Paul Ark is departing from SCB’s fintech investment arm Digital Ventures

Polapat Arkkrapridi (known as Paul Ark in Thailand’s startup and investment circle) is departing from Digital Ventures at the end of January, he announced in a Facebook post.

Ark, Managing Director of Digital Ventures, a US$100-million fintech investment arm of Siam Commercial Bank (SCB), is leaving after a four-year stint at the helm.

He will take a sabbatical before thinking about the next phase of his work life, he wrote in the post.

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“With the announcement that Siam Commercial Bank PLC is reorganizing all its innovation units (including Digital Ventures and the corporate venture capital unit that I manage), this is as good a time as any to address the rumours that have been circulating around the Thai startup ecosystem and make public the news I have been keeping under wraps over the past few months, namely that I will be leaving Digital Ventures at the end of the month,” he wrote in the post.

“After nearly 4 years at the helm of one of the largest and certainly the most international of Thailand’s homegrown VC funds, it is time for me to take a much-needed work sabbatical (my third in my rather eclectic career) and think about the next phase of my work life.

He thanked the visionary senior executives at the SCB, who gave him an unparalleled degree of freedom to shape its tech investment platform and strategy and build the team that he wanted to build.

Ark says he nurtured and developed some of the most talented VCs in the ecosystem while boosting female representation in the Thai VC space. He also crafted a progressive, visionary tech investment strategy that will shape the financial services industry in the years and decades to come.

“I can honestly say that within my long, diverse career, launching and managing the Digital Ventures corporate VC unit was THE highlight of my career, which means my departure will be bittersweet; happy,” he wrote.

An alumnus of the University of California, Berkely, and London Business School, Ark has over 25 years of on-the-ground management and deal experience in North, South, and Southeast Asia, with tenures in Silicon Valley and on Wall Street. He is also an active angel investor and startup advisor/mentor and sits on the board of many startups.

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Ark joined Digital Ventures in 2016. Under his watch, the corporate VC firm made direct investments in Ripple, Pulse iD, OneStockHome, Seekster, PayKey, IndoorAtlas, 1QBit, DemystData, Pagaya, AsiaCollect, and CurrencyCloud.

The fund also made investments in several VC firms during his stint, such as Golden Gate Ventures Fund II, Nyca Partners Fund II, Dymon Asia Ventures Fund I, Arbor Ventures Fund II, SBI AI & Blockchain Fund, Viola Fintech Fund, Passion Capital Fund III.

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