SEA of Startups

Summary In this conversation, Kevin and Kim discuss the recent merger of Elon Musk's companies, particularly focusing on the implications of combining AI and space technologies. They explore the potential of data centers in space, the evolving role of Tesla, and the regulatory challenges that come with these advancements. The discussion also touches on the future of sovereignty in space and the me...

Heyyyy guys, 🧠 TL;DR — What Actually Changed * SGX × NASDAQ dual listing is a real regulatory breakthrough — but U.S. liquidity remains unproven * The fintech “funding collapse” was actually capital consolidation into Singapore * Southeast Asia is shifting from emerging → maturing , with real scaffolding for a capital stack * Founders + investors have a 24-month window before this becomes table s...

THIS WEEK'S REALITY CHECK Google just published research that makes every data center in Southeast Asia look obsolete. Project Suncatcher: Space-based AI data centers hitting cost parity with terrestrial operations by 2035. Launch costs dropped from $10,000 to $1,500 per kilogram. SpaceX is targeting $200/kg. This isn't science fiction. It's a $100 billion economic shift happening right now—and So...

Episode Title: 400% Returns vs S&P: The 6 M&A Habits Turning Acquisitions Into Capability Machines THIS WEEK'S REALITY CHECK Companies that transform while they transact are delivering 400%+ returns vs the S&P 500 over the last decade. That's not incremental. That's a different category of value creation entirely. Deloitte just mapped how they do it: Six habits that separate transformational acqui...

THIS WEEK'S REALITY CHECK The 47th ASEAN Summit just wrapped in Kuala Lumpur. Trump was there. China's Premier showed up. Everyone talked about integration. Meanwhile, the smartest founders in Southeast Asia are betting on something completely different: That the chaos isn't a bug—it's the entire competitive moat. This episode unpacks why ASEAN's fragmentation might be its biggest strategic advant...

Your grandmother probably thinks AI is just fancy autocomplete. Your investors think it’s the next industrial revolution. Both might be right. And that’s exactly the problem. Welcome to the most expensive game of musical chairs in human history. In October 2025, OpenAI—the company that made you question whether your job is safe—signed roughly $1 trillion worth of deals . Not over decades. Not in t...

When Regulators Win: What Singapore's Robotaxi Rollout Reveals About the Future of Deep Tech While Silicon Valley's AV companies fought regulators and burned billions, Singapore just orchestrated the future of transportation. WeRide partnered with Grab. Pony.ai partnered with ComfortDelGro. Both launching in 2025. This isn't just about self-driving cars. It's about how deep tech scales when you wo...

Your battery just died. Not your phone—your entire business model. This week on Sea of Startups, we're diving into why most climate tech fails within months in Southeast Asia, how tropical conditions are a torture chamber for hardware, and why the smartest founders are turning brutal constraints into billion-dollar competitive advantages. Plus: Why Chinese AV companies are playing a completely dif...

This conversation explores the messy middle of entrepreneurship through  Ryan Ng’s unique journey  of building  YouDigital  while leading APAC expansion at $12B unicorn Deel. We dive into cultural barriers holding back Southeast Asian professionals, the myth of work-life balance, and what it really takes to build something meaningful while maintaining financial stability. ⏱️ Key Topics Discussed T...

"We went from the whole growth at all costs mentality to, can you actually make money? All within the span of about 18 months." Hey everyone, News flash- That's not some venture capitalist pontificating from a Palo Alto coffee shop. That's Kevin Brockland describing the most dramatic pendulum swing in tech history—happening right now, in Southeast Asia, while everyone else is still arguing about A...

The Trust Equation: Why Corporate VCs Aren't the Villain in Your Startup Story "One yes can open doors you didn't know existed. One no from the wrong person can kill dreams before they start." — Pavel Veselovsky, Corporate Venture Strategist Hey everyone, Let's address the elephant in every founder's pitch deck. You know that moment when a corporate VC shows interest in your startup? That split se...

🎙 EP 10: The $40 Billion AI Reality Check | MIT's Brutal Wake-Up Call on Enterprise AI's 95% Failure Rate 🛰 Everyone's chasing AI transformation. 95% are just burning money. This week, Kevin Brockland and Kim Yeoh tear apart MIT's Project NANDA report — the most brutal reality check the AI industry has seen. Despite $30-40 billion in enterprise AI spending, 95% of companies have exactly zero ROI t...

🎙 EP 9a: You Can’t Copy-Paste Trust | Chi Chi Wong on Cross-Border VC, Founder Support, and Building the Human Infrastructure Behind Southeast Asia’s Startup Ecosystem 🛰 Everyone’s chasing unicorns. Chi Chi Wong is building something rarer: real cross-border trust. This week, Kim Yeoh sits down with Chi Chi Wong — the one-man APAC ecosystem team at Huawei Cloud — to unpack what ecosystem building...

