BRAVE Southeast Asia Tech: Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines, Thailand & Malaysia Startups, Founders & Venture Capital VC (English)

Hosted by Jeremy Au

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739

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Oct 2026

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About the show

Learn from Southeast Asia's best tech leaders. Build the future, learn from our past & stay human in between. No B.S on success. Southeast Asia's #1 startup & venture capital podcast with 80,000+ listeners. Hosted by Jeremy Au. VC & serial founder. Harvard MBA & UC Berkeley. Sci-fi nerd & dad of two daughters. Growth and personal growth solves all problems. The best feeling is coaching good humans to be great leaders. Published on Monday & Thursday. Weekly tech news debates, changemaker interviews & listener Q&As. Community of listeners and guests across Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia & the Philippines. Global top 10% podcast. "Learned a lot from the journeys. Must-listen for anyone seeking advice to be a leader" @lindatangxy "Refreshing to hear from distinguished founders what they learned, both the good & bad" @seanojw "Incredibly useful in kickstarting my thought process around customers as an entrepreneur" @klowetan "After tuning into a couple of episodes, this is now my weekly routine. Keep it up!!" @joshrodes8 Get transcripts, startup resources & community discussions at www.bravesea.com WhatsApp Weekday Insight: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VakR55X6BIElUEvkN02e Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4TnqkaWpTT181lMA8xNu0T Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@JeremyAu Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/sg/podcast/brave-southeast-asia-tech-singapore-indonesia-vietnam/id1506890464 Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@jeremyau Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jeremyauz Twitter: https://twitter.com/jeremyau LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bravesea

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October 21, 2026Episode 7411 hr 6 min

Starting Again at 65: Rosaline Koo on Building covee’s AI Insurance Ecosystem | E741

Rosaline Chow Koo, founder of covee and formerly of CXA, traces her path from a Procter & Gamble plant in Iowa and banking to insurance in Singapore, where she grew Mercer's Asia business 800% and went from 4 to 14 countries. She left at 51 to build CXA, a tech-led benefits brokerage that won 500 companies in five years, funded partly by her husband's $3 million. An 11-year SaaS contract with a bank, 150 contract engineers and COVID forced her to sell the brokers and the platform. She describes the shame that followed, caring for her 97-year-old mother, and why AI brought her back: three people built in eight hours what 330 could not, and she says reading a policy now takes a minute instead of 30 to 40 hours. Rosaline’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rosaline-chow-koo-212334/ covee: https://www.covee.ai/ Watch, listen or read the full insight at https://www.bravesea.com/rosaline-chow-koo-covee-ai BRAVE is Southeast Asia's leading tech podcast, hosted by Jeremy Au. Honest conversations with the region's top founders, investors, and operators on building startups in Southeast Asia. New episodes every week. Subscribe so you never miss one. Listen & Subscribe YouTube (English) , YouTube (Bahasa Indonesia) , Spotify (English) , Spotify (Bahasa Indonesia) , Spotify (Chinese) , Spotify (Vietnamese) , Apple Podcasts Follow BRAVE LinkedIn , X (Twitter) , Instagram , TikTok , WhatsApp Follow Jeremy Au LinkedIn , X / Twitter , Instagram , TikTok , Facebook , Threads , Twitch Resources Get transcripts, startup resources & community discussions at www.bravesea.com #InsurTech #Founders #SoutheastAsia #EmployeeBenefits #HealthTech #AI #Singapore #WomenInTech #StartupFailure #Resilience #SaaS #TechPodcast #BRAVEsea 00:00 Opening hook 02:31 Early career to insurance 09:11 Growing Mercer in Asia 10:40 Leaving to build CXA 27:08 Why a brokerage model 36:38 The SaaS build decision 41:56 COVID and selling the company 45:30 Shame, letting go and reset 53:50 Why build again with AI 59:40 Value for brokers and insurers 1:04:00 A time she was brave

