One of Rachel Lau’s strongest childhood memories is the smell of newspaper. Her father, driving her to school each day in Kuala Lumpur, would make his sleepy daughter open the paper, go through stock quotes and do mental math.
“He would be, like, ‘How did KLK do today? OK, if it’s up 4 sen and I’ve got 89,000 shares, how much did I make?’’’ Lau recalled. The daily ritual continued through her teenage years. Her father Lau Boon Ann built his fortune in real estate and by investing in companies like Top Glove Corp., which became the world’s biggest rubber-glove maker. Some days, he would stand in front of an empty lot with his young daughter and challenge her to imagine a building there rather than watching the chickens running around.
Lau, now 31, is one of the three millennial co-founders of RHL Ventures, along with Raja Hamzah Abidin, 29, son of prominent Malaysian politician and businessman Utama Raja Nong Chik, and Lionel Leong, also 29, the son of property tycoon Leong Hoy Kum. They set up RHL using the wealth of their families with a plan to attract outside capital and build the firm into Southeast Asia’s leading independent investment group.
“We look at Southeast Asia and there is no brand that stands out -- there is no KKR, there is no Fidelity,’’ Lau said. “Eventually we want to be a fund house with multiple products. Venture capital is going to be our first step.’’
RHL has backed two startups since its debut last year. One is Singapore-based Perx, which has morphed from a retail rewards app to provide corporate clients with data and analysis on consumer behavior. Lau is a member of Perx’s board, whose chairman is Facebook Inc. co-founder Eduardo Saverin.
Sidestep Startup
In January, the firm invested an undisclosed amount in Sidestep, a Los Angeles-based startup that’s also backed by pop-music artists Beyonce and Adele. Sidestep is an app that allows fans to buy concert memorabilia online and either have it shipped to their home or collect it at the show without having to wait in line.
“RHL guys are really smart investors who are taking their family offices to a new play,’’ said Trevor Thomas who co-founded Cross Culture Ventures -- a backer of Sidestep, together with former Lady Gaga manager Troy Carter. “What attracted the founders of Sidestep to RHL was their deep network in Southeast Asia.’’
A lot of startup founders in the U.S. want to access the Asian market, said Thomas, but they often overlook the huge Southeast Asian markets and only focus on China. “Rachel and the team did a great job of explaining the value of that vision and providing really great access to early-stage U.S. companies,’’ he said.
In Southeast Asia, RHL has positioned itself between early-stage venture capitalists and large institutional investors such as Temasek Holdings Pte. Hamzah said they want to fill a gap in the region for the subsequent rounds of funding -- series B, C and D. “We want to play in that space because you get to cherry pick,” he said.