Kanin Asva: From Ground Zero to Investor Hero

Thailand-born, New York City-based Kanin Asva (Kanin Asvaplungprohm), is quickly becoming a force in the venture capitalism space.

Having handled $200 million in funds in a career that has traversed the finance and tech worlds from Thailand to New York City, the 31-year-old Southeast Asian powerlifter and art lover has set his own venture in motion.

His vision for Robust is to have a globally recognized early-stage, industry-agnostic venture capital firm with a mission to drive technological advancement. It plans to partner with a select few independent thinkers at the early to pre-series stage and stay the course through the lifecycle of the concepts.

Within the last 12 months, Asva has committed significant investments and time in the advancement of two groundbreaking companies:

• Offsight is a construction SAAS software solving the most common challenges of offsite and project-based manufacturing. It utilizes seamless quality tracking and operation management features to enable factory managers to conveniently track progress and tackle quality issues.

• Symbiome is a microbiome-nourishing skincare company that retains vital research and development foundations for sustainability. As a trailblazer in the life sciences industry, it provides organic products focused on supplementing modern skin biomes with greater microbial diversity to produce stronger, healthier skin cells.

“Rather than backing today’s hottest new trends, we intend to support tomorrow’s next big thing and take it to the next level,” asserts Asva. “We stand side-by-side with entrepreneurs who challenge the status quo in their chosen industries with revolutionary ideas. Through Robust’s involvement, we will help them leverage tangible, value-added solutions.

“We de-risk the portfolio and generate alpha by optimizing for quality. Everything is done with precision: from the ideation, investment thesis, branding, corporate identity, website and external communications.”

He acknowledges that good design defines good business – Robust, itself, received an Honorable Mention for its branding and design from awwards.com. Asva explained: “I believe that design brings all the diverse elements of a business to work cohesively. Sometimes good design is invisible: when something is well designed, you don’t notice it’s there.”

With offices in New York, San Francisco and Bangkok, Robust’s borderless venture capitalism is underpinned by a network of industry veterans, strategic experts, financial experts and dynamic founders. With decades of experience, they collaborate across markets to ensure steady success for founders and the greatest return for investors.

Coming from a family of entrepreneurs, Asva’s itch for independence has been prevalent for most of his working life. He left Thailand at 18 to complete a B.S. in Management Science at the University of California, San Diego, and later an M.S. in Finance, Summa Cum Laude, at the University of San Francisco.

Asva spearheaded risk management for Marwin Technologies, a meteorological and environmental technology provider in Thailand.

Other positions included being a summer associate at Bangkok Bank, a Consultant at Econ One and a Principal at Dynafolio, a small-cap U.S. private equity firm focused on turning around distressed companies and returning 25% per annum. He then became a Venture Partner at Oyster, an emerging fund.

He has become one of the few early-stage venture capitalists to launch a fund comprising the diverse cultures of North America and Southeast Asia. Straddling the line between cultures, Asva fuses Thai sensitivities with Western pragmatism.

“I deeply understand the Southeast Asian regulatory landscape as my family has been in Government contracting for several decades,” said Asva. “This encompasses advising U.S. companies and helping them navigate the bureaucracy.

“I add value to early-stage companies by offering legal, operational, marketing and P.R. support. This experience, backed by my U.S. education, gives Robust, its no-nonsense approach to business.”

However, building a venture capital firm from the ground up has been challenging. “I wanted to strike out independently, so I pitched to more than 500 potential investors. Only 25 showed an interest,” Asva said. “I’ve been ridiculed many times, laughed out of the room, and not taken seriously because of my age. One fund manager said I wouldn’t be up to much alone.

“I took whatever capital I could raise and deployed it judiciously to validate the concept. I am forever grateful for the people who believed in me. Both Offsight and Symbiome are on the cusp of raising Series A funding -- if successful, we will have a positive internal rate of return (IRR), a rare feat for funds at our stage.”

Asva capitalized on his knowledge, hard work and self-confidence to validate his business plan Proof enough that believing in yourself is the greatest capital you can invest with!

McClatchy newsroom and editorial staff were not involved in the creation of this content.