Race Wong’s transformation from entertainer to entrepreneur

From pop singer to movie star and now an entrepreneur in the tech finance industry, Race Wong’s career has been an incredible adventure to date.

Born in Malaysia, raised in Singapore, Race pursued her dreams in the entertainment industry with her sister Roseanne Wong.

“I moved to Hong Kong when I was 20 years old with my sister, Rosanne. We formed a band called 2R and suddenly, we had a taste of stardom. We did records, movies and TV shows, we won awards. The entire experience was really surreal.”

And 2R did win awards - including Most Promising Newcomer and Most Popular Group Award in the Annual Top 10 Song of the Year Awards (2003), Metro Broadcasting Music awards (2004), TVB Top 10 Songs of the Year (2004) and Hong Kong Commercial Radio Music Awards (2003).

But Race received her big break when she was chosen to feature alongside Hong Kong actor Stephen Chow in his famous San Miguel TV advertisement. From there, she starred in several films - from drama to horror films - and earned multiple firm award nominations.  Race was nominated for Best New Actor in the 24th Annual Hong Kong Film Awards and the 42nd Golden Horse Film Awards in Taiwan for her outstanding performance in her first leading role in the movie Abnormal Beauty.

At 25 years of age, Race noticed there were very few actresses who could sustain their acting careers. Wanting to shift her focus to something she could invest in the long term, she changed course and made a bold move into the world of business.

In 2013, she completed a Master of Business majoring in marketing at the University of Newcastle. While she was studying, she took on a role as Marketing Manager at Maybank Kim Eng Securities, one of the largest financial services groups in Southeast Asia.

“The degree was especially useful when I was working and studying at the same time as I was able to apply textbook content to relevant projects I was working on, which covered marketing and corporate finance.”

Race’s study plus her experience at Maybank Kim Eng – particularly in the integration of the company’s online and offline trading experience - inspired her to found real estate company Anthill Realtors from 2014 to 2016, with her sister Roseanne. During this time, Race was reading a book about new technologies in the world and knew she needed to embrace a gap in the market and transform her brick-and-mortar real estate agent business into a tech firm.

“We wanted to provide a simple, fast and affordable one stop shop that most importantly could serve everyone. It seems obvious now, but things were different back in 2016. You can list your properties everywhere now, even Facebook. Back then, real-estate portals… only allowed agents to post listings. There was this big gap in the market that we wanted to address. The core idea behind Ohmyhome is that everything you need to do to move from (one) home to the other, you can do with us.”

Ohmyhome is now a successful proptech marketplace connecting homeowners to home seekers. Since its establishment in 2016, the company has served over 13,000 families across Singapore and Malaysia, saving customers over $45 million in unnecessary commissions – and this year, Ohmyhome became the first Singaporean company listed in the US, and also made history by becoming the first women-only founded proptech company listed in the US.

Race and her sister have a simple ethos – developing Ohmyhome to be the most trustworthy platform for users.

“We don’t have to be the biggest platform, but we pride ourselves on being the most reliable in taking care of our clients’ housing journeys from start to end. The goal is to drive positive change in the industry and set a high standard—if we are offering a lower fee for our clients, other platforms can do so too. If we are meeting renovation timelines, the rest of the industry can follow suit.”

Race continues to serve as Chief Product Officer and says real estate feels second nature. Now as a mother of two, Race says it isn’t always easy being a woman in the real estate industry.

“I think as women we do have to work extra hard to prove ourselves. If a man in the workplace mentions that his wife is pregnant, he’ll be congratulated, but women face judgment.”

Race has instilled the importance of family into the company culture at Ohmyhome, making the office child-friendly, even including a playroom, to alleviate the stress of working mothers.

Race’s primary goal throughout her career has been to leave a positive mark on the world and she encourages current students to consider the same when taking their first steps into their futures.

“Regardless of which business I were to take on in future, I would always think about having a positive impact on my society. I hope for students to consider this when they embark on their journey in life. The world we live in is connected and in the pursuit for financial returns, we should always be conscious about making the world a better place. When we are all aligned, we can inch towards the right direction together.”