© 2024 Gobi Partners
Southeast Asia is a market that often catches outside observers off guard. Think of the surprise that greeted the acquisition by Grab of Uber’s Southeast Asia business in 2018. More investors are taking note of the region, however, driven by a combination of factors reminiscent of China’s early tech boom. This includes a critical mass of young consumers who are quick to adopt new technology. Despite a global funding slowdown, Southeast Asia’s startup momentum remains strong.
Southeast Asia is also becoming increasingly intertwined with other regions on the continent, including Northeast Asia, South Asia and MENA (Middle East North Asia), resulting in a cross-pollination of ideas as startups grow and expand into new markets. “These connections form one of Gobi’s key investment pillars,” Gobi Partners’ Co-founder and Chairman Thomas G. Tsao shared at Gobi’s Bridging Investors and Southeast Asia’s Dynamic Ecosystem Event in Kuala Lumpur. Another pillar, re-globalisation with Asia as a counterpoint, underscores Gobi’s belief that the region will lead the next wave of global investment and commerce.
Since its inception in Shanghai more than 20 years ago, Gobi has been an early supporter of emerging markets. For example, it was the first China-based venture firm to set up a fund in Singapore in 2010, before relocating its ASEAN headquarters to Kuala Lumpur. Today, its portfolio spans over 400 startups across China, ASEAN and MENA and South Asia.
At the event, leading Southeast Asian founders shared insights on critical trends shaping the ecosystem:
FinTech for the Future (Alvin Yuan, Founder & CEO, HealthMetrics; Wilson Beh, Co-founder & Group Chief Operations Officer, PolicyStreet; Kelvin Teo, Co-founder, Funding Societies)
Alvin, Wilson and Kelvin discussed how technology creates more equality by increasing access to working capital, insurance and healthcare for underserved markets at scale. For example, HealthMetrics is building AI tools that can process data to manage patient care and reduce fraud, waste and abuse, helping keep medical inflation down.
While regulations are often seen as a bottleneck to innovation, the panel talked about how it can help startups as long as they keep lines of communication with regulators open, since everyone wants to solve the same problems. This ensures that license and regulatory frameworks are conducive to emerging fintech, including the creation of sandboxes to test the viability of new services.
Scaling TaqwaTech (Chief Executive Officer and Group Managing Director, Bitsmedia; Nafees Khundker)
TaqwaTech, or technology catering to the world’s 1.9 billion Muslims, is one of the most important investment themes of the future. It includes shariah-compliant FinTech services, travel, halal pharmaceuticals and media. Nafees elaborated on the massive size of the opportunity. Muslims make up more than 25% of the world’s population and Bitsmedia’s growth is twofold, in both Muslim majority and minority countries like the United States and United Kingdom.
Nafees also noted that success in TaqwaTech requires localisation. Bitsmedia adapts its products to different Muslim communities by tailoring language, writing styles, and even Arabic pronunciation to regional nuances.
Accelerating Innovation: The Synagistics Journey (Zanetta Lee, Co-founder, Synagistics)
Building an e-commerce startup in Southeast Asia means being extremely responsive to shifting consumer desires and your own business needs. Before Synagistics was launched, its team started a D2C startup that focused on beauty-related FMCG. However they realised customer acquisition costs were too high to be sustainable and decided to transition from an asset-heavy model to an asset-light one. This meant converting brand partners into customers and managing their marketing, warehousing and fulfillment.
Synagistics differentiated from other e-commerce enablers with its pan-Southeast Asia focus, working with multinational corporations that wanted to expand in the region. Last year, the company went public (2562.HK) in Hong Kong’s first de-SPAC, gaining access to Greater China investors seeking ASEAN exposure and increasing its visibility among potential brand partners.
Greening Tech: Climate Innovations and Sustainability in the Tech Ecosystem (Amir Zakwan Anuar, Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Aerodyne Group; Dr. Jay Desan, Co-founder, BoomGrow; Feier Cheng, President, YuanPlanet Malaysia)
Mitigating the impact of climate change is one of the most important challenges for technology to address. The speakers on this panel are all making different industries more sustainable. For example, monitoring critical infrastructure often involves a team of people driving into potentially hazardous environments. By using drones to perform the monitoring, Aerodyne makes the process safer and more sustainable, reducing carbon emissions.
Another way to save resources is by bringing the food supply chain closer to consumers. BoomGrow’s precision farming modules not only reduce carbon emissions from shipping, but also use 95% less water than traditional farming methods. YuanPlanet, meanwhile, applies the circular economy model to the automotive industry. The dramatic growth of the electric vehicle industry in China created sustained demand for recycling, with the government launching incentives for automakers to use recycled aluminium. YuanPlanet helps scrapyards sell recycled material to Chinese automakers, reducing waste and pollution.
Chipping Into Tomorrow: Navigating the Future of Semiconductors (Galvin Wong, Chief Financial Officer, SkyeChip)
Malaysia, alongside Singapore and Vietnam, remains a key semiconductor hub, supported by strong infrastructure, a skilled workforce, and government initiatives like the National Semiconductor Strategy. Known for its backend manufacturing, demand for Malaysia’s services is being driven by megatrends like high-performance computing, automotive electrification, robotics and the automation of factories and manufacturing, says Galvin.
With decades of development, Malaysia’s semiconductor industry is well-established, but now is the time for it to maintain its edge by investing in the most advanced packaging technologies. The decoupling between the U.S. and China also gives ASEAN countries a chance to collaborate and create local semiconductor supply chains.
Though the macroenvironment remains challenging, Gobi is committed to supporting innovation throughout Southeast Asia. In 2024, Gobi deployed a total of US$58 million across the region, with 39.2% directed toward HealthTech, 13.3% to FinTech and 8.5% to the Circular Economy. New portfolio additions include FinTech startups DCAP and ProCredit, Circular Economy players Humble Sustainability and Bateriku, EduTech Jazro and Cybersecurity firm ArmourZero.
In 2025, Gobi will continue backing AI, semiconductors, TaqwaTech and sustainability – sectors poised to shape Southeast Asia’s future and solidify its place on the global innovation map.