Anthony Tan and Chloe Tong open a new chapter in family philanthropy with the Ace Team Foundation, guided by shared values, lived experience and a belief that meaningful change begins at home—and grows when communities come together with purpose
It is a quarter to nine on a Saturday morning when Tatler arrive at the home of Anthony Tan and Chloe Tong, and the house is already full of activity. Two of their five children are deep into an English lesson with their Montessori teacher, wandering through the rooms and identifying objects made of rocks and minerals. Their focus is steady, their curiosity unforced.
Tan appears with a warm greeting, with Tong joining moments later—both fresh from a quick morning workout before the photo shoot for this story. As the day unfolds, the rest of their children emerge under the watch of the family’s helpers: a quiet descent down the stairs, a request for a snack, a brief pause to take in the unfamiliar faces. Each soon returns to their own pocket of play or quiet time, wrapped in their parents’ soft chorus of “my love”, “sweetheart” and “cutie‑pie” that seems to float naturally through the house.
That same calm, attentive energy shapes the way the couple speak about their philanthropic work—less the story of an institution than a living inheritance built on values they grew up with and are now raising their children to hold. Tan is the co‑founder and group CEO of Grab, the leading superapp he launched in 2012 with a classmate from Harvard Business School that is now serving more than 800 cities across eight countries in Southeast Asia. Tong is both the family’s anchoring presence and the catalytic force behind the Ace Team Foundation, which they are building together.
Long before the foundation took public form—it began as a donor‑advised fund with the Community Foundation of Singapore in 2021—the pair had been giving quietly, following instincts shaped by their upbringing. “We’ve always been giving in our own capacity for many years, supporting the causes that resonate with us,” Tong says, emphasising continuity rather than a new awakening. In both their extended families, generosity was learnt through lived examples rather than declared ideals.
Their families knew each other even before the duo met. Tong’s father and Tan’s uncle were childhood friends who later became business partners, founding Malaysia’s first digital bank before it was acquired by Maybank in the early noughties. The generations before them grew up with very little, sustained by kinship and community. This symmetry forms a quiet backbone of their marriage and the foundation they eventually created.
Tong’s family moved to Canada when she was 10, and her childhood was marked by warmth and openness. “My parents,” she says, “are easily the most generous people I know.” With her siblings, cousins and a steady flow of guests, the house was always full. “Every family dinner had at least 10 people,” she recalls. “I had the most magical childhood.” Her voice softens when she speaks about her mother, who passed away when she was 18, and her father, who quietly supported the education of several members of the extended family on both sides. His quiet generosity, she says, shaped her earliest understanding of responsibility to others.
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Anthony Tan and Chloe Tong on the cover of the December 2025 issue of Tatler Singapore
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Tan’s early lessons came through a very different journey. His family runs Tan Chong Motor, the multinational automobile distributor founded by his grandfather and granduncle in the 1950s. When he chose to leave the company—where he had worked after returning from studying in the US—to build Grab, it led to a fallout with his father. “I respect him tremendously,” he says, “but unfortunately, we don’t have a relationship right now. Hopefully, we’ll win him over with time.”
He found a father figure in his father‑in‑law, who shares his training as an economist and whose steady, values‑driven instincts mirror his own. Tong, meanwhile, has embraced Tan’s mother as her own. “His mum took me in; she’s truly my mother now,” she shares. The couple’s union carries the imprint of several families, intertwined histories and many forms of love. “If there’s one word [to describe what we have], it’s ‘respect’,” Tan says—respect for one another, for their parents and for everyone whose lives have shaped theirs. It is the compass they hope will guide the upbringing of their five children: Emmanuel, 9; Elizabeth, 8; Elijah, 6; Elias, 4; and Elon Micah, 2.
“We always go back to our shared values,” Tan says. “For example, our youngest son’s name is Elon Micah. Micah 6:8 is our favourite verse [in the Bible]—or at least, it’s mine. It reminds us to act justly, love mercy, walk humbly. Regardless of religion, these are universal values anyone can live by.”
