[SPECIAL REPORT] How a Singaporean venture capitalist fits into MySejahtera

KUALA LUMPUR – Part of the intricate corporate structure linked to the MySejahtera app involves successful Singaporean venture capitalist Finian Tan, who is also the co-founder and chairman of Entomo (formerly KPISoft).

With the data of 38 million Malaysians in the centre of the controversy, it is easy to understand the fixation on the nationality of the individuals in this enterprise.

Tan became a darling of the international business community when he became one of the first major investors in Baidu, a company that runs one of China’s main internet search engines.

He is also known as founder and chairman of Vickers Ventures Partners, touted to be Southeast Asia’s largest venture capital firm, understood to be managing US$2.5 billion (RM10.5 billion) in net asset value.

As for his role in MySejahtera, his name shows up on news reports given his ties to Entomo, which in 2020 developed the contact-tracing app as part of a corporate social responsibility initiative.

From Singapore to Cayman Islands

Now, Tan appears as a director of Entomo Pte Ltd – Entomo Malaysia’s sole shareholder – but he also holds shares in the Singaporean company via an entity known as V V Pentafond Pte Ltd.

According to Singapore’s Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority, Entomo has 66,774,624 ordinary shares and 20,539,602 preferred shares issued – where V V Pentafond owns 9,375,000 ordinary shares and 5,893,204 preferred shares.

Typically, ordinary shares are commonly issued to founders and employees, while preference shares are issued to investors wanting to secure their return.

Tan is also listed as a director of V V Pentafond while Vickers Venture Fund V LP, which is incorporated in the Cayman Islands, is listed as its sole shareholder.

He has other links to the Caymans as he was once a director of a Taiwan dating platform company called Sunfun Info Co Ltd, between October 18, 2007 and March 31, 2011.Vickers Venture Fund II L.P. was then listed as Sunfun Info director between March 31, 2011 and May 11, 2011. This is gleaned from the Paradise Papers. 

KPISoft or Entomo is not Tan’s first outing in Malaysia. According to Malaysia’s Registrar of Companies documents, Tan had incorporated V V V P Advisors (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd in 2018.

The company, which has since been dissolved, had Tan as director and Vickers Capital Group Ltd as sole shareholder.

Who is Raveenderen and Naveen?

As reported, Entomo Pte Ltd has two other co-founders – Malaysian Raveenderen Ramamoothie (group CEO) and Indian national Naveen Pralhad Deshpande (group COO).

While Raveenderen has gotten praise as an entrepreneur with a background in performance management, he is not without some controversy.

According to Indian Corporate Affairs Ministry data in 2016, Raveenderen was among one of the directors disqualified from Indian company Homeblends Confectionery and Bakers Pvt Ltd. It is understood that the disqualification was pursuant to India’s Section 164(2)(a) of the Companies Act 2013 for failing to file financial statements for three years.

Under the law, Raveenderen may not be allowed to be reappointed as director in that company or any other company for five years.

It has yet to be determined if he was reappointed as director given five years have passed.

Raveenderen is also listed as one of MySJ Sdn Bhd’s directors. He is also a director and has majority stakes in Revolusi Asia Sdn Bhd – which is one of MySJ’s shareholders. 

MySJ is MySejahtera’s licence holder as Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin made clear that Putrajaya is only negotiating with this company over the app’s services subscription terms.

Court documents filed by another MySJ shareholder, P2 Management Assets, allege that Revolusi Asia is a nominee for Entomo Malaysia.

As for Naveen, not much is known about him, only that he is Entomo’s group COO. In a US Securities and Exchange Commission document filed in 2018 under KPISoft Inc, he is also described as the group’s CTO and passionate about building next generation application platforms. 

Prior to that, Naveen was a co-founder of technology services firm AB Innovative with core clients in the US.

With his involvement in Entomo, his name is recurring in entities linked to MySJ. He, like Raveenderen, is a director and shareholder of Revolusi Asia.

While his name does not appear in Entomo Malaysia’s company documents, Naveen is a director of Entomo Pte Ltd and just like Tan, holds company shares via a separate entity.

The entity is known as Dreamteam Incorporation Pte Ltd, which is the largest shareholder of Entomo Pte Ltd. Naveen holds 5,024,079 ordinary shares of Dreamteam Incorporation total 40626,944 issued shares. – The Vibes, April 4, 2022

Part 1 of our special report: Lifting the corporate veil on MySejahtera’s intricate business web leading to Singapore