Fintech in Southeast Asia is the only sector set to nearly double funding in 2020 compared to 2019. Out of 109 Fintech startups in Southeast Asia, 35 startups are now valued at more than $100 million. Ant Financial is the most anticipated IPO of the year at a rumoured $250 billion, which would make it roughly the 5th largest “bank” in the world. Fintech is not only impossible to ignore but too important not to understand.  

Topics discussed:

Whether the smaller players will be able to compete for market share with the larger Unicorns like Grab, GoJek, ZaloPay, OVO, etc.

The revenge of the banks

Digital banking, and what it means in 2020

Embedded finance

What is next in the Fintech space

  Soundbites

Pinn Lawjindakul - "I want a relationship with you longer than your marriage."

Kelvin Teo - "My parents are Asian so I wasn't allowed to drop out."

  Watch the full episode here.

Threats created by disinformation campaigns have created cyber insecurity. These challenges create opportunities for the next-gen of cybersecurity startups – the cyber defenders.

A global view on cybersecurity deal activity – a record high of $10Bn in funding and 770 deals in 2019 compared to less than half in 2015 with $4.5Bn in funding and a mere 473 deals. VC investments have remained strong and bullish, with most active investors including Lightspeed and Accel.

Now it’s no longer a question of if, but when the next cyberattack will occur.

 

Topics discussed:

Understand why the threat of cyberattacks is greater than ever post-COVID

Get familiar with basic terms such as Malware, DDoS, Firewall, Phishing, White hat and Black hat

Get familiar with the type of attacks occurring right now and how cybersecurity startups are arriving at new solutions to these attacks

 

Soundbites

Paul Hadjy - "Cybersecurity is like crime, you can't completely eradicate it."

Kuo-Yi Lim - "Artificial is squarely important."

 

Watch the full episode here.

Impact investment is not about “doing no harm.” Rather, it is a proactive investment to make an impact and drive positive change.

Impact investing is a young concept in Asia, but it is growing rapidly. In total, 16 percent of global impact investment AUM are allocated to East, South, and Southeast Asia, compared to 28 percent of AUM allocated to the US and Canada.

 

Topics discussed:

Impact Investing vs ESG Investing – clarifying the definitions and differences

Challenges & Opportunities of Impact investing in Southeast Asia

Outlook for continued positive societal change in SEA

 

Soundbites

Shuyin Tang - "A lot of impact investing capital is with traditional funds, a lot of investment don't fit the ten year life span"

Paul Meyers - "We need to look at different investment vehicles."

 

Watch the full episode here.

Impact investment is not about “doing no harm.” Rather, it is a proactive investment to make an impact and drive positive change. Impact investing is […]

McKinsey says that consumers “vaulted” 5 years of digital adoption in just eight weeks recently. One of the undeniable trends here is social commerce. Social commerce is the facilitation of e-commerce transactions on social media platforms via communities and conversations. It often leverages digital influencers to build customer attraction, trust and loyalty.

Pinduoduo became the third-largest retailer in China via social commerce in just three years. Jingling, another superstar raised $100 million on its Series C last year. In Southeast Asia, we have Ecomobi, Mucho and Fingo making waves in Vietnam. Ecomobi online has transacted over USD 150 Million GMV.

 

Topics discussed:

How communities and influencers are making us change our purchasing behaviour

Social Commerce – From nowhere to everywhere. We explore the economics of this sector and the growth appeal to investors

What the social commerce winners in the region are doing differently

 

Soundbites

Helen Wong - "Early investments into China, then combine how the story develops today."

Sachin Bhanot - "Paranoia is a great trait of founders when founders say we sleep well at night, we are not able to sleep"

 

Watch the full episode here.

The HealthTech sector is utilising technology to improve the digital delivery and outcome of healthcare services. In fact, the most-funded HealthTech categories in Southeast Asia by value are health management solutions, patient solutions, medical diagnostics, medical education, and population health management.

 

Topics discussed:

There are 42 global HealthTech unicorns valued at a total of 100 billion. Will SEA, thanks to the support of Govt and VCs catch up?

2019 was a record year for SEA HealthTech investments, at $270 mn. Will 2020 break that record with 140 mn already invested?

What are specific HealthTech startups doing in response to COVID-19

 

Watch the full episode here.

Southeast Asia has ten of the world’s largest cities, behind only China and India. Since urbanisation is the key to economic growth, in this webinar, […]

Rising wages in Southeast Asia has always meant a need for a more productive workforce in order to maintain real income growth. However, the new competitors are not lower-cost countries but are, in fact, machines. In 2017, Quarter 3, Goldman Sachs pointed out that the average cost of a tier-1 Chinese factory worker was now more expensive than a robot. Indeed US Presidential Candidate Andrew Yang cites automation as a real issue to unemployment and what got Trump into power.

For more than 99% of the population in Southeast Asia, excluding Singapore, there is no university ranked within the global 300. The greater challenge is to create high wage jobs given the lack of high-quality educational institutions.

 

Topics discussed:

Could the lack of the right education for the economy of tomorrow derail the Southeast Asian economic and social miracle?

How are the education design, delivery, engagement, and payment models adapting and why is it working?

The success factors behind the education unicorns of China and India and could Southeast Asia produce its own?

 

Soundbites

Jan Lambrechts - "I don't know the degree of every single employee."

Raj Shastri - "Democratise the education, desire is core."

 

Watch the full episode here.

94% of enterprises now use cloud software, and according to the US Tech Bank, Raymond James, despite recent volatility, top Cloud SaaS companies still command over 10x trailing revenue multiples.

 

Topics discussed:

Understand why investors are looking at Enterprise SaaS

Discover what one of the largest SaaS AI company in the region is doing

Learn about one of the highest growth yet robust business models in 2020

 

Soundbites

Anvesh Ramineni - "People can definitely survive without the US market."

Sinuhe Arroyo - "Good technology with bad marketing, doesn't go anywhere."

The Chinese character for crisis is danger and opportunity. Every crisis produces winners, and today’s giants were yesterday’s survivors (Amazon, Alibaba, Zoom and hundreds of other examples). In this webinar we discuss who the COVID-19 winners will be, the trends they are riding and what are the winners doing differently.

When we say winners and losers of COVID-19, we want to highlight that the pandemic is a massive tragedy for health and for the economy. This is our humble attempt to help businesses with big and small to come out stronger from this crisis.

 

Topics Discussed:

What Is The Next Normal - Discover the implications for how businesses should reinvent and stay relevant

Where Are The New Opportunities - Understand the trends that businesses can ride to become stronger

Fundraising In The Current Situation - Companies now may not have enough cash runway as they think

How To Communicate - Guidelines to increase your communication with all stakeholders

 

Soundbites

Nicolas Du Cray - "Please don't pitch me, give me reassurance."

Andrew Mawikere - "Be fast, be relevant, be monetise."