Investing In Asia

Listen in on a conversation with Dr. Cecilia Laschi, a leading expert in soft robotics and bio-inspired robotics at the National University of Singapore. Dr. Laschi discusses her research on building efficient, adaptable, and sustainable robots using soft materials inspired by nature. She highlights advancements in materials that mimic biological properties, and the development of soft grippers an...

Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned on August 5, 2024, amid massive protests and violent unrest that had gripped the country for weeks. The unrest began as student-led protests against a controversial government job quota system but quickly escalated into widespread anti-government demonstrations. Protesters accused Hasina’s government of corruption, election rigging, and human righ...

Companies large and small across Asia are increasingly adopting autonomous robots in warehouses and manufacturing. At the bleeding edge of this is Rahul Nambiar, CEO of Botsync. Botsync helps manufacturers automate their manufacturing facilities across Asia. In this episode we start with Botsync's journey, then we cover the types of different robots, adoption rates, buying versus leasing, gov...

Today’s guest is Bhavik Vashi, the managing director for Asia Pacific and the Middle East at Carta. His seat at Carta gives him a perfect view as to what’s happening in the region in terms of startup and VC fundraising and formation. This episode is especially helpful for any LPs looking at the APAC region.   Questions we tackle include: What it was like to experience two major liquidity events Wh...

 Today's guest is Caesar Sengupta, the CEO of Arta Finance, a wealth management platform built by Caesar and his team of ex Googlers. They came out of stealth in 2022 and announced having raised 90 million in funding. Caesar holds a degree in computer science from Stanford and an MBA from Wharton at Google. Caesar was part of the team that built Google pay into one of the world's leading...

Today’s guest is Leo Jiang. Leo is the Chief Digital Officer of Huawei Cloud and AI for APAC and the Founder of the company’s global accelerator, Huawei Spark. He’s been recognised as a Top 10 Most Influential CDO globally by Technology Magazine. We’re lucky to have him with us today as we dive into all things related to AI, Asia, and startup investing. Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leo-nu...

Today’s guest is Erika Cheung, a key whistleblower who reported Theranos to health regulators. Her report subsequently led to the shutdown of Theranos’ clinical lab which prevented the company from providing false medical results to thousands of patients. The case has been reported on extensively, including in the book Bad Blood by John Carreyou, 60 Minutes, ABD Podcast: The Drop Out, and Alex Gib...

Today's guest is Bas Fransen, CEO and founder of EcoMatcher. Originally from Holland, Bas started his career in the Royal Dutch Navy and went on to become a technology executive with long stints at Phillips Semi Conductors, and then IBM. He founded the tree-planting company he runs today, called EcoMatcher, in 2016. The for-profit business has by now planted over a million trees and is on tra...

William Bao Bean is Managing Director of Orbit Startups the first and longest-running startup program in Asia and General Partner of SOSV the #2 most active venture capital investor in the world and #5 Asia/ROW with US$1.5bn in assets under management. William joined Orbit and SOSV from SingTel Innov8 Ventures where he was a founding Managing Director. Prior to that, William was a Partner at Softb...

This episode delves into the issue of corruption within the Indian construction industry while examining how 91Squarefeet is making significant improvements to this sector in India. We learn exactly how “kickback” payments are made, we understand the role of technology can play in avoiding corruption, and we hear advice on what investors can do in their due diligence to identify dodgy business pra...

Danyaal Abdul Khaliq is a founder and general partner at Teamup Ventures, an early-stage VC Fund investing in MENAPT (middle east, north Africa, Pakistan, Turkey).  Danyaal also set up Teamup Angels, a startup networking platform in Pakistan. He has such a fascinating background: in addition to being an active investor in Pakistan, he's worked in London for Jefferies in investment banking and...

How is your investment strategy changing in light of climate change? Which regions and industries are poised to survive and thrive, and which face existential threats? Where should you work and live in the coming years? This episode is about investing in the future. Our special guest Parag Khanna, who is a  geopolitical scholar and the author of Move: The Forces Uprooting Us. The webinar is modera...

In this episode, we take a look at startups in Turkey. 2021 is shaping up to be a great year for Turkey with two different companies - Getir and Dream Games - reaching unicorn status in the first half of 2021. Here to help us understand the country is Esranur Kaygın, a Dutch-born entrepreneur and investor of Turkish descent who lives in Istanbul. Esra has studied commerce, economics, and managemen...

In this episode of Investing In Asia, we'll learn about Vietnam, where investments in startups rose by a factor of 8 between 2016 and 2019, and they continue to rise in 2021 even as the country battles Covid. We're lucky to have today's guest, Eddie Thai, who is a General Partner for 500 Startups in Vietnam. He's also a GP at Ascend Vietnam Ventures , which aims to back the nex...

Betatron's Website: https://www.betatron.co/ Today we'll learn how new tech companies are transforming Pakistan. A young, vibrant, but often misunderstood country, Pakistan has been named one of Asia's fastest-growing economies. While the tech-startup scene is small, it's growing fast, with a 97% increase in funding between 2019 and 2020. Our guest today is Sardar Ahmed Durrani...

Today we're talking about Property tech, aka Proptech in Asia. Asia is the world's largest real estate market. Investments into startups servicing the industry, from construction to management to sales and rentals, went from half a billion dollars in 2013 to over 7 billion in 2020, and by all accounts, we're still at the early stages of tech adoption in the industry. Our guest is Ar...

In this episode, we meet Dr. Parag Khanna, a geopolitical scholar and best-selling author of 6 books. He's the Managing Partner of FutureMap, a data and scenario based strategic advisory firm. And his most recent book is The Future is Asian: Commerce, Conflict & Culture in the 21st Century. This episode is a must-listen for anyone investing in the region, and even for anyone living here....

In this episode we learn about sustainability investments in Asia. With its population density, massive urbanization, and already-strained access to water and energy, Asia is particularly vulnerable to the early impacts of climate change. With more wealth in the hands of family offices today than perhaps at any other time in modern history, family offices, particularly in Asia, have an important r...

In this episode, we look at Asia's massive maritime industry. Nine out of ten of the world's largest ports are in Asia, where demand for products in and out of China has increased significantly since peak pandemic, and globally the industry is looking to become more sustainable and efficient. Our guest is Su Yin Anand, Head of Shipping at South32, a publicly traded, globally diversified...

Today we look at Bangladesh. It's one of Asia's fastest-growing economies. We'll look at how the country is changing, we'll learn about the demographics, about finding strong startups, what some of the risks are, and where the country is going in the coming years. Our guest is Rahat Ahmed, CEO and founder at Anchorless Bangladesh, a VC fund investing exclusively in Bangladesh. ...

Today's guest is Jarron Stephens, an investor and serial entrepreneur based in Hong Kong. His resume is incredible, so I'll try to name just a few of his companies. He cofounded  Stephens & Hollander, a consultancy that built one of the first Buy-side Algorithmic Trading engines. He also founded HighStakes, Casino-gaming consultancy, and cofounded meatmarket.hk, where they've be...