Cleo Sham
Investor at Stride.Investor
Cleo Sham
Investor at Stride.Investor
London, England
Overview
Work Experience
Venture Partner
2023 - Current
Continuing to: - Serve on boards (Huboo, DoorFeed, The Cheltenham Ladies’ College) - Angel invest (Light Phone, Jaded, OneHouse, Xetrov, Anthropic), and - Advise companies and funds making positive impact on the world (Yassir, Xetrov, Zora, Maze Impact) after departure from full-time investing at Stride.
Partner
2021 - 2023
Early-stage investing and board work across Europe: across topics such as enterprise AI, health, fintech, proptech and marketplaces - both b2b and consumer. Investments led: - TechWolf (AI-powered skills intelligence for enterprises) - Series A lead investor - DeepOpinion.ai (gen AI cognitive automation platform) - Seed lead investor - Loci.ai (Ai-powered enterprise 3D image search) - Seed investor - Oliva (proper mental health for employees) - Seed lead investor - Cleverea (next-gen neo-insurer, consumer) - Seed lead investor - Doorfeed (institutional real estate fund) - Seed lead investor - Roam (sexual wellness products, consumer) - pre-Seed lead investor Board member: - Huboo (ecmomerce fulfillment) - joined after Series B - Impala (next gen hotel booking infrastructure) - joined after Series B - Runa (b2b2c fintech fka WeGift) - joined after Series A - Jow - joined after Series A - TechWolf (AI-powered skills intelligence for enterprises) - Series A lead investor - DeepOpinion.ai (gen AI cognitive automation platform) - Seed lead investor - Loci.ai (Ai-powered enterprise 3D image search) - Seed investor - Oliva (proper mental health for employees) - Seed lead investor - Cleverea (next-gen neo-insurer, consumer) - Seed lead investor - Doorfeed (institutional real estate fund) - Seed lead investor
Angel Investor and advisor
2016
Select portfolio companies: - Anthropic - Yassir (leading superapp in French-speaking Africa) - Seed investor and advisor. Latest valuation at $600M. - Liquid Death (canned water to murder your thirst) - Series B investor. Latest valuation at $700M - Fonoa (global tax automation) - Seed investor. Series B led by Coatue - Routable.ai (A/P invoice automation) - Pre-Seed investor. Series B led by Sam and Jack Altman - Kitch (restaurant sales and order management software) - Pre-seed investor. Acquired by Glovo - Whisper Aero (quiet electric propulsion for eVTOL) - Seed investor - Trella (connecting shippers and carriers) - Series A investor - kWh Analytics (data and insurance for renewables) - Series A investor - Everyday Humans (natural SPF for GenZ) - Pre-seed investor - Light Phone - Seed investor LP positions: - Firedrop.VC, - TwentyTwoVentures - Chestnut Street Ventures, - SFR3 Primary investment areas: B2B SaaS, Fintech, Consumer, Marketplaces, Mobility/Logistics. Value add: Knowing what great looks like, helping see around corners and avoid mistakes. Specific areas: Go-to-market, operations (biz ops and other ops functions), international expansion, building and scaling high-performance teams, setting culture, fundraising, marketing.
Angel Investor and Advisor
2021
Seed investor and advisor. Yassir is the leading superapp in French-speaking Africa with business lines in ride-hailing, last-mile delivery, grocery, and financial services. It last raised a Series B led by BOND Capital at a valuation of $600M. Other investors include DN Capital, FJ Labs, WndrCo, and Y-Combinator. Focus topics: operations, growth, organization, and fundraising.
Chief Operating Officer
2019 - 2020
COO and Board member. Joined after $40M Series B led by BOND Capital. Tenure cut short by Covid-19. Led ~200 team members across all business functions. Set up local teams in 8 countries. Hired key functional leaders (incl HR, Finance). Executed multiple restructurings whilst optimizing for growth and margins, against the backdrop of Covid-19 and a tight runway. Teams led: - All country PnLs and sales teams - Hired country GMs across 8 European markets. Built local sales teams - Customer Support - Marketing incl Performance, Brand, PR, Design - Partnerships - Central Operations: Sales Operations, Trust & Safety, Marketplace analytics - Strategy, Planning and Special Projects Founded in 2014, Spotahome is the first platform designed for the direct booking of accommodation for 30 days or more. With the mission of reinventing real estate making it transparent, instant and exciting; loved at last, Spotahome operates in 8 countries across the EMEA region, with a headcount of 300 people from over 30 different nationalities. Spotahome has raised over $92 million. It is backed by Kleiner Perkins Growth (Bond Capital), Passion Capital, Seaya Ventures and 14w as main investors.
