Chew Tee Ming (Singapore Entrepreneur)

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Chew Tee Ming
Chew Tee Ming (2).jpg
Born1990
EducationBachelor of Computing in Computer Science
Alma materNational University of Singapore

Chew Tee Ming (born 1990) is the co-founder and chief technology officer (CTO) of personal finance platform Seedly, a community aimed at helping young adults manage their personal finances.[1][2][3] In

2020, Chew Tee Ming was featured on Tatler Asia’s ‘Generation T’ list, a compilation of entrepreneurs who have made breakthroughs or are helping their industry take shape.[4]

Background

Family

Chew Tee Ming was born in 1990.[5]

Education

From 2007 to 2010, Chew Tee Ming studied at Temasek Polytechnic (TP) where he graduated with a diploma in information technology from the School of Informatics and IT.[6][7] From 2012 to 2016, Tee Ming studied at the National University of Singapore (NUS) where he graduated with a Bachelor of Computing in Computer Science.[6][8] In his third year of university, Chew Tee Ming was part of the NUS Overseas College program, studying management science and entrepreneurship at Stanford University.[6]

Earlier career

During his second year of university in 2014, Chew Tee Ming worked at e-commerce startup ShopBack where he was hired as their first intern.[9] As a software engineering intern at ShopBack, Tee Ming helped to build their cashback business model.[6][9] Tee Ming also worked as a teaching assistant at NUS from 2014 to 2015, being an advisor for a Computer Science module.[6][10] While on exchange at Stanford University in 2015, he interned for content marketing platform Pixlee for a year.[6][11]

Tee Ming credited the time spent at Stanford and the internship at Pixlee for changing his mindset on entrepreneurship, saying:

“I spent a year working in Silicon Valley while doing part-time entrepreneurship study at Stanford University. The internship in Silicon Valley gave me a very different perspective on how things are done in America versus Asia. The part-time courses at Stanford allowed me to learn and talk to founders from many other companies. Both contributed greatly to my growth and enabled me to think differently.”[9]

Seedly (2016 to current)

As of January 2021, Chew Tee Ming is the co-founder and chief technology officer of Seedly, a local startup where users can learn to handle their personal finances.[3] Due to his experience in computer science and software engineering, Tee Ming handles the backend work such as software development for their Seedly mobile application.[12][2]

Chew Tee Ming and Kenneth Lou, co-founders of Seedly.
Chew Tee Ming and Kenneth Lou, co-founders of Seedly.

Beginnings

Tee Ming met fellow NUS student and Seedly co-founder Kenneth Lou during his final year of university in 2016.[12] The duo experimented with different startup ideas before settling on Seedly, as they wanted to enable people to make more intelligent financial decisions.[9]

Before Seedly’s launch in 2016, they had managed to secure funding from venture capital firm East Ventures after a managing partner saw the potential in the duo’s startup.[2] While working in Silicon Valley, Chew Tee Ming also won a hackathon competition where he developed the first version of Seedly.[13]

Business growth

In May 2018, Seedly was acquired by cashback platform ShopBack.[2] According to a 2018 article by Tech In Asia, Seedly was garnering around 350,000 monthly visitors on its website.[2]

In a 2018 interview with the Economic Development Board (EDB), Chew Tee Ming said the following about ShopBack’s acquisition of Seedly:

“Both our teams believe in helping our users make smarter decisions in consumer spending and personal finance for digital consumers in the South-East Asia market. By joining forces, Seedly will gain access to international markets and resources to grow. Meanwhile, ShopBack gains Seedly’s expertise in developing the personal finance vertical.”[14]

In October 2020, it was announced that Seedly would be acquired by Hong Kong-based financial management platform CompareAsiaGroup, deepening its portfolio in Asia.[15][16] The acquisition would allow Seedly access to more funds for the optimisation of their products, as well as a possible expansion into other Asian markets.[12]

Future

In a 2021 interview with digital financial publication Dollars and Sense, Seedly co-founder and CEO Kenneth Lou was quoted as having said the following when asked about Seedly’s future:

“We aim for Seedly to become a self-sustaining and most importantly, a strongly bonded community with a clear mission that can outlive any of us. That would be really cool and something that we aspire to as a team.”[12]

Citations / References

  1. ↑ Seedly. Facebook. n.d. Accessed 14 January, 2021. Retrieved from https://www.facebook.com/seedlysg/?ref=page_internal
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Tegos, Michael. “Seedly wants to simplify personal finance for millennials”. Tech In Asia. March 12, 2016. Accessed 14 January, 2021.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 “Seedly”. Glints. n.d. Accessed 14 January, 2021.
  4. ↑ “The Gen. T List”. Generation T. n.d. Accessed 19 January, 2021.
  5. ↑ Koh, Eng Beng. “Invest In Yourself During NS: Seedly Co-founders”. Ministry of Defence. April 20, 2020. Accessed 18 January, 2021.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 Tee-Ming Chew. LinkedIn. n.d. Accessed 14 January, 2021. Retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/in/teemingchew/?originalSubdomain=sg
  7. ↑ “Diploma in Information Technology”. Temasek Polytechnic. n.d. Accessed 14 January, 2021.
  8. ↑ “Bachelor of Computing in Computer Science (with Honours*)”. National University of Singapore. n.d. Accessed 14 January, 2021.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 Laing, Callum. “Tee-Ming Chew, Co-Founder of Seedly”. Empirics Asia. January 25, 2018. Accessed 14 January, 2021.
  10. ↑ “Project Modules”. NUS Computing. n.d. Accessed 14 January, 2021.
  11. ↑ Sayeed, Awad. “Intern Spotlight: Tee Ming Chew”. Pixlee. n.d. Accessed 14 January, 2021.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 Ho, Timothy. “5 Questions With…Kenneth Lou, Co-Founder & CEO of Seedly”. DollarsandSense. January 10, 2021. Accessed 14 January, 2021.
  13. ↑ Sobri, Dayana. “Seedly plans to make finance management, breeze to millennials”. E27. August 12, 2016. Accessed 18 January, 2021.
  14. ↑ “Thriving at the heart of the world's growth engine”. Forbes Asia. December 17, 2018. Accessed 18 January, 2021. Retrieved from Economic Development Board.
  15. ↑ “CompareAsiaGroup Announces the Acquisition of Seedly”. FinTechnewsSG. October 28, 2020. Accessed 18 January, 2021.
  16. ↑ “Seedly Joins Forces with CompareAsiaGroup to Empower People to Build Healthier Financial Lives”. ACROFAN. October 30, 2020. Accessed 18 January, 2021.
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