Gavin Teo, a general partner at global tech-focused venture capital firm B Capital, has stepped down from his role, according to multiple sources privy to the development.
Teo is understood to be setting up a VC firm called Straits VC, which will focus on early-stage healthcare opportunities in Asia. He will remain an advisor to B Capital.
DealStreetAsia is yet to receive responses from Teo or B Capital for this story.
Teo joined B Capital, a growth-stage venture capitalist in 2016, playing a key role in the launch of its San Francisco office. Today, B Capital has over 50 employees across San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles and Singapore, managing a portfolio of B2B and B2B2C startups across fintech, enterprise SaaS and healthcare sectors globally. Its Asian portfolio companies include names such as CXA Group, Carro, Ninja Van, Bounce and Blackbuck.
Teo is a board member on several healthcare firms globally, including CXA Group, Atomwise, Bright.md and SilverCloud Health. He is also on the board of directors of Galen Growth Asia, a digital health industry group for the region.
Prior to B Capital, Teo served as principal at Comcast Ventures, Comcast NBC Universal’s venture arm for four-and-a-half years where he led and co-led deals in virtual or augmented reality, healthtech and the internet of things. Some of these investments resulted in notable exits such as game-streaming service Twitch, which was acquired by Amazon for $970 million in 2014.
Southeast Asia’s healthtech sector, while small, has been drawing wider interest from investors in recent months. According to a Galen Growth report, $266 million was invested in the region’s healthtech firms in 2019, more than double the year before. The sub-sectors attracting the most capital were in medical diagnostics and health management systems, with most of them coming from Singapore and Indonesia.
Southeast Asia has a small but growing healthtech venture community as well. Some healthtech-focused investors include Jungle Ventures-backed HealthXCapital, and private equity firm Quadria Capital.
