Eve We Love: Raeesa Sya
Growth hack, tech-savvy, and youth entrepreneur
How many of us love spending some time scrolling through Instagram? Whether we're looking at our friends' photos, checking out our favorite celebs latest updates, getting ideas for home hacks, or even watching make up and beauty tutorials - there's always something to do on Instagram!
Eve Writes | 11 February 2019
Eve Extra : Eve We Love
About Eve loves getting our inspiration from other successful and inspiring women on their Instragram. Not only we love looking at the beautiful insta-worthy photos, we also admire the work these women do.
For our IG Eve We Love on Eve Extra, we take a look at one of our Eve inspo, Raeesa Sya. A youth entrepreneur who is tech-savvy and hungry for success, we love this 29 year old for her spirit, determination, and passion. At young age, she already did and achieve many things many of her peers are probably still dreaming of.
Not only she's an amazing entrepreneur, Raeesa also has many accolades under belt - Forbes 30 Under 30 2018, Marie Claire Malaysia Amazing Women 2017, 2016 Tech In Asia 12 Under 30 Promising SEA Entrepreneur - just to name a few!
The founder and CEO of Orkid Cosmetics created her beauty brand after finding a gap in the Muslim beauty market. The beauty line, which is aimed at millennials who fancies accessible, trendy, halal, vegan and cruelty-free beauty products - their products are manufactured in a JAKIM approved Halal manufacturer in Malaysia and is completely wudu’ friendly! No need to remove your lipstick before your prayers with their liquid lippies. Their best-selling liquid lipstick, DIME, was awarded in CLEO’s Beauty Hall of Fame 2017, and they have seven other amazing colours that suit every Malaysian girls’ skin tone. What’s not to like?
This spirited young lady graduated in Graphics Design from Lim Kok Wing-Curtin University where she also majored in Multimedia studies. Raeesa spent much of her early career working in design and also start-up companies. Other than her skills in graphics design and multimedia, she's also creative and
passionate about street art and custom-designed apparels such as shoes and clothings. She managed to make a good sale of these items on the once-famous social media site, MySpace, and as she discovered, this was the start of her entrepreneurial passion.
After completing her studies, Raeesa joined a blog advertising company and gained the experience in building a microsite for the company. Gaining experience and knowledge for almost two years, she then took a break from work and concentrated on graphics design, where she provide consultation in design and develop Islamic content syllabus for kindergartens.
Her interest in social media grew when she joined 1M4U to help increase their social media presence back when social media started to gain more popularity and usages. When she discovered how much social media has the influence in boosting businesses, she started working and learning more about the applications of social media by focusing on its strategy and digital marketing.
Raeesa was a guest speaker for Asean 50 Women Business Conference at Manila, which was hosted by the Department of Trade and Industry Philippines in 2017. This boss babe is also active in the startup scene in KL, where she mentors and speaks at entrepreneurial events and programmes - she also mentors girls from the age of 5 to 12 in a programme with iTrain KIDS, where they learn how to code.
In 2016, Raeesa managed to successfully raise a mid-six digit funding in USD from a Silicone Valley backed VC firm 500 startups, KK Fund, and Captii with her Bfab co-founders. She focused on digital marketing and branding as the CCO of the company, with Bfab featured in more than 40+ beauty and tech publications. However, she left Bfab in December 2016.
If that’s not amazing enough for you, wait until you read more of her past work. Raeesa was the founder and CEO of a tech and beauty startup (LULU) and successfully exited the company in 2015, LULU is now acquired by HMH Technologies. She also runs a design agency (REVOLT), which specialises in Brand Identity, Creative Solutions, and Digital Media Consultancy for startups, SME owners and corporate companies. With over 6 years of experience under her belt, it’s no wonder her list of clients include Serai group, Carhartt, Tabung Haji, and more.
Raeesa has always been #ladyboss since 2006, as she started selling custom made apparels through her blog and MySpace page all while under the moniker Ladyesah. After being involved in the creative scene soon after she founded her first company, she was dubbed as KL’s IT GIRL all while still in high school and university (2006 - 2010)!
On top of all these, she’s also an avid cross-fitter and outdoor enthusiast, having conquered Mount Kinabalu peak in 2015 and sailing in the RSYC Harbour Race twice a month as an aspiring sailor - this girl can do it all! With all of these impressive achievements under her grasp, we can only see bright things in Raeesa’s future and hope all that is glitter and gold for her!
We hope our IG Eve We Love will inspire you to push yourself further and try as many new things as possible because we sure are inspired!
*Cover photo: First Classe
