The market opportunity for Clockster is bigger in Indonesia compared to its home market of Kazakhstan, with a population 14 times bigger than the 18.8 million in Kazakhstan. With a solution that fits the local market needs, Clockster already had some customers in Indonesia before a big promotional push in January 2022, and it has secured a US$750,000 Series A funding led by venture capital firm Quest Ventures.
Managing partner of Quest Ventures, James Tan, believes Southeast Asia continues to attract the attention of smart institutional investors. “As the world’s fastest growing region, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for investors to tap into the potential of Southeast Asia,” he notes. “Quest Ventures, backed by institutional investors such as Temasek, has launched new funds focused on emerging opportunities.” Tan is also among the speakers at the CVCF 2022.
Southeast Asia continues to see deals done at the early stage, continues Tan. “Many problems and therefore opportunities exist in the emerging economies here. While proven business models are important, VC firms in Southeast Asia are very open to new models that adapt to their unique markets.”
As one of the regional tech hubs, Hong Kong has demonstrated resilience. Meanwhile, the city faces competition from other hubs in the region, such as Singapore. Tan believes the relaxation of COVID-19 measures in Hong Kong will benefit not just the start-ups but for the overall economy. “Hong Kong is an important global financial centre and we look forward to its opening up,” he says.
The common comment among all the judges was how much the quality of Philippine startups has grown, said Sophia “Phoebe” C. Fontanilla, investment associate at TechShake, a startup ecosystem builder and co-organizer of the Ignite 2022 event, where the competition was held.
“As the representative of the Philippines in the largest startup competition in the world, they had to choose a winner based on scalability and replicability,” she said in an Oct. 17 e-mail. Although the other entries also had the potential to scale, “Packworks’ business model and market traction were what clearly made it stand out.”
Judging the winners of the competition’s Philippine leg were leaders from SOSV/MOX, Plug and Play, Quest Ventures, Integra Partners, RISE, Unfold Ventures, and QBO Innovation Hub.
Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC), Venture Capital & Private Equity Association of Bangladesh (VCPEAB) and World Social Innovation Forum (WSIF) organized a roundtable titled “Building A Vibrant Startup Ecosystem” to celebrate World Investor Week 2022.
The roundtable discussed the required improvements or changes in current regulations or provisions for ameliorating a better and stronger start-up ecosystem. Experts also discussed the vision to create five unicorns by 2025.
Bangladesh’s startup ecosystem is heating up, but still facing challenges. Currently, Bangladesh has 1,200 active startups creating drastic impacts in day-to-day Bangladeshi lives through new, innovative products and services.
The country has attracted a total investment of $505 million in 2021 and 2022 (up to quarter 2), with a total contribution of $498 million from global investors.
In the roundtable, the Commissioner of BSEC Dr Shaikh Shamsuddin Ahmed attended as a special guest. The keynote presentation was delivered by Managing Partner of Quest Venture James Tan and Chief Investment Officer of Constellation Asset Management Company, Director of VCPEAB Tanveer Ali.
我国起步公司从风险投资公司获得的融资今年上半年同比增长54％至81亿8000万元，过去五年每年增速为45％，去年全年融资达147亿元。
新加坡企业发展局（EnterpriseSG）下来致力于吸引更多国际风险投资（VC）基金到新加坡，以及与家族理财办公室合作，加强我国融资生态环境。
求索创投（Quest Ventures）管理合伙人陈中留意到，新加坡受惠于中美地缘政治紧张局势，吸引资金流入。亚太区尤其东南亚是全球增长最快的区域，许多邻国从疫情中强劲复苏，反映出国家的抗疫表现非常出色，以及活络的新生中产阶级市场。
他也说，对老练机构投资者而言，科技和风险投资已是可观的资产类别，这为东南亚市场带来投资机会。很少大学和高等教育机构投资于捐赠基金（endowment fund），部署于风险投资的基金也不多。
Influencer marketing has become a driving force in the industry. An industry report by Partipost and Quest Ventures found that the number of brands in Southeast Asia spending more than 30% of their total marketing budget on influencer marketing has increased to 25.4% in 2022, up from 21.4% last year. Meanwhile, 69.4% of brands are spending 1% to 30% of their total marketing budget on influencer marketing.
While influencer marketing has become popular among brands, another up-and-coming engagement strategy is NFTs, which has seen more brands jump on board the trend. Metaverse-linked NFTs, for example, will be the fastest-growing NFT segment over the next five years, according to Juniper Research, increasing from 600,000 transactions in 2022 to 9.8 million by 2027.
STARTUPS in Singapore continued to attract strong investments despite macroeconomic headwinds, with venture funding increasing 54 per cent to S$8.18 billion in the first half of 2022.
A total of 388 deals were closed during the period compared with 355 a year ago, according to figures from Enterprise Singapore (EnterpriseSG). The agency referenced internal data and information from DealStreetAsia, PitchBook, Preqin and Crunchbase.
Singapore, a hub for venture capital (VC) flows in South-east Asia, has seen a booming tech scene in recent years amid a rise in entrepreneurship and inflow of foreign investors. The city-state is now home to over 400 VC investors, according to Pitchbook.
James Tan, managing partner at Quest Ventures, noted that Singapore has been a recipient of capital inflows owning to US-China geopolitical tensions.
Technology and VC is emerging as a viable asset class for sophisticated institutional investors, and while largely untapped, presents a growing opportunity in South-east Asia. Few universities and institutes of higher education have endowments funds, and only some have VC allocations, he said.
Start-up investment in Singapore has grown exponentially each year since 2017, even through the COVID-19 pandemic. The billions invested – including more than S$8 billion in the first half of 2022 – are a sign of strong investor confidence.
“We are seeing, with all the different macro trends happening, that Singapore, having emerged well, having a very stable, and having a very viable ecosystem not just for here but for the entire region, thereby anchoring ourselves as the very logical hub for any venture capital firm that wants to expand into the next big region, to be based here”, said James Tan, Chairman of the Action Community for Entrepreneurship.
Earlier this year, we reported that the number of brands spending more than 30% of their total marketing budget on influencer marketing has increased to 25.4% this year, up from 21.4% in 2021. According to The Southeast Asia Influencer Marketing Industry report by influencer marketing and commerce platform Partipost and Quest Ventures, the percentage of brands that did not try influencer marketing decreased from 16.9% in 2020 to about 5.1% this year.
In fact, the trend is so popular that many marketers we speak to are choosing to work directly with influencers or their agencies rather than work with intermediary creative agencies. Reasons largely include direct access to the influencer, alignment of target demographic and reach, higher campaign or promotional awareness, and occasionally, of course, budget friendlier options.
Vietnam’s large workforce, lower labor costs, and sizeable markets are factors drawing Singaporean startups to the country.
Strait Times cited the assessment from venture capital company Quest Ventures, discussing potential destinations for Singaporean companies that are looking to venture abroad through its Government’s Global Innovation Alliance (GIA) acceleration program, estimated at over 400 in less than five years.
“The labor force in Vietnam is increasingly well educated and still relatively cheap compared to Singapore,” James Tan, managing partner of venture capital company Quest Ventures, was quoted by Strait Times as saying.
Tan also pointed to the country’s tech-savvy population and burgeoning middle class, making it a potential pool of customers.