IRWIN WONG FOR FORBES
APRIL 2018 FORBES ASIA | 31Apurv Agrawal, Vikas Gulati,
Kanika Jain, Rishabh Ladha, 27, 28,
28, 27 India
Cofounders, SquadRun Solutions
Trishneet Arora, 25 India
Founder, TAC Security
Sadia Bashir, 29 Pakistan
Founder, PixelArt Games Academy
Chang Le, 29 China
Cofounder, SoundAI Technology
Chen Haoliang, 28 China
Cofounder, SpeakIn Technologies
Chen Zhen, 24 China
Founder, Qfeeltech
Deng Yaohuan, 29 China
CEO, Dorabot
Djoann Fal, Polpat Songthamjitti,
26, 27 Thailand
Cofounders, GetLinks
Feng Zongliang, 29 China
Partner, MetroDataTech
Jing Tianwei, 28 China
Cofounder, Ru Internet of Things
Operating System
Kazuo Ishigame, 25 Japan
Cofounder, Infostellar
Jason Lee, 30 Malaysia
Expansion director for Australia and
New Zealand, NEM.io Foundation
Kong Miao, 27 China
Founder, ZHUGEIO
Toshendra Kumar Sharma, 28 India
Founder, Tosh Innovations Private
Li Ping, 28 China
Cofounder, NewBornTown
Jaehyun Nam, 29 South Korea
Cofounder, Looxid LabsHuy Nguyen, 28 Vietnam
Cofounder, Holistics Software
Chanam Park, 28 South Korea
Founder, STEALIEN
Ashwin Ramesh, 27 India
Founder, Synup
Ren Shaoqing, 30 China
Cofounder, Momenta
Rory San Miguel, 26 Australia
Cofounder, Propeller Aero
Raghav Sarin, 20 India
Head, Sapiens X
Masahiro Shimizu, 26 Japan
Founder, ZEALS
Takumi Shimizu, 27 Japan
CEO, Refcome
Stephanie Sy, 29 Philippines
Founder, Thinking Machines
Wang Dong, Huan Xu, 27, 28 China
Cofounders, Qimai Tech
Yang Fan, 28 China
Founder, MiniVision
Zeng Yuan, 26 China
Cofounder, vzoom credit
Orion Zhao, 26 China
Cofounder, MokaHR
Zhao Yiyang, 30 China
Cofounder, Unisound
JUDGES
Yat Siu, CEO, Outblaze
Michael Du, Managing Director,
China Renaissance; Managing
Partner, Huaxing Growth Capital
S.D. Shibulal, Cofounder, Infosys
and Axilor VenturesEnterprise Technology
Kazuo Ishigame, 25
COFOUNDER AND COO, INFOSTELLAR
JAPAN
After seeing the success of Elon Musk’s SpaceX,
Ishigame was inspired to launch his own outer
space startup. During his mechanical engineering
program in college, however, he realized that
science and technology weren’t his strengths.
He dropped out in 2014 and helped expand a
consumer-to-consumer online sales platform,
which was sold in 2015. Despite his taste for
entrepreneurship, he dreamed of space: “My
question was, Why isn’t the space industry
considered cool in Japan? Why—with so many
people with the right skill sets—hasn’t Japan
developed space-related products and services
and sold them? Japan’s presence in the global
space sector is zero.”
Aiming to change this, Ishigame cofounded
Infostellar, a sharing service he calls “an Airbnb
for satellite antennas.” In September, investors
led by Airbus Ventures put $7.3 million in Series A
funding into the company, which was established
with two other cofounders, including aerospace
engineer and CEO Naomi Kurahara.
Infostellars’ cloud-based service, StellarStation,
allows ground station operators to make money
on their antennas by renting them out during
their long downtimes. An operator with one
antenna in Japan, for example, would only be
in contact 40 minutes a day with its station.
Ishigame reckons that’s up to a half-billion-dollar
market today. —James Simms