75+ Million Dollar VC Exit w/ JP Morgan Chase | Investment Games | Brain Drain | ft. Chalinda Abeykoon

One company. JP Morgan acquisition. 100+ Sri Lankan millionaires in the making. Chalinda Abeykoon is the Managing Partner of nVentures — the first Singapore-regulated VC fund built to back founders from Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and the tier-two cities of South and Southeast Asia that most investors can't even find on a map.He built Sri Lanka's first post-war startup incubator after graduating into the 2008 financial crisis. He went to Oxford on the Chevening scholarship. And his portfolio just had a company acquired by JP Morgan — bigger than any Sri Lankan startup exit before it.In this episode we get into:→ Why Chalinda stayed in Sri Lanka when everyone else left — and what that did to his risk tolerance→ The real story behind WealthOS being absorbed into JP Morgan's international consumer banking division→ Why he invests in "boring" B2B fintech — and why that's the point→ AI wiping out Chegg, destroying SaaS seat models, and what founders actually need to do about it→ Brain drain as a feature, not a bug — and why he's pro leaving Sri Lanka→ The trains vs. the rails: why everyone's building the wrong thing in the AI race→ What it takes to get a founder to unicorn statusThis is Circa — conversations at the edge of what's possible.─────────────────────────────────────🎙️ CIRCA is hosted by Vipulesh Thiyagarajah — entrepreneur, author of Sonder, Executive Director at Taian Lanka Steel, and Co-Founder of Getwin Group.─────────────────────────────────────📌 TIMESTAMPS00:00 — Introductionxx:xx — Building after a war and a financial crisisxx:xx — Why Singapore? The nVentures origin storyxx:xx — WealthOS × JP Morgan — what we can actually sayxx:xx — "Boring" B2B fintech and why it winsxx:xx — Chegg is dead. Is SaaS next?xx:xx — AI replacing people — who actually gets wiped outxx:xx — Brain drain: why leaving might be the best thing for Sri Lankaxx:xx — What gets a founder to unicorn status─────────────────────────────────────📲 FOLLOW CIRCA**********All Links → https://linkin.bio/vipulesh— new episode every Sunday.🎙️ **Listen to Circa Z**Youtube → https://www.youtube.com/@CircaPodApple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/lk/podcast/circa/id1552622208Spotify → https://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/circa-z/---📖 **Read**Substack (P.E.S.T.) → https://vipuleshthiyagarajah.substack.comMedium → https://medium.com/@vipulesh123Website & Blog → https://vipuleshthiyagarajah.com---📚 **My Book — Sonder: An Existential Manifesto**Amazon → https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DB2RQYNL---LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/vthiyagarajahLinkedIn Newsletter: Subscribe on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/build-relation/newsletter-follow?entityUrn=7454097282641158144All Links → https://linkin.bio/vipulesh---*© Vipulesh Thiyagarajah. All rights reserved.*