did the 300 people come from?

No worries, we’ll break this year’s list down for you, and shine a bright, proud spotlight on the 35 (24 Singaporeans + 11 non-citizens) people who are listed this year.

How Does The Forbes “30 Under 30 Asia” List Work? 

For those of you who don’t only care about whether you’re friends with one of them on the list, here’s how the list actually works. 

There are 10 categories in the list. Each category will have 30 successful people listed, so 30 x 10 = 300.

The categories are: The Arts (Art & Style, Food & Drink); Entertainment & Sports; Finance & Venture Capital; Media, Marketing & Advertising; Retail & Ecommerce; Enterprise Technology; Industry, Manufacturing & Energy; Healthcare & Science; Social Impact and Consumer Technology.

How do they find people? 

According to Forbes, a team of reporters and editors from Forbes Asia scan through the submissions made online, by recommendations from previous featured people, and by industry sources.

They evaluate about 4,000 candidates so the 35 from Singapore are truly the cream of the crop, after their revenue, social impact, scale, inventiveness and potential are judged by independent experts. Of course, those are only some metrics they look at.

So, who are the 35 people what categories did our Singaporean/Singapore-based brothers and sisters shine in?

Shanti Pereira on Entertainment & Sports 

If you don’t already who Veronica Shanti Pereira is, she’s a 27-year-old sprinter who set national records for the women’s 100m and 200m.

According to her Forbes profile, she “dominated regional competitions” and set a personal best for the 200m with 22.57 seconds. She is the first Singaporean to win gold in Track and Field since 1974.

In fact, she has two gold medals, one silver medal and five bronze medals in the Southeast Asian Games over the years, and she’s the youngest to debut in the SEA Games in 2013.

 

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A post shared by Shanti Pereira (@v_shantipereira)

GetGo Co-Founder on Consumer Technology 

In the Consumer Technology Category, Johnson Lim, 29, headlined.

The category focuses on individuals and entrepreneurs who create products that improve the everyday lives of the community.

His impact can’t be missed – look around and it’s not hard to find GetGo cars on the road, allowing people to rent and share cars to get around.

He was listed for bringing GetGo up the ranks and making it Singapore’s “largest car-sharing service” by revenue. It has 200,000 active users and they have cars in 1,600 areas across the island.

Apparently, they’ve been attracting investors and have been very profitable, to the point of potentially expanding to “Seoul, Sydney, Taipei and Tokyo” which have similar “developed transport infrastructure” to Singapore.

Other winners in the category include:

• Evan Heng, 26: Founder of Zenith Education Studio
• Pulkit Agarwal (29) and Tamir Shklaz (26): Co-founders of Strive

Regina Ho on Finance & Venture Capital

Another notable young woman, Regina Ho, 29, was listed under the Finance & Venture Capital category.

She’s a senior associate at Rakuten Ventures. She’s not just another employee though. Forbes recognised her impact in deploying $60 million of investment in “more than 20 companies including marketplace unicorn Carousell”, and helped many startups expand to Japan.

She’s also the youngest board member in the company.

The Arts (Art & Style, Food & Drink)

Two notable individuals were recognised for their contribution to the food scene.

• Seth Lai, 29: Michelin-star Chef and Owner of Ce Soir
• Jack Berber, 26: Co-founder of Coffee startup Prefer. They turn food waste into bean-free, ground coffee, and they have 14 outlets in Singapore.

Enterprise Technology

Seven people were listed in this category, which focuses on improving business-to-business.

• Kristoffer Jacek Soh and Benjamin Long, 26: Co-founders of Beep, a tech startup that helps vending machine operators modernize and offer cashless transactions.
• Rachel Hu, 28: Founder of CambioML, which helps extract datasets to train AI or specifically large language models.
• He JiaChen (26), Long Yinan (29), Wei Yipei (29), Wang Yifeng (28): Co-founders of software startup Toeverything. It allows users to collaborate, share documents and track tasks together.

Media, Marketing & Advertising

• Brayden Lim, 29: Co-founder of Alinea Collective, a studio specialising in food photography and has clients like McDonald’s, KFC, Singapore Airlines and more.
• Nigel Giam, 29: Co-founder of Corsiva Lab, a digital agency that offers corporate branding and digital marketing solutions.
• Ziwei Kohm, 26: Senior Creator at VaynerMedia APAC, an advertisement and brand-campaign company with clients like Uber Eats and Nickelodeon.
• Theophilus Kwek, 29: Writer, editor and translator. His poems won various awards and he is a policymaker for Singapore’s Ministry of Communications and Information.
• Lincoln Lin, 29: Founder of Filmplace, a service that allows filmmakers to locate suitable, budget-friendly shooting locations and talents.

Social Impact

This category focuses on individuals who systemically and sustainably transform how education and business work.

• Mock Yi Jun (26), Loon Kin Yip (26) and Ng Yau Xuan (28): Co-founders of Advisory Singapore, a charity project that connects young people to educational resources and mentorships.
• Ian Chew, 27: Founder of Greenie Web, a platform that allows websites and software to process faster and subsequently reduce carbon footprint.

Retail & E-commerce

This category celebrates those who reinvent online and offline shopping.

• Chia Pei Qi, 29: Co-founder of Delugs, a company that offers quality straps and accessories for luxury watches.
• Salina Chai, 29: Founder of Margo and Smith, a service company that specialises in the maintenance and restoration of luxury leather goods.
• Maya Kale, 29: Co-Founder of Moom Health, a health supplement company for hair and skin, stress reduction, sleep improvement and menstrual relief.

Healthcare & Science

Lastly, in the field of science, research fellow at the National University of Singapore, Wang Zihao, 29, is listed for his work at the lab of Nobel laureate in physics Konstantin Novoselov.

He wrote many top-tier research papers that have over 1,100 citations, and they were published in internationally recognised academic journals.

Biggest congratulations to those listed, to many more Singapore-associated names next year.