October 18, 2026Episode 74044 min

Finding Hope In A Long View Of History - Gita Sjahrir | BRAVE E740

Gita, an Indonesian who lived abroad for decades and now lives in Indonesia, joins host Jeremy Au to discuss Revolusi by David Van Reybrouck, which she has read twice. She describes how the book, built on interviews with about 185 people, presents Indonesian independence as the work of ordinary people, including students in the Netherlands. They compare the Dutch VOC and the British East India Company, and trace Singapore's path through Japanese occupation to independence in 1965. Gita covers the 1928 Youth Proclamation that chose Malay as a shared language, the 17 August 1945 proclamation after Japan's surrender, and the book's ship-class metaphor for colonial hierarchy. She argues that learning history beyond short-form content helps people avoid being misled. Watch, listen or read the full insight at https://www.bravesea.com/revolusi-indonesia-independence-history BRAVE is Southeast Asia's leading tech podcast, hosted by Jeremy Au. Honest conversations with the region's top founders, investors, and operators on building startups in Southeast Asia. New episodes every week. Subscribe so you never miss one. Listen & Subscribe YouTube (English) , YouTube (Bahasa Indonesia) , Spotify (English) , Spotify (Bahasa Indonesia) , Spotify (Chinese) , Spotify (Vietnamese) , Apple Podcasts Follow BRAVE LinkedIn , X (Twitter) , Instagram , TikTok , WhatsApp Follow Jeremy Au LinkedIn , X / Twitter , Instagram , TikTok , Facebook , Threads , Twitch Resources Get transcripts, startup resources & community discussions at www.bravesea.com #Indonesia #History #SoutheastAsia #Revolusi #IndonesianIndependence #Decolonization #DutchEastIndies #SumpahPemuda #Singapore #ColonialHistory #ASEAN #BookRecommendation #HistoryPodcast #TechPodcast #BRAVEsea 00:00 Why history matters 01:04 Reading Revolusi 03:36 Four chapters of regional history 04:53 Ordinary people in the story 09:47 The 350 years jigsaw 12:19 VOC, East India Company and Raffles 20:22 The 1928 Youth Proclamation 22:23 Singapore and Japanese occupation 27:18 Proclaiming independence in 1945 34:49 The ship metaphor and unity 39:17 Takeaways

October 15, 2026Episode 73946 min

Making a Podcast About Lawrence Wong: 20+ Interviews, 15+ Drafts and a Story to Weave | Jean Hew - E739

Jean Hew explains how The Neighbourhood Boy, Jom's podcast series on Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, was made over three years. The team picked the subject because Wong had just been named the next PM, and Sudhir and economist Donald Low could speak about his early years. Most interviewees described a guai, down-to-earth technocrat, while Low alone saw him as a PM frontrunner. Each episode went through about 15 drafts, and recording paused when the general election was called, which revealed a more political side of Wong. When the planned narrator withdrew, Jean became host, aiming for a kopi-chat tone. She covers the feedback, including requests for more criticism of the PAP, and why most of her 20-plus interviewees felt Singapore is on the right track. Jean Hew was the first employee and head of research at Jom, a weekly digital magazine covering arts, culture, politics, business, technology and more in Singapore. She is the host, producer and co-author of Jom's podcast on prime minister Lawrence Wong, titled "The Neighbourhood Boy". She now works in corporate investigative research. Jean Hew’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jean-hew/ Jom: https://www.linkedin.com/company/jom-media-mag/ Watch, listen or read the full insight at https://www.bravesea.com/jean-hew-lawrence-wong-podcast BRAVE is Southeast Asia's leading tech podcast, hosted by Jeremy Au. Honest conversations with the region's top founders, investors, and operators on building startups in Southeast Asia. New episodes every week. Subscribe so you never miss one. Listen & Subscribe YouTube (English) , YouTube (Bahasa Indonesia) , Spotify (English) , Spotify (Bahasa Indonesia) , Spotify (Chinese) , Spotify (Vietnamese) , Apple Podcasts Follow BRAVE LinkedIn , X (Twitter) , Instagram , TikTok , WhatsApp Follow Jeremy Au LinkedIn , X / Twitter , Instagram , TikTok , Facebook , Threads , Twitch Resources Get transcripts, startup resources & community discussions at www.bravesea.com #Singapore #Journalism #LawrenceWong #TheNeighbourhoodBoy #Jom #Podcasting #SingaporePolitics #Media #Storytelling #NarrativePodcast #CareerAdvice #SoutheastAsia #TechPodcast 00:00 Introduction 01:43 Stumbling into journalism 05:08 Why philosophy fits journalism 07:42 Joining Jom when it had nothing 09:49 Year one and the editorial boot camp 12:22 Carrie Bradshaw and paying for journalism 16:14 Why a podcast, and why Lawrence Wong 18:58 Born on reclaimed land, and very guai 21:19 "I don't care about being sweet" 24:08 How the GE changed the script 28:15 Coffee in Siem Reap, and becoming the host 32:13 Gossiping about the Prime Minister 35:31 Launch nerves and letting go 38:52 How it was received 41:31 Is Singapore on the right track? 43:38 Being brave 45:06 Three takeaways

