David Z Wang spent nearly a decade in investment banking, holding front-row seats at Morgan Stanley and Nomura as Southeast Asia’s capital markets matured. But the view from the top had its blind spots. Banks weren’t built to serve the region’s fastest-growing, most underbanked borrowers. And the investors who might back them didn’t have the tools—or the access—to do it.
Wang wasn’t content to stay in a system that couldn’t evolve. He left banking to start his own venture capital firm, 33 Capital, where he immersed himself in the region’s emerging fintech landscape—learning firsthand how technology could be used to rethink risk, credit, and distribution. That period gave him the conviction to build something from the ground up. Helicap wasn’t born out of a pitch deck—it came from years of watching smart companies struggle to access capital, and realizing that the infrastructure to connect them to investors simply didn’t exist.
He co-founded Helicap in 2018 to solve that problem. The company evaluates credit risk at the loan level, structures products that make sense for both sides, and moves capital into the hands of non-bank lenders and entrepreneurs across Southeast Asia. Since launch, it has facilitated over $180 million in private investments without a single originator default.
But Wang doesn’t talk about milestones—he talks about people. He believes entrepreneurship is about testing limits, inspiring others, and helping people grow into new opportunities. That belief shows up in how he leads: with mentorship, with challenge, and with the occasional nudge out of the comfort zone.
