Impact SEA

Impact Investing has emerged as an alternative asset class that channels large-scale private capital into addressing the world's most pressing social and environment challenges.

About 753 million people in Asia and the Pacific region live on less than US1.25 per day. So there’s a huge potential for Southeast Asia’s impact investment scene.

In Asia, where wealth is growing faster than anywhere else in the world – the growth rate of Asian billionaires will outpace North America and Europe by a solid 10% over the next few years, one would expect to observe a commensurate deployment of resources towards impact investment. And yet, of the half trillion dollars’ worth of assets under management in the impact investment industry, Asia accounts for less than 10%. What are some barriers that cause this lagging reality? 

To answer these questions, I speak to Vicky Lay, Head of Impact, a global alternative investment management firm specializing in debt, venture capital and impact investment strategies, for her expert insights on impact investing and sustainable investing in Southeast Asia.

748 million people around the world are without basic water access and billions more still suffer from the effects of not having access to clean water. In fact, according to a report done by WHO in 2019, some 829,000 people are estimated to die each year from diarrhoea as a result of unsafe drinking-water, sanitation, and hand hygiene. 

In South-east Asia, there is still more than 134 million people who do not have access to improved drinking water. WHO estimates that between 68% - 84% of water sources are contaminated in Southeast Asia.

What is obstructing our goal of universal access to clean water and sanitation? What creates such challenges and what is being done to overcome them?

To answer these questions, I speak to David Pong, CEO - Waterroam, a water-innovation social enterprise that develops community water filters for disaster relief and rural development. As of 2020, Waterroam has successfully brough clean water to over 88,000 people in rural villages and disaster-struck zones across South-east Asia.

With a population of over 261 million, Indonesia is considered as one of the most attractive and active markets for impact investment and social entrepreneurship in Southeast Asia. According to ANGIN (Angel Investment Network Indonesia), large amounts of capital are being pledged to the country, with more than 100 impact investors scouting the market. 

There is tremendous potential for impact to be done, as the country’s 100 cities are still lacking in good city planning, and face multiple historic challenges like aging and inadequate infrastructure, in a report by PWC Indonesia. There is also large-scale development without regard for the environment, including extensive urban sprawl, effectively causing harm to the environment and its people.

With such large impact problems that are growing faster than impact solutions can resolve, what can be done to quickly address these urgent sustainable issues? And how do tech startups help to overcome these challenges?

To answer these questions, I speak to Dondi Hananto - Partner, Patamar Capital, a resident of Indonesia, who is in the heart of the action, for his expert insights on the future of impact investing in Indonesia.

The Philippines is a dichotomy in its performance for the UN SDG goals. In 2018, they rank as the world’s most progressive renewable energy nation for the third year running.

In terms of gender equality, the Philippines was ranked eighth among the 10 best performers in the WEF’s Global Gender Gap report, alongside global sustainability leaders such as Iceland, Norway and Sweden. 

On the flip side, the Philippines is ranked as the world’s third biggest polluter after China and Indonesia, with 2.7m metric tonnes of plastic waste generated each year. And even though they lead the world in progressive renewable energy, almost 76% of their power generation was still supplied by fossil fuel plants.

With a mixed bag of results, where does this country of 106m people truly stand in terms of sustainability performance? And how can impact investments and tech startups help?

To answer these questions, I speak to Ping Manongdo, Country Manager - Philippines at Eco-Business, Asia’s leading media organisation on sustainable development, for her expert insights on the good and bad of sustainability in the Philippines.

According to the Cambridge Family Enterprise Group, family businesses dominate Southeast Asia and form a critical part of its economy. More than half of the region’s largest companies, and nearly all of its conglomerates—both private and listed—are family-controlled. These include household names such as SM Group (Philippines), Charoen Pokphand Group (Thailand), and the Sinar Mas Group (Indonesia). These businesses account for a significant percentage of employment and economic development in the region.

Family businesses in South-East Asia are therefore a crucial economic force to work with if we wish to pursue impact activities and have a better tomorrow for this region. 

In a positive trend, family businesses are transiting to the next generation who are in their 20s to 40s who are more exposed to issues of climate change and sustainability. So what are their views on implementing impact solutions into their businesses? And how can startups engage the Next Generation business owners to enact impactful change.

To answer these questions, I speak to Mei Tan, Co-Founder and CEO of the Innovatif+ community & platform for NextGen Family Businesses across Asia, for her expert insights on how the NextGen family businesses are looking at impact technologies.

According to statistics from worldometers, South-East Asia has approximately 670m people with 50% who are living within a city. This proportion of urbanities are forecasted to grow to 56% by 2030, which means an additional 40m more people will be living in cities in the next 10 years.

Cities will become even more densely populated as a result, and such pressure will be further deepened on cities like Bangkok, Jakarta and Ho Chi Minh City, which are all sinking due to excessive resources extraction.

In this near crisis situation, how do cities become smarter, more efficient and more intelligently managed? And what can technology startups do to contribute in making cities sustainable?

To answer these questions, I speak to David Goh, former General Manager of APAC region, of Daimler Mobility, for his insights

According to a report done by Food Industry Asia, a whopping 8m metric tonnes of marine plastic debris enters the ocean annually, of which 60% is contributed from just five countries: China, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines. Food and beverage packaging contributes about half of the plastic debris, a significant human-created pollution. 

In addition, the Covid-19 pandemic has caused us to take a pause on our plastic ban efforts and created a “takeaway” culture for the sake of our convenience. With this added demand for takeaway food, how well can we meet our UNSDG Goal 14 of significantly reducing marine pollution from the excessive food plastic usage? 

Are there any policies in Southeast Asia that could help facilitate the shift to sustainable packaging and creating positive change for our oceans?

Today, we speak to Pei Kang, CEO of TRIA Foodware, a maker of sustainable food packaging, for his insights.

As the world moves towards virtual integration, tech companies are constantly looking out for new sources of technical talents to complement their workforce.

According to the World Bank, Vietnam has a population of about 97m with a whopping 70% of the population below the age of 35. And though literacy levels are high in this nation, is this sufficient enough to meet the UN Sustainable Development Goal 4.4, where the Vietnamese youth have enough employment opportunities with the skillsets they have?

How can global companies and startups find a win-win situation with these rising and hungry young talents? We speak to Christopher Day, Chief Commercial Officer of CoderSchool, a programming school in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, for his perspectives.

During this Covid-19 pandemic, we have seen the immense pressure on healthcare resources in countries across SEA and the world. The rising rates of complex chronic diseases contribute to underlying conditions that have increased population risks to COVID-19 infection and spread. This compounds the complexity of patient care and adds further challenges to pandemic management. 

To get insights on the current challenges of healthcare operations in SEA, I am speaking with Dr Andrew Wu, Co-founder and CEO of Mesh Bio, a digital healthcare startup on his insights. Mesh Bio provides automation and predictive analytics solutions that have the potential to transform care delivery. 

A Myanmar farmer earns less than 2 USD a day but yet holds the key to food security and climate health. Agriculture contributes to 32% of Myanmar’s GDP and 50% of the population are in farming. Agriculture is a significant and important economic concern to this country.

So how does one create an impact on farmers in Myanmar?

In our second episode launching 01 Sep 5pm (Singapore GMT +8), get insights from David C.Y. Chen, COO of Golden Sunland, who has been in Myanmar for 3 years championing farmers livelihoods in growing rice crops.