Publications

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.

Digital currency is a term used to include the meta-group of sub-types of digital currency, including virtual currency, cryptocurrency, e-Cash and Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC).

The CLMV countries, namely Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam, have traditionally been overshadowed by its more buoyant ASEAN neighbours.

This impact research by INSEAD in collaboration with Quest Ventures is an informative look at the nascent impact investment landscape in Southeast Asia.

We are “open sourcing” our investment measurement framework with this publication and welcome inputs from all interested parties to refine this.