October 11, 2026Episode 73820 min

Unlearning Prestige & Unlocking the Golden Handcuffs - E738

In this compilation episode hosted by Edric Poon, Daniel Suh, general partner at Gold House Ventures and a former corporate lawyer, describes the guilt second-generation Asian Americans feel toward immigrant parents, and why that pushes many toward prestige careers. He recounts five years in consulting with senior military and government clients, a Northwestern JD/MBA, and summers at a big law firm and a private equity firm. A verbal private equity offer left him feeling he had climbed the wrong mountain. Executive coach Pooja Venkatraman argues burnout comes from the mental soundtrack running during work, not the hours worked. Jeremy Au says purpose, not happiness, sustains effort, citing his army service. E713 Daniel Suh, General Partner at Gold House Ventures https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BayAbDaMGM E712 Pooja Venkatraman, Executive Coach https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eG25OpGZ66c E720 Jeremy Au on Life Self Mastery with Rohit Malhotra https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GVydLTmN8c Watch, listen or read the full insight at https://www.bravesea.com/unlearning-prestige BRAVE is Southeast Asia's leading tech podcast, hosted by Jeremy Au. Honest conversations with the region's top founders, investors, and operators on building startups in Southeast Asia. New episodes every week. Subscribe so you never miss one. Listen & Subscribe YouTube (English) , YouTube (Bahasa Indonesia) , Spotify (English) , Spotify (Bahasa Indonesia) , Spotify (Chinese) , Spotify (Vietnamese) , Apple Podcasts Follow BRAVE LinkedIn , X (Twitter) , Instagram , TikTok , WhatsApp Follow Jeremy Au LinkedIn , X / Twitter , Instagram , TikTok , Facebook , Threads , Twitch Resources Get transcripts, startup resources & community discussions at www.bravesea.com #CareerPivot #ImposterSyndrome #GoldenHandcuffs #ExecutiveCoaching #VentureCapital #PrivateEquity #BigLaw #Purpose #TechPodcast

October 7, 2026Episode 73722 min

China’s AI & Robotics Are Advancing Faster Than Expected - E737

Jianggan Li joins Jeremy Au to report back from a week in China visiting five humanoid robot companies and three AI investors. They cover the US-China summit that produced a hotline and the term superintelligence, why Jianggan reads the agreement more generously than the media did, and the near-absence of safety discussion among Chinese labs racing toward general intelligence and embodied AI. The robotics findings are concrete: everyone concedes a funding bubble, Figure sorts 1,300 parcels an hour with 2,200 expected within a year, and engineers say hardware is not the limiting factor, software is. Warehouses run 60 to 70 autonomous forklifts. They close on Jeremy's open question about America's structural advantages, and whether US firms have the upstream supplier depth to iterate quickly. Watch, listen or read the full insight at https://www.bravesea.com/china-humanoid-robots BRAVE is Southeast Asia's leading tech podcast, hosted by Jeremy Au. Honest conversations with the region's top founders, investors, and operators on building startups in Southeast Asia. New episodes every week. Subscribe so you never miss one. Listen & Subscribe YouTube (English) , YouTube (Bahasa Indonesia) , Spotify (English) , Spotify (Bahasa Indonesia) , Spotify (Chinese) , Spotify (Vietnamese) , Apple Podcasts Follow BRAVE LinkedIn , X (Twitter) , Instagram , TikTok , WhatsApp Follow Jeremy Au LinkedIn , X / Twitter , Instagram , TikTok , Facebook , Threads , Twitch Resources Get transcripts, startup resources & community discussions at www.bravesea.com #AI #HumanoidRobots #ChinaTech #Superintelligence #AISafety #Robotics #EmbodiedAI #WarehouseAutomation #USChina #AIAgents #SupplyChain #MomentumWorks #JeremyAu #SoutheastAsiaTech #BRAVEsea 00:00 Superintelligence gets a name 02:07 Reading the summit generously 03:00 Long memories in Beijing 06:00 Setting the base tone 07:19 Agents that route around their guardrails 08:51 Safety is not the conversation in China 10:24 Regulatory capture, or a real race 13:15 Five humanoid robot factories 14:30 Hardware is not the limiting factor 17:27 Sixty forklifts and nobody driving 18:31 The Chinese tailwinds 19:11 What is America's structural advantage

