Building an influencer empire before 40
Business-trained alumna Evangeline Leong constantly challenges herself to do better. With a keen eye for talent, she built an award-winning marketing agency with influencers spanning 19 countries – all before turning 40.
Today, Evangeline Leong is widely recognised as an expert in influencer marketing, leading a platform that connects brands to more than 14 million creators worldwide. Yet she remains grounded in her pursuit of growth.
While some students excelled academically, she found her strength in applying ideas to real-world challenges. When Evangeline was studying at Nanyang Business School (NBS), she eagerly joined case competitions by brands such as L’Oréal and Brands Chicken Essence. Despite not winning, she was thrilled by each challenge.
She says: “The module showed me that I had skills which could be applied and treasured in the working world.”
Evangeline returned to campus to share her marketing industry experience with NTU students, much like the guest lecturers that previously inspired her.
Taking the road less travelled
Evangeline graduated in 2008 and started working in the banking and finance industry. She performed well at a stable job but soon grew bored and left after a year to learn the ropes of digital marketing.
Instead of discouraging her, her boss gave his blessing and became the first partner in what would eventually become Kobe Global Technologies.
Building a dream against all odds
Kobe, which means “word-of-mouth” in Chinese, emerged when Evangeline noticed brands pouring money into online advertisements that failed to resonate.
It wasn’t until she met her co-founder, Cha Lin, who was then working in a company managing blogger campaigns, that Evangeline realised influencers could be the solution to the problem: “If I could put an ad on a human, I would have an endless inventory of ads. But first, I needed to build a platform to support this idea,” explains Evangeline.
However, Kobe hit rocky ground when a dispute with a freelancer escalated into a draining legal battle. It was a daunting challenge for a young CEO with limited resources, but winning the lawsuit taught Evangeline an important lesson: “It was either to give up on my dream or to fight until I had nothing left.”
Evangeline speaking at the Digital Marketing Asia 2025 conference in 2025 on trends in influencer marketing.
As Kobe grew, brands came onboard while the team secured patents to formalise their innovations. Soon, the platform became one of the region’s most recognisable names in influencer marketing.
In 2022, just seven years after its founding, UK-based creative network We Are Social acquired Kobe, a milestone that validated Evangeline’s hard work.
Last year, NTU honoured her achievements with the Nanyang Outstanding Young Alumni Award, celebrating her tenacity and impact on the industry. Evangeline was also inducted into Association of Advertising & Marketing Singapore (AAMS) Hall of Fame as a Creative Economy Catalyst.
“You have to like the dynamic of a fast-changing environment to thrive in the digital marketing industry,” she says, emphasising the need to stay ahead of trends and close to industry stakeholders and policymakers.
Her advice to aspiring content creators is simple: create from passion. “The most successful content creators are extremely passionate about their content, but they are also courageous and resilient. It takes a lot of courage to put yourself out there.”
A leader committed to shaping the industry
One of them is Soh Wei Sian, an NBS alumnus who began as an intern at Kobe eight years ago and is now a core member of her leadership team, serving as the company’s marketing lead.
Prior to Wei Sian becoming Kobe’s marketing lead (pictured left), he was an NTU student who attended her guest lecture at school (pictured right).
