As a forum for Central Asian women to network, develop professional skills, and contribute to the community, CALI aims to achieve its primary purpose by organizing high-level events, meetups, and workshops. In collaboration with Daxe, Crowell & Moring, Multiverse, and Lamarka Consulting Services, CALI successfully hosted an early-stage female pitch competition at the Multiverse HQ on August 8th. Together with Erika Bahr, Founder of Daxe, and Jason Nyeh, Program Manager at Lamarka Consulting Services and Co-Founder at Alphataba, Inc., we prepared the pitch competition and created a powerful environment for women. Our keynote speaker, Aytakin Aliyeva, Founder of Femigrants Foundation, shared her challenges as a woman and immigrant startup founder. She also discussed how to maintain a balance between your professional responsibilities and personal life.
Our forum strongly supports diversity, equity, and inclusivity (DEI). More than 80 attendees, not only from Central Asia and with diverse backgrounds, had an opportunity to connect with investors, startup builders, and entrepreneurs in an innovative and empowering space!
14 startups participated in the competition, presenting their ideas in fintech, hospitality tech, career development, e-commerce, biotech, healthcare, business management, and environmental sustainability industries/sectors. For the judging panel, we invited six top-tier experts in startup, private equity (PE), and venture capital (VC) investments:
Stella Kim - investor and CEO of IndigiLabs US, an early-stage venture fund focused on scalable technologies, which helps founders in their full startup journey to build scalable, strategic, and investable companies. As a Co-Founder of Stealth Startup, Stella Kim deeply understands the startup working process internally.
Anastasia Budinskaya is an investor at NFX, and Co-Founder & CBO of 1bio. She holds an MS in Bioengineering from Tufts University and specializes in biotech investments. Her extensive experience and involvement in venture funding for women made her a perfect match as a judge for our pitch competition.
With over 17 years of investing, M&A, and financing experience, Kemi Christina Abdul is now a Board Member at InfraCorp and Managing Director at BlueHaven (FZ). She invests in sustainability, digital, energy, and infrastructure sectors. Kemi Christina Abdul studied at the Private Equity and Venture Capital program at Harvard Business School Executive Education.
Jing Lin, Healthcare VC Investor, and Founder and Managing Director at KOFA Healthcare—a venture fund supporting biotech and healthcare innovations. KOFA Healthcare invests in transformative technologies that address clinical unmet needs. Jing Lin studied at Stanford GSB MSx ‘24 program and is a Sloan Fellow. The Sloan Fellowship is the world’s first leadership and management program designed for experienced professionals and offered in only three top universities: MIT, Stanford, and London Business School. She also earned a Ph.D. in political economy from Syracuse University.
Casancia Khoo, Director at Temasek, works with a wide range of established companies like Trigo Vision, Fabric, Einride, Momenta, Autobrains, Purelifi, Within (Supernatural), and Airmap. Casancia Khoo invests in tech-enabled growth plays across mobility, robotics, automation, and software. Currently, she is at the Stanford GSB MSx ‘25 program as a Sloan fellow.
Amrutha Nair spent over two decades driving consistent revenue growth for a diverse portfolio of Linear TV channels in India, including Disney Star and Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific. She is an investor with a strong commitment to DEI and employee well-being. Amrutha is completing an MSx in Business Administration and Management at Stanford.
More about our co-hosts, Erica Bahr and Jason Nyeh
Like CALI, Erika Bahr is committed to empower women. She specifically aspires to help women and minority entrepreneurs get more funding by fueling quantitative unbiased decision-making and improving investors' returns. Her experience includes projects that introduced new technology to drive quantitative growth for global corporations like Amazon Web Services, MetLife, and Cisco. She founded Daxe, a secure AI workflow and data aggregation solution. She is a lifelong learner and expanded her skills in business analytics from programs such as an MBA from the University of Houston, MSBA from the University of Virginia Darden School of Business, and the Harvard Business Analytics Program, where she served as a cohort representative.
“Why” questions and out-of-the-box thinking are the success formula for Jason Nyeh. He has broad experience in leadership roles in marketing, sales, business development, project management, training, and consultation in sectors such as Fintech, Healthcare, Medical IoT, Travel & Hospitality. Currently, he is Membership and Partnership Director with BayAngels, a leading angel investor organization in the Bay Area, helping aspiring professionals to be top players in Silicon Valley, China, and India.
We’d like to thank our partners and tell more about their work and contribution:
Daxe“Daxe is at the forefront of transforming legal diligence processes with its groundbreaking, AI-powered platform. With Daxe, any professional can navigate the complexities of their work more effectively, harnessing the power of AI to enhance productivity and safeguard client data. Leveraging advanced speech-to-code technology and confidential computing first conceived in government labs for the highest levels of security with AI, Daxe offers a revolutionary solution for professionals concerned about data security with AI.”
Crowell & Moring“Crowell & Moring is an international law firm with operations in the United States, Europe, MENA, and Asia. Drawing on significant government, business, industry, and legal experience, the firm helps clients capitalize on opportunities and provides creative solutions to complex litigation and arbitration, regulatory and policy, and corporate and transactional issues. The firm is consistently recognized for its commitment to pro bono service as well as its programs and initiatives to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion.”
Lamarka Venture Fund“Lamarka Venture Fund is an award-winning micro-VC fund investing selectively in the most promising early-stage startups in our broader network. Lamarka is the consulting firm for design and implementation. We are driven to help you achieve your highest potential. Transforming companies to win in this fast-changing world—whether they have a long history or are just starting their journey—is the essence of our inspiration.”
Multiverse“Multiverse is the global platform for investment, innovation, and entrepreneurship.”
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