The Growing Appetite of SEA Investors
summary
Southeast Asia shows a rapid inflection: a roughly 570M population with ~360M internet users and internet-economy growth the panel cites as ~40%, producing 11 unicorns and many more scaling; ticket sizes range from $2–7M seed/Series A to $25M growth checks and global vehicles >$100M. Investors report surprising early profitability in some startups, heavy concentration in ride‑hailing/logistics (Go-Jek example), a persistent human‑capital gap, and that 30–50% non-local founders are moving in to build region-specific, hard‑to‑replicate models.
AI-written summary · about
chapters (35)
- 0:00Introduction
- 0:45Martin Weiss
- 1:13Joey Lee
- 1:36Terrence Lee
- 3:13Set some context
- 4:18Is there an inflection for SEA tech
- 5:40The last 5 years have been an inflection point
- 6:41The investment ecosystem is also coming together
- 8:14Why did you decide to come here
- 9:41Are there enough companies to absorb the capital
- 10:58Human capital gap in Southeast Asia
- 12:40Capital availability in Southeast Asia
- 13:39More capital is better than less
- 15:36DNA of a business
- 16:54Unit economics and scale
- 18:58Investing in growth vs profitability
- 20:23Lack of fundamental business sustainability
- 21:17Inflation in Southeast Asia
- 22:07Growth vs Profitability
- 24:02Staying Private Longer
- 26:07Exit Wave
- 26:44Investment Sectors
- 27:59Investment Trends
- 29:00Disruption
- 30:03Uniqueness of SEA Startups
- 33:39The Potential of SEA Startups
- 34:39The Importance of Localisation
- 36:29Investing Timing
- 38:54Long Term Investing
- 39:27Early Stage Investing
- 40:06Scaling
- 40:25Different Investors Add Value
- 41:45Why Focus on Entrepreneurs
- 43:27Partnership vs Investment
- 43:56Conclusion
related talks
44mThe Changing VC Landscape
27mThe World Has Grown Up! Where's The Money?
36mRaising Startup Capital Today - Morphing Trends?
30mGlobal or Nothing? How Unicorns Can Develop in Small Countries
20mCollision 2015 - Tim Draper of DFJ Venture, Mood Rowghani of KPCB & Steve Bertoni of Forbes
33mIt's not linear! 20 Years of Funding
31mPut the money where your idea is!
26mCross border investing with the leading Baltic investors