60/40 Podcast

Six months ago, we made a set of predictions about AI, markets, and startups in 2026. Now it's time to see how they're holding up. Some aged surprisingly well: Google's AI search is becoming the default experience, AI specialists are going mainstream, and Canva continues its march toward IPO. Others... not so much. Along the way, we unpack the biggest surprises of the year so far: Anthropic's stun...

Markets are up despite an oil crisis, AI capex keeps climbing, and Asia's capital allocators are making big moves. So where is the region's smart money actually going? Maria sits down with co-host Aleksey — global head of investment solutions at Leo Wealth — for a full market vibe check across the region. They get into the two camps dividing investors right now (are we in '98 or about...

AI isn’t just changing jobs—it’s splitting the job market in two. In this episode, Maria and Peter break down what’s actually happening beneath the headlines: a flat overall job market, but a 50% surge in AI-related roles—and a growing divide between those who are compounding with AI and those being left behind. They dig into: Why the job market feels “fine” at the macro level—but is quietly fract...

Singapore is going all-in on AI. From a Prime Minister–led AI council to billions in investment, talent visas, and national missions across healthcare, education, and beyond—the ambition is clear: become a global AI superpower. But ambition is the easy part. In this episode, we break down the real question: can Singapore actually pull it off? We go beyond the headlines to unpack where value in AI...

A "research memo" set in 2028 made a splash in tech and investor circles and moved markets (at least, for one day). Part thought experiment, part fan fiction, and part collective anxiety attack — the Citrini Report imagines a world where AI drives unprecedented productivity while quietly pulling the foundations out from under the modern economy. Tech stocks sold off. Investors rotated. A...

This week’s 60/40 is a peer review of one of Asia’s biggest fintech stories. AUSTRAC has escalated its AML probe into Airwallex. But beyond the headlines, three seasoned fintech founders and investors — Walter de Oude (Chocolate Finance), Prashanth Ranganathan (Zinc & PayU), and Aleksey Mironenko (Leo Wealth) — break down what this really means. Every financial institution has exposure to frau...

In the first 60/40 episode of 2026, the team breaks down one of the most talked-about AI deals in Singapore — Meta’s acquisition of Manus — and asks the uncomfortable question: what if it doesn’t go through? We unpack why Manus sold at a reported $2B valuation, what Meta is really buying (hint: it’s not just tech), and how geopolitics, export controls, and trust are reshaping the global AI landsca...

For our final episode of the year — and our 20th since launch! — the full 60/40 crew gets together to look ahead at what 2026 will bring for Asia’s tech and business landscape. Before jumping into predictions, we rewind through the biggest plot twists of 2025: Grab’s glow-up, DeepSeek shaking the global AI order, Pine Labs racing to IPO, tariffs reshaping supply chains, and crypto’s unexpected glo...

This week, 60/40 sits down with Endowus co-founders Gregory Van and Samuel Rhee — the duo behind one of Asia’s fastest-growing wealthtech platforms. We unpack their latest $70M fundraise, how they built a conflict-free investing model in a region dominated by commissions, why they stayed laser-focused on Singapore and Hong Kong, and how they survived the tech winter without mass layoffs. Greg and...

In this episode of 60/40 , the crew goes into full AI group therapy mode. Maria, Prashanth, Peter, and Alexey debate whether we’re living through another tech bubble—or just the warm-up act. From OpenAI’s trillion-dollar spend and AMD’s $90 billion chip deal, to SoftBank’s robotics binge and Deloitte’s AI “oops” moment, the team breaks down where the hype ends and the hard math begins. They unpack...

Stablecoins are having a main-character moment. In this episode, Maria, Peter, and Prashanth are joined by Milind Sanghavi, co-founder of XWeave.io, to decode the hype and the hard reality behind the $30 trillion cross-border payments market. Together, they explore: What stablecoins actually are (and why “stable” is a misleading word) How the Genius Act cements U.S. dollar dominance in the digital...

This week, the 60/40 team dives into the eye-popping $300 billion OpenAI–Oracle deal and what it signals about the future of compute, models, and AI monetization. We also unpack OpenAI’s StatSig acquisition, Europe’s big swing with ASML backing Mistral, and whether we’re already in an AI bubble.  Plus, the gang breaks down Alibaba’s latest earnings and Lightspeed’s “consumer barbell” thesis in Sou...

