The Social Network portrayed jilted Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin as a victim. His character portrayed by The Amazing Spiderman‘s Andrew Garfield was trying his best to implement profitable strategies at the startup while Jesse Eisenberg‘s Mark Zuckerberg and Justin Timberlake‘s Sean Parker partied their way to not-so-accidental success. Now, with 2% of the company heading into an IPO that could be valued near $100 million, Saverin is about to have enough money to maintain his partying ways in Singapore.
While Zuckerberg is often spotted walking his dog or driving his Acura, Saverin is a Singapore playboy, Bentley and all. Since 2009 when he moved to Singapore full time as an investor, the man portrayed as somewhat shy and clearly business-oriented has been best known for running up tens of thousands of dollars in bar tabs at clubs. His entry into the city-state had been seen as an avenue to jumpstart the tech startup goals that have been floundering for a decade.
Instead, he’s been investing in a small number of tech startups, but has helped launch Miss Singapore Universe 2009 Rachel Kum‘s cosmetic line.
“Eduardo doesn’t invest in much. He doesn’t invest in Singapore companies,” grouses John Fearon, CEO of Singapore start-ups dropmysite.com and dropmyemail.com. “He doesn’t set up his stall and say, ‘come to me’ for investment.”
The other component of his notoriety in the area is a penchant for skipping out on speaking obligations at the last minute. He was scheduled to judge startup pitches at Echelon 2011 but sent a text message hours before he was supposed to be on stage. It’s not the only report of cancellations at the 11th hour.
He has been relatively aloof with the media over the years which may be one of the reasons he went to tabloid-unfriendly Singapore in the first place.
Will all of this change when he gets an infusion of up to $2 billion? Has he simply not found enough startups like Anideo, one of the only local tech companies (which is headed by longtime friend Andrew Solimine) he’s put his money behind? Is he biding his time, waiting for the right local opportunities to arise?
Or is he simply enjoying the Singapore nightlife? We’ll find out soon enough once Facebook’s IPO pops.
100 Millions?