Director of Operations, EMEA
2016 - 2018
Led ridesharing regional operations in the 45 countries where Uber operates in Europe, Middle East and Africa. Part of EMEA Leadership Team. Built and led central functions (built 60-person team to support our 45 markets): - Driver Growth and Funnel: driver signups, onboarding, conversion, and engagement - Marketplace: Marketplace Efficiency and Analytics, Driver and Rider Incentives, and Payments - Analytics and Automations - Risk: Safety, Fraud - Fleet Management, Vehicle Solutions - Rider: Rider product rollouts, loyalty - Strategy & Planning and Program Management - Customer Obsession - GDPR compliance readiness
Director of Operations, China
2016 - 2016
Merged with Didi Chuxing for $35B combined value (Uber China valued at at $7B after two years) in 2016. Didi Global IPO'ed at $75B valuation in 2021.
General Manager
2014 - 2016
Joined Uber in 2014 as General Manager of Guangzhou. Built the Guangzhou city business and team from the ground up to becoming Uber's largest city business globally and the first city globally to reach 1M weekly trips. Scaled geo from 3000 to 4M weekly trips ($700M run-rate) in 2 years, serving millions of riders via hundreds of thousands of partner drivers. Built a team of 60 and oversaw our business in Guangzhou, Foshan, Xiamen, Zhongshan, and Regional Operations in the South China Region. Performance consistently within top 2% or top 10% throughout tenure Fast Company 2015 - China's 100 Most Creative People in Business
Proprietary Trader
2013 - 2014
Proprietary trading -- investing BAML's own capital in public market equities Secondary responsibilities: - China business development -- acquiring regulatory approvals to trade new exotic asset classes - Build a dynamic, multi-variable data bank to identify cause and effect for historical IPO performance *** Summer Associate, Jun-Aug 2012 Ranked #1 out of 15 interns in Asia ex-Japan in Summer 2012 internship Led team as portfolio manager to win mock portfolio stock investment competition Developed Delta One basket pricing tool
Founder and CEO
2012 - 2012
Founded NinjaRooms - startup focusing on same-day hotel booking via mobile. Accepted into Hong Kong Cyberport Incubation Program; selected to participate in Penn Startup Semester Program
Business Development Director
2010 - 2011
Guanhong Lighting is a cleantech startup that manufactures and distributes energy-efficient lighting products for commercial/industrial use. They focus on Energy Management Contracts with Chinese City governments Led business strategy development and fundraising for cleantech startup focusing on Energy Management Contracts with Chinese City governments Led fundraising and discussed strategic joint ventures with multinational companies. Negotiated with multinational commercial banks
Business Analyst
2007 - 2010
Served corporations in technology, media, financial services, transportation and logistics, real estate, and gaming on strategic, marketing, and operational issues. Geographies included China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore. Select project experience: Designed 5-year growth strategy for a leading payments company. Evaluated various technologies and business models around APAC region, evaluated impact of various loyalty programs. Interfaced directly with CEO and CSO to define tactical solutions for struggling business lines Performed acquisition due diligence for a Chinese SOE freight forwarder of a private SME freight forwarder. Assessed industry potential and conducted management interviews to assess target fair value and attractiveness Developed beginner familiarization strategy for a leading gaming institution. Led focus groups to identify participation drivers and barriers and designed new games. Managed 10-person creative agency to design 30 prototypes and presented to senior management. Developed go-to-market strategy and pilot plan. Revenues grew >10% CAGR since implementation Defined new product positioning for top real estate developer to target ultra-affluent customers. Personally led >20 contractors on market research survey and independently performed customer segmentation analysis to identify key value proposition Created new private banking business plan for top regional bank. Interviewed 140 high net worth individuals to define value proposition and modeled 10-year financials. Trained 20-person cross-functional client team for implementation and gained Board approval to launch business
Cofounder
2009 - 2009
Defined website concept and created algorithm to calculate and publish national sentiment on current issues (e.g., corporate actions, political events) on a real-time basis Designed website, hired and managed overseas developers to build prototype Developed business plan and raised seed funding