A managing partner with GGV Capital based in Shanghai, the Singapore-born-and-educated Foo is also particularly interested in travel due to the size and complexity of the industry which lends itself well to disruption.

Foo, who will join the panel of judges for the WIT Start-Up Pitch 2013, powered by Abacus Ventures, said “mobile first” models were particularly interesting because consumer behaviour was changing so fast with mobile devices.

“Each of us has several devices now,” he said, as he pointed to his array of gadgets and mine as we had coffee at Kafei Dian in Singapore. Of Hainanese-and-Teochew extraction, Foo is clearly a man close to his roots and his personal mission is to encourage entrepreneurship and innovation in Singapore.

“A traveller, when he lands at a destination, needs help with knowing where to stay, what to do and what to see. Mobile devices lend themselves nicely to this need,” he said.

Now living in Shanghai with his family for the last decade, Foo is known for his “Midas Touch” – he was ranked 11th on “The Midas List 2007” by Forbes and has been annually awarded one of “Best Venture Capitalists” by Forbes China since 2006. In 2012, he was recognized as one of the Top 10 Venture Capitalists by Zero2IPO and also named to the 2012 Venture Capital 100 by Always-On.

He was one of the first to invest in Baidu when he was a director of Draper Fisher Jurvetson ePlanet Ventures. He joined GGV in 2006 and the company has US$1.6 billion capital across four funds.

Today, he serves on the board of directors for Qunar, Youku-Tudou (NYSE: YOKU), Tujia, MediaV, and Douguo. He is also very actively involved with Meilishuo.com, UCWeb, AAC Technologies, Chaoli and Meihua (600873.SS).

As part of his personal mission to nurture entrepreneurship and innovation in Singapore, he’s part of a team of angel investors that looks to help start-ups find their feet. He’s on the board of Flocations, for instance, the marketplace for tour packages.

“Travel is a very interesting space. It’s huge. Everyone loves to travel. It’s fragmented. It needs sorting out,” he said.

Rei Kawano

Also joining this year’s panel of judges is Rei Kawano, Analyst with Gree Ventures, who focuses on consumer internet in South East Asia. She is currently working closely with three companies: BerryBenka – Indonesian fashion eCommerce, Luxola – Singapore-based beauty eCommerce and UrbanIndo – Indonesian real estate online market place.

Anurag Srivastava, Managing Partner of Jungle Ventures, will also be on the panel. Jungle Ventures was one of the early investors in Travelmob and has since made its exit with the acquisition byHomeAway.

Regular stalwarts of WIT, Fritz Demopoulous, CEO of Queen’s Road Capital, and Kei Shibata, CEO of Venture Republic, Japan, will be back on the panel that will pick the shortlisted candidates to pitch live at the WIT Bootcamp on October 21, and the Grand Finals at the WIT Conference, October 22-23.

Demopoulous has set up his own fund following his successful exit from Qunar which sold to Baidu and has been making investments in travel start-ups in emerging markets. Shibata, whose company recently sold its shopping comparison site, coneco.net, to Yahoo! Japan, has also set up a subsidiary in Singapore to scour for travel start-up opportunities in emerging markets.

This year’s WIT Start-Up Pitch is powered by Abacus Ventures, which is making strategic investments in travel, and its director Rani Francois Marie-Saad will also be on the panel.

“More names are being added to the panel. What we want is to put together a panel that represents the most astute minds in investment, entrepreneurship and ecommerce, and people who are passionate about travel. These judges also believe in coaching and mentoring start-ups,” said Yeoh Siew Hoon, editor and founder of WIT.

The WIT Bootcamp will also feature a panel of Start-Up winners of previous years. Last year’s winner, Trippiece, a social travel planning site in Japan, recently received US$2 million funding and will be expanding in South-east Asia.

To enter, submit your entries here. The deadline for submissions is August 31.