October 4, 2026Episode 73635 min

Fred Ng: The Einstein Visa, Getting Paid Before Building Anything & Letting AI Do the Paperwork - E736

Most founders who come to Beyond Border assume a US work visa works like an ESTA: fill in a form, get an answer in 48 hours. Frederick Ng, its co-founder, explains why a good O-1 process takes about three months and a 700- to 1,000-page petition. He joins Jeremy Au to cover the O-1 and L visas for founders and their launch teams, why a spouse's work rights often decide the visa, and how executives tied to an employer-sponsored green card can move to the EB-1A. He also walks through how Beyond Border separates human judgment from AI-assisted case work, how it found product-market fit with no website, why he went from VC to operator and back before founding, and the silent retreat and Everest base camp trek that tested him first. Fred Ng is the Co-founder and CEO of Beyond Border, a tech-enabled U.S. immigration platform helping founders, companies and global talent navigate the U.S. immigration system. An entrepreneur, operator and former venture capital investor, Fred previously served as Country Manager at Glints, where he helped build and scale the company’s business across Southeast Asia. He later joined Square Peg, a leading Asia-Pacific venture capital firm, where he invested in and worked with technology companies across the region. Fred founded Beyond Border with a simple belief: where you come from should never limit where you can go. Today, Beyond Border is a trusted immigration partner to founders, highly skilled professionals and growing companies looking to build their futures in the U.S. Drawing on his experience across entrepreneurship, operations and investing, Fred regularly speaks on entrepreneurship, venture capital, U.S. and Asian startup ecosystems, global talent and immigration, and what it takes for founders to build and expand across borders. Fred’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/frederick-ng/ Watch, listen or read the full insight at https://www.bravesea.com/blog/frederick-ng-beyond-border-o1-visa BRAVE is Southeast Asia's leading tech podcast, hosted by Jeremy Au. Honest conversations with the region's top founders, investors, and operators on building startups in Southeast Asia. New episodes every week. Subscribe so you never miss one. Listen & Subscribe YouTube (English) , YouTube (Bahasa Indonesia) , Spotify (English) , Spotify (Bahasa Indonesia) , Spotify (Chinese) , Spotify (Vietnamese) , Apple Podcasts Follow BRAVE LinkedIn , X (Twitter) , Instagram , TikTok , WhatsApp Follow Jeremy Au LinkedIn , X / Twitter , Instagram , TikTok , Facebook , Threads , Twitch Resources Get transcripts, startup resources & community discussions at www.bravesea.com 00:00 Introduction 01:10 Fred's path: Glints, Square Peg and Beyond Border 02:23 Hong Kong, London and multiple passports 05:16 Starting venture on the wrong side of the table 07:49 Why operators make better investors 12:48 Too impatient for a 10-year feedback loop 15:19 Finding product-market fit with no website 17:46 Empathy over the CRM 19:29 Judgment vs intelligence in immigration work 24:04 Why a US work visa takes three months, not 48 hours 25:34 The O-1 and L visas for founders and launch teams 28:02 Spouses, dependents and the EB-1A 30:46 Ten days of silence, then Everest base camp 33:42 Three takeaways #O1Visa #Founders #SoutheastAsia #Immigration #USImmigration #GreenCard #EB1A #USExpansion #Startups #VentureCapital #Entrepreneurship #ProductMarketFit #GlobalTalent #Singapore #HongKong #TechPodcast #SEAstartups #BRAVEsea