Read up on our newsletter! 🎙 Most VCs think ESG stories are too noble to fact-check. That's how you lose $600 million. — Kim Yeoh 🛰 Southeast Asia's startup ecosystem just got a reality check that makes WeWork look like a rounding error. E-Fishery — Indonesia's sustainable aquaculture darling backed by SoftBank and Temasek — somehow turned $150 million in real revenue into $750 million on paper. T...

EP 7: The Enterprise Sales Reality Check You’ve Been Avoiding | The Enterprise Sales Playbook No One Talks About: Why Your Perfect Product Still Can't Close Corporate Deals in SEA Read up on our newsletter! 🎙 Most founders think enterprise sales is about having the best product. That’s adorable. — Axel Winter, former CTO Cisco APAC 🛰 Enterprise sales in Southeast Asia isn’t a meritocracy. It’s a g...

From Apps to Infrastructure: 3 Startup Shifts Rewiring Southeast Asia Read up on our newsletter! https://seaofstartups.substack.com/ 🎙️ EP 6: The Invisible Unicorns: Why Southeast Asia's Biggest Startup Stories Are Happening Behind Your Phone Screen 🛰 The next big story in Southeast Asia’s startup scene isn’t an app. It’s the infrastructure humming underneath. In this jam-packed episode, Kim Yeoh...

🎙️ Episode Title Philippines Startup Shift with Joseph De Leon 📌 Episode Summary (100–150 words) In this episode, Joseph De Leon (JDL) shares strategic insights into the evolution of the Philippine startup ecosystem: why $5K angel checks still teach more than $5M rounds, how conservative capital is learning to take risks, and what separates founders who pitch beautifully from those who can actual...

“You can’t build AI without compute. And you can’t build trust with slogans.” — Kevin Brockland “Singapore can’t handle everything. It really can’t.” — Kimberley Yeoh Hey everyone, Last week we talked cold hard cash, where it's flowing and why seed founders are getting squeezed while unicorns feast. This week? We're going deeper. Past the money, into the guts of what's actually getting built. Epis...

🎧 Episode 4A: Funding’s Up, Startups Down? Southeast Asia’s Barbell Economy in 2025 Welcome to Part 1 of our two-part deep dive on the state of startup funding in Southeast Asia. One month into the SEA of Startups podcast, we’re marking the milestone with a special two-parter that cuts through the noise — and goes straight to where the money’s moving (or not moving). In this episode, we unpack th...

“These APIs are pretty cool… they allow people to sell quickly without having to go through bureaucratic buying processes.” — Chris Birrell 🧠 Episode 3: Deep, Narrow & Agentic — with Chris Birrell (FUNC Ventures) In this episode of SEA of Startups , we dig into the quiet revolution happening inside the software stack — where smart APIs , agentic AI , and vertical SaaS are giving focused founders...

🎙️ EPISODE 2: The Road Less Funded – Seed-Strapping with Strategy Welcome back to SEA of Startups — where Southeast Asia’s startup game gets real. No hype. No fluff. Just raw conversations with the people building and backing what’s next. If Episode 1 was our reset, Episode 2 is the reframe — and we’re calling it: Seed-Strapping . That gritty middle ground between bootstrapping till burnout and fu...

This isn’t a fluffy reset. It’s a recalibration. SEA of Startups is back — sharper, bolder, and more real than ever. In this special kickoff, co-hosts Kevin Brockland (Indelible Ventures) and Kimberley Yeoh (Producer & Co-host) share what inspired this new chapter, and what listeners can expect from the episodes ahead. This isn’t just a podcast — it’s a space for authentic conversations, layered p...

This time around, we are sharing a recent presentation that our host gave at a recent event in which he discussed the different players in a startup ecosystem and how the current environment in Malaysia shapes up. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit seaofstartups.substack.com

This week we are joined by Jeremy Au. You may know him from the BRAVE Southeast Asia Tech Podcast or from Monk’s Hill Ventures. We cover a lot of ground chatting about the VC ecosystem. I’d love to know what you took away from this conversation with Jeremy Au. If you’d like to be considered as a guest or have someone that you’d like to hear me speak to, drop me a message. — Where to hear more from...

This week we are joined by Hanif Wahid the Founder of Delyva, which is is a multi-courier delivery platform recommends the best-performing courier service for every delivery. This was a great conversation with Hanif as we talked about the founding story and how they have grown.  We talk about the importance of customer feedback in building the product and scaling the business. I’d love to know wha...