# Victor Ho

> Victor Ho co-founded Fivestars with Matt Doka to bring loyalty and customer engagement tools to local businesses. After work at Goldman Sachs and McKinsey and three fields of study at UC Berkeley, he helped grow the company from a universal loyalty card into an integrated payments and marketing platform. SumUp completed its $317 million cash-and-stock acquisition in October 2021. His public LinkedIn profile now lists a sabbatical, and Praxis describes him as considering his next startup.

- **Role:** Entrepreneur on sabbatical; co-founder and former CEO of Fivestars
- **Organizations:** Fivestars, SumUp, McKinsey & Company, Goldman Sachs, Praxis
- **Nationality:** Taiwanese-American
- **Education:** Studied Industrial Engineering, Rhetoric and Business Administration; company biography describes three degrees, University of California, Berkeley
- **Known for:** Co-founded and led Fivestars through its $317 million acquisition by SumUp., Helped build a network with 65 million consumer members and more than 12,000 small businesses at the 2021 acquisition closing., Expanded Fivestars from loyalty rewards into integrated payments and marketing.

## Career timeline

- **2008** — Berkeley identifies Ho as a class of 2008 alumnus.
- **Before 2010** — Worked at Goldman Sachs and McKinsey; at McKinsey helped large brands develop loyalty and customer engagement strategies.
- **2010** — Co-founded Fivestars with Matt Doka; the founders moved to San Jose and taught themselves Python.
- **2011** — Fivestars participated in Y Combinator W11 and launched its universal loyalty card in July.
- **2018** — The founders reported more than 40 million people and 13,000 businesses on the network in an October Y Combinator interview.
- **2019** — Fivestars Pay launched with Infinicept infrastructure.
- **2020** — Fivestars announced $52.5 million in equity and debt financing, bringing reported total funding to $145.5 million.
- **2021** — SumUp completed its $317 million cash-and-stock acquisition on October 28; Ho was CEO at closing.
- **As checked October 2026** — LinkedIn lists a sabbatical; Praxis describes consideration of a next startup. The start date of the sabbatical is not established here.

## Achievements

- Co-founded and led Fivestars through its $317 million acquisition by SumUp.
- Helped build a network with 65 million consumer members and more than 12,000 small businesses at the 2021 acquisition closing.
- Expanded Fivestars from loyalty rewards into integrated payments and marketing.
- Completed studies across three fields at UC Berkeley.

## Latest updates

- **2026-10** — Verification-date observation: public LinkedIn lists a sabbatical, and Praxis describes consideration of a next startup; neither establishes the date that status began.
- **2021-11** — SumUp announced on November 10 that the Fivestars acquisition had closed on October 28, 2021.

## Links

- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/victor-ho-47257211/

---

Profile page: https://yespress.io/victor-ho
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-10-27