Co-founder and Partner

Juan Figar De Lacalle is the Founder and CEO of Asaya, a business operator of western companies in Asia. After 2 years, Asaya already serves 10+ clients with a projected income for 2022 of +1Mn USD. Juan is also an Education Global Industry Expert for Sannam S4.

Prior to this, for the past 5 years until December 2020, Juan was the CEO of Spanish World Group (SW), Spanish Language Education company, servicing over 2,000 students weekly in SEA. He drove revenue growth by over 400% through a combination of organic and developed its own in - house blended learning method, unique in its field. Juan remains as a Shareholder and Corporate Board Member of Spanish World.

Prior to SW, Juan worked for 2 years (2014 and 15) as the COO of Knowledge Platform (KP), a SEA Ed-Tech company focused on enhancing primary and secondary school curriculums through technology. He successfully led the raise of US$3m from a VC, and the expansion efforts of KPs services into China, Indonesia and Pakistan through organic market entry and JV partnerships.

Juan has devoted significant time in his life to make a social impact, as he lived in Cambodia for 2 years (2008 to 2010) focused on the development of the social ecosystem of the country after the war and serves as a Board Member of several NGOs.

Partner and CEO

Javier Hernandez joined Asaya in 2022 as Partner and Chief Digital officer and he focuses on the Media, Adtech and Retail verticals.

Together with 15 years of experience in technology, marketing, and online retail, he has a strong network across India, Asia, and Australia. His previous experience includes investing in and setting up operations for two leading start-ups in Singapore.

Javier has a vast experience in building companies and leading teams in both APAC and Europe and understands the challenges companies face in adopting an offline and online strategies. Prior to Asaya,he led Kendu, an experiencial retail agency, in APAC. Before that, he launched as a GM APAC for Mitula, an ASX listed company, where he was responsible for defining the global commercial andmarketing strategies and maintaining partnerships with over 150 portals in Europe, Brazil, India and Australia . In a region where speed, ubiquity and local knowledge is key, Hernande is essential to thefuture growth of Asaya's Media vertical.

Senior Analyst

Analyst