September 30, 2026Episode 73523 min

E735 - Singapore: Health, Scale & Policy Blueprint

In 2016, Singapore declared a War on Diabetes. This BRAVE compilation looks at what the Singapore blueprint gets right on health and public policy, and what that stability may cost in entrepreneurial drive. Dr. Sue-Anne Toh of NOVI Health explains TOFI (thin outside, fat inside), why Asians develop diabetes at lower BMI, and how insulin resistance works. Adriel Yong of Clouted lays out the efficiency paradox: when public services work this well, fewer people grow up as problem solvers, and state ownership leaves few business families to build on. Dr. Joshua Wang of VerImmune covers why cancer is detected too late, why new therapies are tested on late-stage patients first, and how diabetes went from a death sentence to a chronic disease. Watch the full episodes: Navigating the Longevity Market | Dr. Sue-Anne Toh - E718 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pP0L_qhSRJA Singapore Works Too Well To Be A Great Startup Hub? | Adriel Yong - E705 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOimzcac29w Joshua Wang: Reprogramming Cancer, Biotech’s Funding Shift & Why AI Will Rewrite Biology – E628 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roXPyXASiRk Watch, listen or read the full insight at https://www.bravesea.com/blog/singapore-health-policy BRAVE is Southeast Asia's leading tech podcast, hosted by Jeremy Au. Honest conversations with the region's top founders, investors, and operators on building startups in Southeast Asia. New episodes every week. Subscribe so you never miss one. Listen & Subscribe YouTube (English) , YouTube (Bahasa Indonesia) , Spotify (English) , Spotify (Bahasa Indonesia) , Spotify (Chinese) , Spotify (Vietnamese) , Apple Podcasts Follow BRAVE LinkedIn , X (Twitter) , Instagram , TikTok , WhatsApp Follow Jeremy Au LinkedIn , X / Twitter , Instagram , TikTok , Facebook , Threads , Twitch Resources Get transcripts, startup resources & community discussions at www.bravesea.com #Singapore #Healthcare #SoutheastAsia #PublicHealth #Diabetes #WarOnDiabetes #HealthPolicy #Longevity #Biotech #Cancer #Immunotherapy #Startups #SingaporeStartups #VentureCapital #Founders #Entrepreneurship #SEAstartups #TechPodcast #BRAVEsea 00:00 Intro 01:02 Dr. Sue-Anne Toh: Singapore's War on Diabetes 01:47 TOFI: thin outside, fat inside 03:38 Insulin resistance and the pancreas "factory" 06:43 AI, manual labor and the WALL-E future 08:28 Adriel Yong: the Efficiency Paradox 10:04 Temasek, GLCs and the missing business families 11:39 Focus or numbing? HF0 and founder distraction 14:21 Why swing for a billion? 16:12 Dr. Joshua Wang: therapeutic, not preventative 18:36 Why cancer is detected too late 21:27 From death sentence to chronic disease 22:55 Outro

September 27, 2026Episode 73458 min

Edy Widjaja: From Jakarta Provision Shop to Bain Senior Partner & The Lessons In Between - E734

