Publications

This report builds upon the earlier study titled Powering Asia’s Energy Transition (2025), which introduced Thorium as a promising alternative nuclear fuel for emerging Asian economies. While the first version offered a regional overview, this updated edition narrows its focus to the People’s Republic of China, which is now widely regarded as the global leader in Thorium-fuelled Molten Salt Reactor (MSR) development. The final section of this report will examine the downstream impact of China’s Thorium program on Singapore and other small, energy-constrained nations.

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) form the backbone of Asia’s regional economy, accounting for 99% of all operating firms and contributing significantly to employment and GDP. Yet many continue to operate with limited resources, thin margins, and underdeveloped digital systems. Artificial intelligence (AI) offers a timely and practical solution. While frontier innovation remains essential for pushing boundaries, this report focuses on practical AI tools that SMEs can adopt today to improve operations, reduce inefficiencies, and support growth without added complexity.

This report assesses Thorium-based nuclear energy as a viable and transformative alternative for the future of energy in Emerging Asia. As the region faces accelerating urbanisation, industrial growth, and an urgent push towards decarbonisation, traditional energy sources for both fossil and renewable. They are increasingly strained by scalability, intermittency, and long-term sustainability challenges. This report argues that Thorium, with its inherent safety, compact reactor design, fuel abundance, and waste efficiency, may provide a superior alternative suited to the region’s unique constraints.

Timo’s journey with BVBank offers valuable lessons for other corporations and startups. By recognizing each partners’ strengths and focusing on complementary capabilities, corporations can drive innovation and capture new market opportunities. As Timo continues to grow, its story exemplifies how fintech innovation, supported by strategic partnerships, can transform the financial landscape.

Quest Ventures’ Communication on ESG Progress is a showcase of the firm’s current practices, achievements, and future objectives in enhancing its ESG policy. Quest Ventures has engaged with a select number of its portfolio companies to establish a baseline understanding of current practices and intentions to integrate ESG policies. This report includes a showcase of startups that are at the forefront of innovation and impact, addressing critical environmental and social issues. Their successes not only reflect their commitment to sustainability but also demonstrate the potential for positive impact through responsible entrepreneurship.

With almost 8 billion hungry customers with a constant appetite for consumption, there is no larger market than the market for food. With USD$39.3 billion invested by venture capitalists globally in 2021, food tech startups are quickly gaining traction. This report seeks to survey promising new fields and technologies that private sector investment can support in order to seek the dual goals of alleviating world hunger and achieving profitable returns.

Financial inclusion, enabled by income, credit history, documentation, and infrastructure, opens opportunities to useful and affordable financial products and services. Financial inclusion has a strong business and governance case. We envision this inclusion can take place with thoughtful use of artificial intelligence, blockchain and cryptocurrencies.

Salary transparency is paramount to both tech talent and employers. This report uncovers the tech talent salary black box and empowers tech talent and employers by analysing more than 30,000 data points from NodeFlair’s proprietary database, and in-depth interviews with founders and engineering leaders.

The ‘take-make-waste’ industrial model is no longer feasible. With a larger GDP than the rest of the world combined, and as the fastest growing economic region, what Asia does as it rises will have a significant impact. Powering Southeast Asia’s charge to a sustainable future requires consideration of the three tenets, and alignment among all stakeholders.

In recent years, Indonesia has taken the limelight for its pace of development across many sectors of its economy including technology. An enormous population and growing income levels are two of many factors that have powered this growth, resulting in many unicorns and game-changing startups. Challenges exist. From income inequality to unequal distribution of talent across the archipelago, Indonesia faces challenges typical of many emerging economies. Time will tell if the valuations that are placed on many startups justify the lofty expectations.