Organisation:
Asia Partners
Resource Link:
2021, Link
My Key Takeaways
Asia Partners is a growth equity firm focusing on investments in technology and technology-enabled companies that are transforming Southeast Asia’s (SEA) economy.
This is a must-read report with deep insights for European and UK founders and scaleups wanting to enter and succeed in SEA’s tech ecosystem:
- Concise comparison of top tech ecosystems across SEA, and the 2 most common market strategies plus company examples for tech companies: Indonesia only (Strat 1) vs SEA from day one, with HQ in Singapore (Strat 2) – Pages 19-20
- A and B funding have strengthened, but funding gap for C/D stages remains. Between $20-100M check sizes, SEA has a ~$1.09B “Series C/D” gap in funding each year relative to China. Few investors focus on this gap – Page 33
- A field-tested template of how to spread your startup’s leaders across SEA effectively: ~26% of all Asia-wide roles sit in Singapore, double the proportion of that in Mainland China and Hong Kong – pages 23, 24
- Scan of emerging tech companies in SEA (i.e. who are your potential partners and competitors), and “Local Network Effects” being the most relevant Internet Business Model to SEA – pages 8-9
- Lessons from how different emerging market ecosystems evolve over time (“The Cargo and The Rails”, Pg 59)
- A detailed scan of existing internet business models in China, providing clues of upcoming tech companies in SEA. SEA is coming of age and around 10 years behind China. This is the time for your company to enter and scale in SEA, or miss the boat – Pages 11-12
- Data and comments on how four tech sectors have benefited from the COVID-19 crisis – Online Video/Edtech, Car Market Place, Online Travel, Online Health – Pages 95 – 118
- Interesting final read on the cautionary tale between the Unicorn and capital-productive Rhino.
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Good reminders from Warren Buffet’s timeless metric of market cap/GDP and the fact that “Almost 70% of the world’s most successful tech companies spent – and raised less than $100M to get to cash flow breakeven” – pages 119-127
My LinkedIn post here.
About Zhilin SIM
Having worked and lived in Singapore, the Nordics, China, Spain, UK, I’m now based in Paris.
I’m fluent in English, French and Mandarin, and I’m learning Arabic because it’s a beautiful and fascinating language.
My team creates and supports one-many initiatives connecting Corporate and Startup ecosystems in Europe to business and innovation opportunities in Singapore and Southeast Asia.
I’m passionate about horticulture, watercolour, startups/tech as well as French cuisine, Peranakan kueh techniques and other global cuisines.
Feel free to connect with me if you think my network in Europe and Asia could be of benefit to your business and innovation activities.
