Shuyin Tang

🙌 Welcome back to Startup Wednesdays, featuring #VC, #founder & #operators here in South-East Asia. For this week, we have Pat Naranpat Thitipattakul, Investment Director at ORZON Ventures 💭 What does Orzon Ventures focus on? The idea is to combine the flexibility and decision-making expertise of a traditional VC with the extensive resources and ecosystem of a large corporate entity like OR. This approach aims to help startups grow by leveraging OR's existing customer base, infrastructure, and market presence. Orzon Ventures focuses on investing in startups particularly in sectors like mobility, lifestyle and food and beverage. The goal is to find innovative solutions that can benefit from OR's resources and customer network, ultimately fostering startup growth and corporate synergy. 💭 What motivated you to join 500 ? Unlike many who are determined to become venture capitalists,I initially applied for a position to manage an accelerator program at Disrupt, which was run by one of the GPs of 500 TukTuks. My interest in startups was piqued when a friend invited me to participate in a hackathon, which turned out to be an exhilarating experience. The fast-paced environment & the opportunity to connect with innovative founders inspired me to apply for the accelerator manager position. During the interview process, the CEO offered me a dual role: managing the accelerator program & joining the venture capital team. Despite my initial unfamiliarity with venture capital, I accepted the challenge. This dual role allowed me to witness the entire journey of startups, from their inception at hackathons to becoming fully-fledged companies. 💭 What are the biggest challenges for Thai startups? The Thai market faces significant funding challenges, with limited early-stage VC funds & a reliance on CVCs that invest mainly in Series A and beyond, creating a funding gap for earlier stages. Investors in Thailand are risk-averse & while there are fragmented angel investors, their limited capital makes funding difficult. This forces many Thai startup founders to reach profitability quickly or bootstrap, which can lead to better investment terms but is challenging. Additionally, foreign investors show interest but often lack confidence due to difficulties understanding the local ecosystem. 💭 What has been the biggest challenge as a VC in Thailand? For Orzon, the biggest challenge has been finding startups that synergize well with OR's existing operations. This adds extra criteria to our investment decisions, such as ensuring the new company does not overlap with current offerings and that there is cultural compatibility between founders and Orzon. 👉 For more news like this on the Southeast Asia startup and tech scene, make sure to hit the "Follow" button to stay updated 🚀 #Thailand #tech #innovation

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VIETNAM's "MISSING PIECES" IN GREEN/ SUSTAINABLE FINANCE ECOSYSTEM: Question: As we talked about having an ‘ecosystem’ in the country for sustainable financing, do you see any ‘missing pieces’ on top of the stakeholders list ? In addition, as this forum kicks off more collaborative efforts in the future, how do you see yourself working with the various groups of stakeholders like those present in this room (for instance, potential collaboration opportunities, mutual projects, etc.)? Answer: Potential Missing Stakeholders: • More direct involvement from bond market regulators and policy makers is needed to create facilitating guidelines and frameworks; • Institutional investors like pension funds, insurance firms should play a bigger role as key demand drivers; • Independent ESG rating/data providers beyond credit rating agencies to enhance transparency; • There's a lack of academic and think-tank research houses providing empirical research evidences about the "greenium". Collaboration Opportunities: • Work closely with stock exchanges and regulatory authorities to develop robust taxonomies, listing rules and disclosure requirements for green/social/sustainability bonds; • Engage with issuers across corporates, banks and government to help structure and certify their labelled bond programs in line with global principles; • Partner with institutional investors and asset managers to build internal ESG integration capacities and sustainable investment strategies; • Collaborate with ESG rating/data providers like us at FiinGroup and FiinRatings to develop localized analytics tools evaluating use of proceeds, impact reporting and alignment with bond principles; • Participate in industry associations and working groups focusing on standardization and harmonization of labelled bond market practices; • Conduct joint research with think-tanks on market sizing, barriers to growth and policy interventions needed for market development; and • Deliver capacity building trainings alongside development agencies to upskill underwriters, lawyers and other transaction parties on labelled bonds. My knowledge sharing at the Climate Finance Workshop organised by Global Climate Partnership Fund with AUM US$4.6bn and their fund manager: responsAbility Investments AG on 13-14 May 2024 in HCMC! #impactinvestments #greenbonds #GSSBonds #sustainablefinance #greenbondratings #greenbondverification #greenexternalreview #ESGratings

