The New Era of Southeast Asia Tech: AI, Deep Tech, Global Scaling and the Future of Energy of Thailand - EP681
episode
BRAVE Southeast Asia Tech: Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines, Thailand & Malaysia Startups, Founders & Venture Capital VC (English)
45 min
1 speaker
8 chapters
transcribed 19 days ago
Transcript
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Why are local Southeast Asian startups struggling to raise capital in 2026?
Companies that are building for local or regional markets are definitely struggling. Harder to raise capital. There's not as many investors who are willing to fund this, so they have to either turn profitable or look for alternative sources of financing. It took me 70 startups, 12 million deployed, to build confidence in taste as an investor to concentrate more. Immigration to the US has gone a lot harder. So top talent from Indonesia, Singapore. Thailand or Vietnam. They're moving to Singapore, maybe moving out here because this is is now like the new place to go if you can't go to the US. Engineers and founders from India, from China, who maybe would try to go to the US is moved out to Singapore.
There's a lot of renewed interest of top talent moving to Singapore.
Singapore is punching way above its weight class.
What's your company? What's your background? Are you familiar with America? Do you even have the ability to get a visa to America? I'm starting to see some founders already struggle in the US. And I think one thing I'll say is like they don't understand the enterprise client, they don't understand the country and the culture of what needs to be done to sell.
Why can't a similar company be built out here now that everything's faster, more interconnected, things are moving at like very fast speed?
Welcome to Brave. Learn from Southeast Asia's best tech leaders. Build the future, learn from our past, and stay human in between. No BS on Success. I'm Jeremy O, Venture Capitalist, Sarah founder, Harvard MBA, science fiction nerd, and dad of two daughters. Every week, we debate startup news, interview change makers, answer listener questions, and share personal insights. Join our movement of over 40,000. Members and get transcripts, resources, and community at www.bravesea.com. Stay well and stay brave.
Hey Wing, excited to have you in person for the first time. Yeah, I know. We've done a couple of these, but I think this is our first one in person. So very exciting.
Excited to have you because you have so many exciting news from your new role, I think your outlook on Southeast Asia technology in today's climate. And of course I think Thailand's energy crisis and some of the macros piece that we want to talk about. So a lot to cover. But Wing, what's up with you?
I guess a lot has happened since we last caught up, both on the personal front and on the macro front. Start the personal stuff.
What motivated Wing Vasiksiri to leave his solo‑GP role and join Analog Ventures?
So big news is I've moved to Singapore. So been here for the last four months or so, have settled in, live actually not too far away from you. So it's made this easy. But the big catalyst behind this was I'm actually joining another fun, Analog Ventures. So Tian, who's the founder and the GP of Analog Ventures. Ventures, which was formerly called Forge Ventures. We spent a long time getting to know each other, just thinking through what we wanted to build, what the fun could look like, and finally decided to partner up end of last year. And so that kind of catalyzed the move to Singapore.
Yeah, fantastic. And I think it's actually a really good match in terms of networks overlapping but not very discreet. I think you obviously have the US corridor, Thailand, Vietnam, and obviously Tiang has a bit more of the Singapore and Indonesia corridor as well. So it's a good fit.
We're super excited. For the last couple months, learning from Tian and working with him has been great. He's one of the seed investors in the region. I think been doing this for ten plus years. Me a little newer, but bringing different network, different skill sets that are hopefully complementary to what we're excited to build at Analog Ventures and really building off the work that he's done at Forge Ventures and I've done as a solo GP prior moving into a a larger firm now with other investors on the
team as
well.
So lots to talk about, but you know, what's changed, right? Because the last time that we talked, we were talking about solo GPs, velocity, investing. And I think a lot of it was also coded from the Silicon Valley approach.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
Why are local Southeast Asian startups struggling to raise capital in 2026?
0:00–2:21
2
What motivated Wing Vasiksiri to leave his solo‑GP role and join Analog Ventures?
2:21–4:36
3
How does the “lonely” reality of being a solo GP affect investment decisions?
4:36–8:21
4
What is the current funding gap between seed and growth stages in Southeast Asia?
8:21–12:24
5
Why is Singapore becoming the new global magnet for top‑tier engineering talent?
12:24–19:34
6
What’s driving the rise of second‑time technical founders in the region?
19:34–28:36
7
How is the AI “App Store” moment reshaping startup opportunities in Southeast Asia?
28:36–38:21
8
What are the implications of Thailand’s energy crisis for data centers and biofuels?
38:21–45:49
Speakers
1 identifiedMore from BRAVE Southeast Asia Tech: Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines, Thailand & Malaysia Startups, Founders & Venture Capital VC (English)
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