This isn’t Kee Lock Chua’s first rodeo. Widely regarded as the OG of Singapore’s VC scene, Kee Lock — CEO of Vertex Holdings — joins 60/40 to break down the state of Southeast Asia’s startup ecosystem. From LP demands to inexperienced VCs to the curse of excess capital, he offers candid lessons from decades in the industry. We cover: Why Southeast Asia’s venture market is in “recalibration mode” H...

Ula was once one of Southeast Asia’s brightest startups. In under two years, it raised $140M from Tiger Global, Lightspeed, Peak XV, and even Bezos Expeditions — all while seeking to reinvent Indonesia’s warung (roadside kiosk) economy. But when global markets turned in 2022, co-founder and CEO Nipun Mehra saw the writing on the wall. Without fresh capital, tough choices loomed. What followed was...

Southeast Asia’s and India’s leading tech firms are, at long last, delivering on the promise of profitability. Sea, Grab, GoTo, and Paytm all reported better-than-expected numbers in Q2, and markets rewarded them accordingly.  At the same time, the global conversation around AI shifted again. The launch of GPT-5 raised more questions than it answered: have we reached a plateau in AI advancements,...

Asia’s IPO window is finally open — but the action isn’t in New York anymore. From Hong Kong’s rebound to India’s retail-fueled listings, Maria, Prashanth, and new resident analyst Aleksey Mironenko break down why Asia’s biggest tech players are staying closer to home this round. They then tackle the deepening AI divide: is the world headed toward two tech stacks, two chipsets, and two digital eco...

In this episode of 60/40, we sit down with Lewis Ng , the new CEO of PropertyGuru , to explore the evolving role of marketplaces in Southeast Asia—and what it takes to lead one. In conversation with Peter Bithos (his former boss, no less!), Lewis reflects on his path from telesales to the C-suite, how he deliberately built career experience to become a tech executive, and why he believes marketpla...

In this high-energy episode, we sit down with Ronnie Chatterji, Chief Economist at OpenAI, to unpack why Southeast Asia might just be the most exciting region for AI adoption right now. While the West debates regulation and risk, Asia’s young, ambitious workforce is seizing AI as a tool to leapfrog outdated development models — from rethinking education to building local AI-powered apps. We talk g...

We are back with Khailee Ng, Managing Partner at 500 Global, for Part 2 of our conversation and how founders can move from the doom loop to the hope loop! From healing grief to revenue-first strategies, AI-enabled reinvention, and going global with conviction, Khailee shares a blueprint for how founders can turn pain into possibility. Whether you’re fundraising, bootstrapping, or in between, this...

This is a spicy one. In a no-holds-barred convo with 500 Global’s Khailee Ng, we unpack the emotional, economic, and ecosystem-wide challenges currently plaguing Southeast Asia’s startup scene.  In this Part 1, Khailee describes his concept of a "doom loop" in brutal detail - characterized by decreased venture capital funding, lower returns for investors, and an emotional toll on founders and empl...

In episode 7 of the 60/40 Podcast, co-hosts Maria, Prashanth, and Peter discuss the evolving landscape of AI in business and recruitment with Grant Wright, the group executive for AI at Seek. The group explores how AI is reshaping the recruitment process and how Seek, one of the largest jobs platforms in Asia, is staying ahead of the AI trend to disrupt its core business. This conversation covers...

Walter de Oude is the founder and CEO behind Chocolate Finance, the Singaporean fintech company that got swept up in a mass withdrawal debacle in March (check out episode 2 for more details about that!). In this episode, Walter chats with the 60/40 team about lessons learned from March, what keeps him building, and how he's cracked the most important part of any startup journey - scaling. Hot take...

Pine Labs is one of India's hottest fintech startups, a position cemented by recent headlines over its upcoming IPO. We hear firsthand from Amrish Rau, CEO of Pine Labs, on his journey to transform the company from a hardware, offline based payments company to the leading fintech solutions provider of the future. For hot takes of the week, we turn our attention to the Blusmart/Gensol case in India...

The 60/40 Podcast dives into what’s really happening in Japan’s startup and fintech ecosystem. Is the world’s fourth largest economy finally ready to embrace the tech and startup opportunity? The team touches on everything from market fundamentals, to fundraising, to gender norms in Japan. Hot takes of the week include Shopify’s AI memo, Grab 2024 earnings, and news of Aspire withdrawing from the...

This week, the 60/40 Podcast tackles some of the biggest existential questions for the startup community: How does AI change the process of building startups, for early stage and late stage companies? What is AI's impact on VC fund economics? What is the current state of fundraising in Southeast Asia? Tune in to hear Hsu Ken Ooi, Managing Partner of Iterative Capital, discuss these topics and more...