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Let's talk about fee structure for SPVs. In this environment, SPV's (and syndicates) have gained in popularity. There are some fantastic ones such as Beyond Earth Technologies Sydecar and Companisto to name just a few. Plenty of emerging GPs raising their funds partake first in SPV syndicates when fundraising to build track-record and co-investment opportunities with future LPs. But sometimes the fee structure can be more opaque than with a fund. The median fee for sub-US$10M SPVs is 1.8% versus the traditional 2% for US10M+. Typically, pre-seed sub US$1M deals don't charge management fees- however the vast majority charge fees based in LP committed capital (not GP commit). The question is- why are management fees on SPVs increasing and what does it mean for LPs? One of the simple answers is that as the number of deals and VC funds have declined, SPVs are being used as a substitute to a fund. I don't think this is problematic if there are great deals and active management of the SPV portfolio from the leads and transparency in fee allocation. It does become a potential issue for LPs if there are: ⛔ Double fee layers & uncommunicated hidden costs ⛔ Above avg. carry that increase fee burden on per deal basis ⛔ Minimal clawback provisions ⛔ Lack of transparency on fee allocation Ask questions to avoid this. How are fees allocated? Do the fees make sense vs. size of allocation? How does that impact positions and potential follow-on? Does the lead plan to manage the portfolio? #SPV #syndicate #familyoffice #VC #venturecapital #LP

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Asia can show the West how to integrate tech with societal needs "E. Glen Weyl and Audrey Tang are co-authors of "Plurality: The Future of Collaborative Technology and Democracy." Weyl is founder of the RadicalxChange Foundation and the Plurality Institute. Tang was the first Minister of Digital Affairs of Taiwan. Slow economic growth. Inflation. Geopolitical decline. Disinformation and polarization. So many of the West's leading problems are partly traceable to the fraying relationship between technology and society. Concerns seem to be contradictory, with some arguing for technological acceleration and others suggesting technology has become reckless and destructive. Yet if we look on these events from the remove of Asia, the maladies seem like symptoms of the same underlying problem: the alienation between the people and cultures developing technology in the West today from the societies they serve. This alienation helps fuel both the regulatory backlash against technology and the lackluster investment in tech development by Western governments, as well as the irresponsible and antisocial ways many technologies are developed today. One of the authors of this piece grew up and spent most of his career within the segment of Western culture that overwhelmingly develops the world's technologies. It's a culture that revolves around a small number of coastal, cosmopolitan geographies (Silicon Valley, the Puget Sound, Boston, New York, London) and is grounded in a radical secularism and scientism, dominated by young, white, globalist, nerdy men and pervaded by a mix of libertarian and technocratic ideologies that venerate technologists as the rugged heroes and/or planners of the future. This forms a sharp contrast to the societies these technologists supposedly serve. Even in the West, and especially globally, most people are far more distributed, religious, nationalistic, rainbow colored, female and grounded in more traditional political attachments than the aforementioned cohort. Most people on Earth consider religion important to their lives, half are women, less than a fifth are white, less than 1% live near one of the tech hubs, and while nerdiness is a bit harder to define precisely, it is likely the most minority trait of all these. On the other hand, the group from which most tech leaders are drawn constitutes probably less than 1% of the population of the West and 0.1% of the global population. Furthermore, as recent reporting by journalists such as Linda Kinstler and Meghan O'Gieblyn highlights -- and as the "closeting" of Christians in the popular television series Silicon Valley dramatizes -- the dominant atmosphere of the tech world is to suppresses traditional religiosity, often resulting in technologists themselves holding their worldviews close to their chests."