Edy Widjaja, former Senior Partner at Bain & Company and author of The Accidental Partner, joins Jeremy Au for a candid look back at a 16-year management consulting career. They cover what the job actually consists of once you take away the slides and the pitch, how performance reviews and feedback really work inside a top firm, how he handled clients and competing stakeholders, how he and his wife traded off two demanding careers around a young child, what a partner does day to day that nobody sees, and what happened after he retired at the end of 2025. Edy Widjaja spent fifteen years inside an elite global management consulting firm, rising from an overlooked research scientist with zero interviews to Senior Partner advising top executives across Southeast Asia. He holds a BSc in Metallurgical Engineering from the University of Indonesia and a PhD in Materials Science from Northwestern University — a path that was originally meant to end in a laboratory. Long before any of that, he learned to read a customer's needs from behind the counter of his parents' nine-square-meter provision shop in Chinatown, West Jakarta. That instinct, it turned out, mattered more than almost anything he learned in a classroom. He co-founded his firm's Jakarta office, led its Southeast Asia Financial Services practice, and spent a decade shaping the region's hiring and mentorship as its Recruiting and People Partner. In 2026, he closed the laptop for the last time to write, travel, and figure out who he is without a calendar telling him. The Accidental Partner is his first book. All net proceeds support education access, scholarship, and mental health initiatives in Indonesia. He lives in Singapore. Get the book at https://www.edywidjaja.com Watch, listen or read the full insight at https://www.bravesea.com/blog/the-accidental-partner BRAVE is Southeast Asia's leading tech podcast, hosted by Jeremy Au. Honest conversations with the region's top founders, investors, and operators on building startups in Southeast Asia. New episodes every week. Subscribe so you never miss one. Listen & Subscribe YouTube (English) , YouTube (Bahasa Indonesia) , Spotify (English) , Spotify (Bahasa Indonesia) , Spotify (Chinese) , Spotify (Vietnamese) , Apple Podcasts Follow BRAVE LinkedIn , X (Twitter) , Instagram , TikTok , WhatsApp Follow Jeremy Au LinkedIn , X / Twitter , Instagram , TikTok , Facebook , Threads , Twitch Resources Get transcripts, startup resources & community discussions at www.bravesea.com #Consulting #Leadership #SoutheastAsia #Bain #ManagementConsulting #Indonesia #Singapore #INSEAD #MBA #CareerAdvice #Feedback #PerformanceReview #WorkLifeBalance #DualCareer #Partnership #Mentorship #StakeholderManagement #Jakarta #TechPodcast #Founders #VentureCapital #SEAstartups #Vietnam #Malaysia #Philippines #Retirement #BRAVEsea 00:00 Introduction 02:37 From a provision shop in West Jakarta to Bain 10:21 The INSEAD MBA, and nearly not getting hired 14:21 What consulting actually is behind the slides 19:45 Performance reviews, feedback and the ego 26:58 Clients, stakeholders and the front line 37:23 Jakarta, travel and not being a weekend dad 42:08 Two careers, taking turns 44:19 What a partner really does all day 49:52 Why he retired at senior partner 53:45 Life after the calendar empties 56:57 Three takeaways

