Joseph Schooling starts new career in venture capital after retiring from swimming

SINGAPORE: Following his retirement from swimming in April, Singapore’s first Olympic gold medallist Joseph Schooling has started a new career in venture capital. 

In a LinkedIn post on Monday (Sep 30), Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia and India announced that Schooling joined the firm as an associate in its investment team. 

“As he embarks on this new journey, he will be working alongside our seasoned investment professionals to gain more experience and insights into assessing and making investments in high-growth startups,” read the post.

Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia and India is one of the six major funds in Vertex’s global network of venture capital funds, where the anchor investor is Vertex Holdings – a wholly-owned subsidiary of Singapore’s Temasek Holdings. The fund’s investments focuses on healthcare, fintech, sustainability among other things. 

According to his LinkedIn profile, Schooling studied Economics at the University of Texas from 2014 to 2018, where he was also a member of the Texas Longhorns swimming team.

Schooling made history for Singapore at the 2016 Rio Olympics when he won gold in the 100m butterfly, beating his idol Michael Phelps.

He holds eight national records – six in individual events and two in the relays.

In 2018, he launched his own swimming school for children called Swim Schooling, which offers a 10-week programme for children.

In April, Schooling announced his retirement from competitive swimming to focus on his swim school and other business ventures. In a report by The Straits Times on Apr 2, he shared that he was going to work in the venture capital space with two partners in the sectors of “health and wellness, tech and sustainability”.

CNA has reached out to Schooling for comments.