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Cleo Sham

Partner at Stride.VC - ex-Uber - Former COO + Board member

Cleo Sham is a seasoned professional with a diverse background in startups, scaleups, and investments across various industries such as fintech, mobility, health, and climate.

With past roles including board member, advisor, angel investor, and venture capitalist, Cleo has accumulated a wealth of experience in building and leading teams, driving operations, and fostering growth in organizations.

Having started the journey at prominent institutions like McKinsey Asia and BAML Hong Kong, Cleo's career took a significant turn when she joined Uber, pioneering the company's expansion in China as one of the first General Managers.

During her tenure at Uber, Cleo demonstrated her leadership skills by growing cities like Guangzhou into Uber's top-performing markets globally within a short span of time.

Subsequently, she took on higher responsibilities as China Director of Operations, steering operations in China before the merger with Didi Chuxing.

Her career further evolved as she moved to Amsterdam to lead Uber's EMEA operations, overseeing the expansion of the ridesharing platform across 45 countries.

Transitioning to London, Cleo assumed the role of COO at Spotahome, a b2b2c mid-term rentals marketplace, where she played a pivotal role in transforming the organization and managing a sizable team across various functions.

After her stint at Spotahome, Cleo ventured into the world of venture capital by joining Stride.VC as a Partner, focusing on investments in early-stage startups primarily in Enterprise AI, health, and fintech sectors.

With a rich background as a founder, angel investor, and board member of numerous companies, Cleo is passionate about working with startups and supporting founders in their growth journey through strategic advice and mentorship.

Cleo's educational background includes an MBA from The Wharton School, a triple-major BA from Rice University, and coursework in diverse fields such as nutrition sciences, wines, and business Chinese.

Throughout her career, Cleo has been associated with renowned organizations like Stride.VC, Yassir, Uber, Merrill Lynch, and McKinsey & Company, holding key positions that have honed her expertise and leadership skills.

Highlights

Dec 4 · linkedin

Had a great conversation with Yoann Benhacoun on the Upscalers podcast last week exploring some of the key decisions of my personal and professional journey to date, and how they came about. We also discussed our personal motivations for angel investing.

The questions were provocative and it would be very interesting to learn more about how others have come to make their pivotal personal and professional decisions as well. If you have any favorites resources, please feel free to share.

Check out the episode here: https://bit.ly/3RmB9r4

#upscalers #podcast #startups #scaleups #careergrowth #investing #angelinvesting

Nov 23 · linkedin

Excited to share some good news that DoorFeed has closed its latest Seed extension round, and to welcome aboard @Ramin at Motive Ventures!

Stride.VC had led DoorFeed’s initial Seed round in 2021, when James Kirimy came to me with a very impressive initial data engine that the team had been building. Having worked with James at Uber and at our last company, Spotahome, I was excited to partner with him again as he doubled down on his passion for real estate with DoorFeed.

What do they do? Addressing market inefficiencies with their data engine, DoorFeed enables institutional investors to invest into residential real estate assets with scale, speed and simplicity, across Europe. They are able to screen over 100,000 residential real estate opportunities daily, buy, renovate, rent and property-manage, eventually enabling investors to realize returns. At the same time, through their operations DoorFeed makes the properties more livable and better maintained, particularly in renter-dominated cities on the continent.

We are not re-inventing the wheel. Large-scale institutional investment in residential real estate existed before this, especially in the US with Invitation Homes (NYSE: INVH), and SFR3 Fund in which I’m an investor - amongst other platforms in Europe. But what gets me excited is that DoorFeed’s tech platform, combined with their network of local partners a la Uber, enables them to deliver a solution that is far more scalable and seamless than what is available today. And this new round of funding will help to propel their development and eventually, their expansion across Europe.

Onwards!

Cleo Sham
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Location

United Kingdom