September 23, 2026Episode 73316 min

EdTech: The Future of Learning & K-12 Disruption - E733

Get the basics right in school and everything else builds on it. Miss that window, and it is very hard to course correct. In this compilation from the BRAVE archive, Adam Huh Dam of Stick 'Em, Adriel Yong of Clouted, Henry Motte-de la Motte of Edge Tutor and host Jeremy Au break down what actually improves learning outcomes, and why so much of edtech does not. Why authenticity and real traction can beat a polished pitch, from the team that won the 2025 Hult Prize (Adam Huh Dam) Why more screens and gadgets in schools have made outcomes worse, and where AI can genuinely help students (Adam Huh Dam) How the US and Singapore education systems differ, and how gaps in public schooling create private markets like college counseling (Jeremy Au and Adriel Yong) Why time abroad and cross-border relationships matter more for young people as AI takes over routine work (Adriel Yong) Why selling into public school systems takes so long, from multi-stakeholder buying to risk aversion (Henry Motte-de la Motte) Why K-12 is the highest-ROI investment a government can make, and what the Asian Tiger economies got right (Henry Motte-de la Motte) Watch the full episodes: Adam Huh Dam, Co-Founder of Stick 'Em How To Win A $1M Prize And Fixing The Global Education Crisis | Adam Huh Dam of Stick ‘Em - EP682 https://youtu.be/jaeEyRF3doA Adriel Yong, Co-Founder & COO of Clouted AI Has Changed The Way We Create, Consume And Value Content | Adriel Yong - E730 https://youtu.be/qqrkSe95nmY Henry Motte-de la Motte, Founder & CEO of Edge Tutor Henry Motte-de la Motte: Education Tech Challenges - E372 https://youtu.be/oENqetfds_4 Watch, listen or read the full insight at https://www.bravesea.com/blog/edtech-future-of-learning BRAVE is Southeast Asia's leading tech podcast, hosted by Jeremy Au. Honest conversations with the region's top founders, investors, and operators on building startups in Southeast Asia. New episodes every week. Subscribe so you never miss one. Listen & Subscribe YouTube (English) , YouTube (Bahasa Indonesia) , Spotify (English) , Spotify (Bahasa Indonesia) , Spotify (Chinese) , Spotify (Vietnamese) , Apple Podcasts Follow BRAVE LinkedIn , X (Twitter) , Instagram , TikTok , WhatsApp Follow Jeremy Au LinkedIn , X / Twitter , Instagram , TikTok , Facebook , Threads , Twitch Resources Get transcripts, startup resources & community discussions at www.bravesea.com #Education #EdTech #SoutheastAsia #Singapore #Philippines #Indonesia #TechPodcast #STEAM #K12 #AIinEducation #EducationPolicy #Founders #SEAstartups 00:00 Intro 00:40 Adam Huh Dam: going to London knowing we wouldn't win 03:48 Why Stick 'Em won the Hult Prize 04:50 AI in classrooms: the low-hanging fruit 06:07 More screens, worse outcomes 07:36 Jeremy Au & Adriel Yong: Singapore versus America 09:57 College counseling and pay to play admissions 11:51 The moonshot: six months abroad for every student 13:22 Henry Motte-de la Motte: education's long sales cycles 14:23 The window closes at 18 15:04 What the Asian Tigers got right 15:50 Outro

September 21, 2026Episode 73232 min

Singapore Buys Fintech. Thailand Builds Data Centers. | Wing Vasiksiri E732

Wing Vasiksiri joins Jeremy Au to analyze a major wave of tech M&A deals and macro growth trends reshaping Southeast Asia. They dissect Grab’s $1.5 billion acquisition of a 60% stake in Atome Financial, examining its unique performance-linked staged structure, offline-to-online retail synergies against Sea Group, and the strategic value of Atome’s credit underwriting capabilities. They also break down Circle’s $400 million purchase of Tazapay, exploring how cross-border B2B payment rails and all-stock deal structures de-risk regional expansion and align long-term founder incentives. Finally, they examine Singapore’s $200M+ fintech fund injection, the double-digit surge in regional e-commerce activity, and why Thailand and Malaysia are emerging as primary data center hubs for Chinese hyperscalers and frontier AI initiatives. 00:00 SEA tech M&A takes off: Grab announces a $1.5B deal for Atome Financial while Circle acquires B2B payments firm Tazapay for $400M. 03:14 Grab and Atome synergies: Combining offline BNPL retail networks with food delivery to build an orthogonal vector against Sea Group. 04:38 Unique deal structures in regional tech: How staged buyouts and performance-linked mechanisms de-risk acquirers and align management teams. 06:36 Underwriting as a competitive moat: Grab taps into Atome's multi-country credit track record, institutional debt lines, and portfolio scale. 11:08 Strategic cash deployment: Grab utilizes balance sheet cash for high-growth strategic acquisitions rather than traditional public market buybacks. 12:51 Circle acquires Tazapay: Cross-border regulatory licenses and global payment infrastructure unlock a 6x payout for early VC backers. 18:02 Singapore’s $200M+ fintech initiative: Public funding steps in during a VC deployment winter to support proven regional exit pathways. 19:50 E-commerce surge across SEA: Double-digit growth in app installs in Vietnam, Indonesia, and Malaysia creates secondary startup opportunities. 26:02 Frontier AI labs expand to APAC: OpenAI and neolabs establish Singapore headquarters and launch accelerator programs in Thailand. 27:18 The Thailand and Malaysia data center boom: Abundant power, cheap land, and a "bring-your-own-chip" model drive Chinese hyperscaler investments.