The Dubai AI Festival 2025 proudly announces Khailee Ng, Managing Partner at 500 Global and 500 Southeast Asia, as one of its featured speakers. With an unmatched track record in early-stage tech investments across Asia, Khailee is a driving force behind some of the most successful startup stories in the region. His insights into AI-backed entrepreneurship, venture capital trends, and innovation ecosystems will be a highlight of the festival’s global dialogue on the future of intelligence.
Powering Southeast Asia’s Tech Revolution
As a key leader at 500 Global, one of the world’s most active early-stage venture capital firms, Khailee Ng has overseen more than 180 seed investments in Southeast Asian tech startups. His portfolio includes several of the region’s most prominent unicorns and scale-ups, such as:
- Grab – Southeast Asia’s super app for ride-hailing, food delivery, and digital finance
- Carousell – A leading classifieds and recommerce platform
- Bukalapak – A major Indonesian e-commerce and fintech player
- Carsome – Southeast Asia’s largest integrated car e-commerce platform
- Prenetics – A genomics and health tech firm based in Hong Kong
- FinAccel – The company behind Kredivo, a popular buy-now-pay-later service
His influence has helped shape the next wave of digital economy leaders, empowering them with capital, strategic guidance, and a future-ready vision.
A Visionary at the Intersection of Startups and AI
Khailee is known for his bold thesis on how AI will transform venture capital and entrepreneurship. He advocates for investing in founders who harness AI to solve real-world problems—from logistics and financial services to health and sustainability. His work champions the idea that AI should be accessible and democratized, enabling innovation from every corner of the globe.
By nurturing ecosystems in Southeast Asia, he has proven that local insight + global technology = regional innovation powerhouses.
Keynote at Dubai AI Festival 2025: “The Next 1,000 AI Startups”
At the Dubai AI Festival 2025, Khailee Ng will deliver a keynote titled:
“The Next 1,000 AI Startups: Building Unicorns for the Intelligent Age.”
This keynote will explore:
- How AI is changing what it means to build and scale startups
- The traits of successful AI founders and the opportunities VCs are prioritizing
- Southeast Asia as a blueprint for inclusive, fast-growing digital economies
- The future of AI-powered innovation across finance, commerce, and logistics
His address will offer essential insights for entrepreneurs, investors, government innovation agencies, and ecosystem builders looking to tap into the AI startup wave.
Khailee Ng’s presence at the Dubai AI Festival 2025 is a rallying call for a global generation of founders and investors ready to reimagine the world through AI-driven entrepreneurship.
