Filipino Venture Capitalist Joins Same Network as Macron and Zuckerberg
VC firm Gobi Partners Head of Sustainability Carlo Chen-Delantar has been named to the World Economic Forum Young Global Leaders Class of 2026.
by JV Ordoñez
Published on Apr 16, 2026
Carlo Chen-Delantar, partner and head of sustainability at pan-Asian venture capital firm Gobi Partners, has been named to the World Economic Forum's Young Global Leaders Class of 2026 along with 117 other exceptional leaders under 40 from 55 countries.
He's the first from the venture capital sector with a focus on sustainability, representing Manila before the coveted network.
In case you haven't heard of this prestigious list, the who's who, such as French President Emmanuel Macron in 2016 and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in 2009, are all alumni of it.
"The most effective leaders today are those who combine vision with responsibility, innovation with prosperity, and success with service,” said Ida Jeng Christensen, Head of the Forum of Young Global Leaders.
"The Class of 2026 reflects a remarkable generation of people who are already expanding what leadership can look like across government, business, academia, civil society, and culture.
The VC leader Chen-Delantar, 33, grew up in Cebu, where his family runs a B Corp-certified furniture manufacturing business. His background in accountability-first enterprise carried into his sustainability efforts.
Esquire Philippines first covered him in 2017, when he was turning travel and adventure into humanitarian missions for clean water
Gobi Partners manages $1.7 billion across 20 funds and over 400 portfolio companies. Since 2021, Chen-Delantar has directly overseen the deployment of over $200 million in capital across 17 Asian markets.
His focus is centered on addressing resource scarcity while balancing capital efficiency for partner startups and companies.
He is also the founding country director and now chairman of Waves for Water Philippines, which involves the delivery of clean water access to over two million Filipinos in underserved communities.
This advocacy led him to earn both the Presidential Development Award and the Presidential Bayanihan Award.
The young sustainability-forward VC player is also a Forbes Magazine 30 Under 30 Asia 2018 honoree and an Ellen MacArthur Foundation alumnus.
Chen-Delantar joins over 20 Filipinos named to the program since its founding in 2004. These Filipinos include most recently Ann Dumaliang of Masungi Georeserve, Senator Bam Aquino, broadcast journalist Karen Davila, and Ayala Corp.'s Jaime Alfonso Zobel de Ayala.
This year's class also includes WIZ.AI co-founder Jannifer Zhang, Nord Security CEO Tomas Okmanas, and Dominican-American Olympic gold medalist Thea LaFond.
"My first reaction was gratitude, followed quickly by a sense of responsibility. The Young Global Leaders community has produced some of the most consequential leaders of our time, and among Filipinos who have been part of it are people I genuinely admire," said Chen-Delantar, commenting on the distinction.
"What this means to me is not just the recognition but the platform. I intend to use the next three years to bring what a decade of building in the Philippines has taught me about governance and execution into a global room and to come back with sharper tools for what we are building across Asia."
Esquire PH's resident music scribe, loafer disciple, and essayist fluent in niche internet subcultures and Philippine politics.
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