Welcoming Marie Garcia, Investible's new Reporting Analyst

Say hello to Marie Garcia, Investible’s newest Reporting Analyst!

Based out of Singapore, Marie will be drawing upon her extensive startup experience, and her interest in impact finance funding, to provide in-the-trenches functional support to Investible’s growing portfolio.

Learn more about Marie below.

Firstly, tell us about your journey to date

Before joining Investible, I was with a government-linked organisation doing impact financing. I worked with existing and aspiring social entrepreneurs in Singapore to raise funds to scale up their impact-driven businesses and their social impact creation. My portfolio consisted of start-ups with market-based solutions in the health tech, ed-tech, mental health and wellness, food sustainability and circular economy spaces. I had the opportunity to work on a couple of side projects such as refining the social impact measurement tools and curating content for an impact investment conference to ignite conversations on purpose-driven strategies for corporates and funds in Singapore.

Prior to that, I also had a short stint with a water-tech startup as part of their strategy and business development team to conduct market research, develop their go-to-market strategy in South East Asia, and assist in their seed stage capital raising. My background is in Accountancy and Strategic Management and lately, I’ve been interested in environmental and social issues and how finance can solve these issues. A friend knew about my interest in ESG investing and recommended that Investible is the place to be.

What excited you about joining the Investible team?

Investible’s Early Stage funds, Climate Tech fund and the Greenhouse were particularly in line with my interest. I find working with seed and early-stage startups exciting as you get to journey with the founders and businesses from their early beginnings and see them grow and experience success and setbacks.

In terms of my role, I’m excited for the challenge that comes along with it. There has been a greater call for accountability and transparency in reporting by investors and coupled with the growing interest in ESG that still lacks regulatory standardisation, it would be interesting to see how to piece these two puzzles together.

What do you love most about the startup ecosystem?

I love how dynamic the start-up ecosystem is. From working with founders of varying backgrounds and experiences, to seeing innovative solutions to simple or complex problems, and understanding the business model of how these solutions are monetised. Creating a business is a powerful way to change things, which makes things very fun and exciting.

What's your personal philosophy?

“Lo que será, será.”

Inspired by the famous song by Doris Day and Frank De Vol, but in Spanish. Although it is commonly thought of as cheerful fatalism and often, a negative connotation of resignation to uncontrollable fate, I like to think of it as acceptance of things that I can control and letting go of things that are beyond my control. Do the best in whatever is presented to you in life and never look back. Whatever will be, will be.

What's something new you've learned recently?

I recently came across a podcast on Spotify called Impact Hustlers - Entrepreneurs with Social Impact, and in one of the episodes, they invited Yancey Strickler, the founder of Kickstarter and The Bento Society. In his latest venture, Yancey advocates for the theory of “bentoism” (an acronym for BEyond Near Term Orientation) that aims to redefine decision-making based on a multi-dimensional view of self-interest. Yancey highlighted that “You may be wrong, but you have to be opinionated. This is critical in separating out those who can get through that grind and move.” It’s simple yet powerful advice that entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs like can live by.

Something about you that might surprise people?

I enjoy teaching. I occasionally moonlight (read: volunteer) to teach youths about catechism and theology. Some days you can catch me doing book studies with friends over the weekend.

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You can get in touch with Marie on LinkedIn.

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