Johan Riddergard

Johan Riddergard is a Swedish-born executive and Co-Founder, Partner and Chief Commercial Officer of Venturous Group, a Hong Kong-headquartered "Citytech" business builder and investor that creates, builds and invests in technology companies — largely out of China — to accelerate the development of smarter, more sustainable cities. He describes himself as having 25+ years of experience across strategic advisory, business development, pricing management, wealth management, insurance and alternative investments.

He began his career as an Engagement Manager at McKinsey & Company, working in both Sweden and Hong Kong, before a regional business-development role at Winterthur Life Asia. He then spent roughly 12 years at UBS Wealth Management APAC, where as a Managing Director he headed the APAC CEO Office, led strategy and business development and change management, and built the APAC pricing-management function from scratch. He left UBS in 2015 to pursue an entrepreneurial venture.

In 2016 he co-founded Lioncrest Global, a boutique financial advisory firm focused on private alternative investments, formed by a group of ex-UBS Wealth Management professionals, where he served as Co-Founder and Managing Partner. In 2019, Lioncrest merged with Venturous to form Venturous Group, where Johan today oversees marketing, branding, media and communications, investor relations, capital raising, company governance and legal affairs, and supports corporate business-development initiatives.

On education, he holds an MSc in Industrial Engineering & Management from Chalmers University of Technology (Sweden), with studies at UC Berkeley and the University of Strathclyde (Scotland), plus an MSc in Economics and a BSc in Business Administration & Economics from the University of Gothenburg (Sweden).

• Invests in and builds companies within the Citytech™ theme — the intersection of technology and urbanization — targeting China's large, government-backed Smart Cities buildout (frequently cited by the firm as a multi-trillion-dollar market across 800+ Chinese city districts).
• Core sub-sectors: Smart Buildings, Smart Energy, Smart Computing, and Smart City Management, including AIoT platforms, IoT operating systems and digital building/energy management.
• Operates as a business builder + investor rather than a passive fund — Venturous holds ~12 companies including wholly-owned businesses, joint ventures and ecosystem companies, and takes an active operating/governance role.
• Institutional orientation: the Group has raised more than US$152M across Series A and B, with backers including Fidelity China Special Situations PLC and CLP Group — indicating growth/strategic capital rather than early angel checks.