Joanna Yeo, founder and CEO of Arukah and former institutional investor, speaks with Jeremy Au to explore how Southeast Asia’s agri-waste can be transformed into a global carbon credit engine. They unpack how her education at Harvard, Cambridge, and Stanford shaped a mission to connect vulnerable communities to opportunity, and how she learned from finance, blockchain, and rapid tech scaling to build a climate startup grounded in data, incentives, and farmer equity. Joanna shares why embedded finance failed to scale in agri, how she discovered the commercial viability of biochar and biogas, and why her company commits 50 percent of carbon revenue to participating farmers. The conversation highlights how Southeast Asia’s agriculture base, low-cost advantage, and digital infrastructure can lead the world in transparent, high-trust climate solutions if builders focus on real data, real problems, and real upside sharing.

05:05 The Impact of Education on Joanna's Career: Gratitude and exposure to global inequality led her to a clear goal to connect vulnerable people to markets at scale.

10:46 First Steps in Finance: Private Equity and Morgan Stanley: She learned how capital shapes the world, how sustainability can be measurable, and how investment logic is structured.

20:38 Reflecting on a Rapid Growth Journey: Joining a unicorn gave her a close look at how top tech firms manage speed, tracking, and execution discipline.

22:28 Addressing Poverty in Southeast Asia: Joanna links her mission back to the post-pandemic data showing up to 100 million people falling below $2/day.

23:16 Founding a Climate Tech and Agritech Startup: She founded Arukah to bring embedded financing and carbon monetization to underserved farming communities.

28:50 Building Sustainable Business Models: After embedded finance proved unreliable, she pivoted toward waste conversion with high verification standards.

36:49 Commitment to Farmers and Long-Term Vision: Bravery means holding the line on fairness Arukah gives farmers 50% of carbon revenue and builds with long-term trust.

Watch, listen or read the full insight at https://www.bravesea.com/blog/joanna-yeo-turning-farm-waste-to-wealth

Get transcripts, startup resources & community discussions at www.bravesea.com

WhatsApp: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VakR55X6BIElUEvkN02e

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@jeremyau

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jeremyauz

Twitter: https://twitter.com/jeremyau

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bravesea

English: Spotify | YouTube | Apple Podcasts

Bahasa Indonesia: Spotify | YouTube | Apple Podcasts

Chinese: Spotify | YouTube | Apple Podcasts

Vietnamese: Spotify | YouTube | Apple Podcasts