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In this intimate fireside chat, we will learn more about the Public Investment Corporation Early Stage Fund, cleverly structured to adress a number of challenges faced by startups. Cant wait!

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David Yi (Ethos VC) a.k.a "The VC who hates most VCs" on his Personal Journey and Perspective on Growth:  "As an eight-time founder with two exits, I've seen the landscape from multiple angles. It's not about being a hero but about building a team, learning, and evolving. Whether it's in education or tech, the journey is about adapting and finding your path, not just in Korea but globally." https://lnkd.in/gVduV3MQ #startupswithseoul Chang (CK) Kim

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It's hard to do startups, and it's even harder in SEA, when funding is currently lacking. We do need a systemic change in the way startups grow and how VCs invest. Until the tap of 'free money' opens up, it's going to be fairly dry. The expectations of return by VCs are based on the SV model, and we need to recalibrate to the environment of SEA. Hopefully, new funds that are about to launch have this in mind and not ape what SV is doing. The gap has even widened with AI plays driving the market into stratospheric region, in terms of money and valuation, one that SEA market isn't able to meet. This doesn't mean we don't have a chance, just need to really take in the last twelve years of lessons and recalibrate. Nice article from DSA in their latest report. https://lnkd.in/g9ANhJwk

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For Southeast Asia’s tech ecosystem to be self-sustaining, we need some big changes. There are a few key elements I believe can unlock tremendous opportunity in the region. To name a few: ✅ Deep, varied capital stack - Sufficient capital at various stages from angels to growth capital. ✅ Diverse investors - Knowledgeable investors focusing on various industries and models. ✅ Exits infrastructure - Mechanisms for exits from IPOs to M&A. ✅ Strong founders - Awareness of the nuances of SEA and conviction to depart from “tried and tested” models adapted from matured markets like the US With these in place, it will accelerate interest and success for investors and founders alike. That said, I believe our core approach needs to change. Over the last decade, SEAsia has greatly matured. And with any nascent upstart, it’s applied what’s worked elsewhere... Focusing heavily on growth-at-all-cost and other US-inspired strategies. To the surprise of most, the results have not been the most encouraging as a result of this. On hindsight, the pitfalls were clear: - Unrealistic early-stage valuations. - Chasing very large outcomes in a fragmented market. - Applying US playbooks that don't fit our market. Startups will follow suit to match criteria that VCs set. It’s how the game works. With the current market downturn, it’s a good opportunity to reset and intentionally chart our own course for the region. Investors and founders that know how to meander this market with it’s unique strengths / market dynamics in mind, will succeed. As investors and long-time believers in this region ourselves at Tin Men Capital , We believe in working together to develop the ecosystem. Southeast Asia is still learning to walk before it begins to run. Venture capital is a team sport, and together, we can build a stronger, self-sustaining space for startups to thrive. Let's pull in the same direction and make it happen. 💪

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🌏 Our most recent article, "Advancing Sustainable Finance in Thailand: Insights from the ZERO13 Roundtable" 🌱 A few months ago ZERO13 hosted a roundtable in Thailand, in collaboration with Charoen Pokphand Group Co.,Ltd., Energy Absolute PCL (EA), and the KliK Foundation. The discussions centred on Thailand’s renewable energy potential, carbon credit markets, digital solutions, and the broader global challenge of addressing climate change. 💡 In our latest article, we explore how digital innovations, international collaboration, and sustainable strategies discussed at the roundtable can transform Thailand into a global sustainability leader. ZERO13 is doubling down on its commitment to advancing renewable energy and transparent carbon markets. 📖 Read the full article here: https://lnkd.in/eydWRHsR #SustainableFinance #ClimateAction #CarbonMarkets #RenewableEnergy #DigitalTransformation #ZERO13 #SustainabilityInnovation #ClimateFinance #CarbonCredits Lincoln T.

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Thank you to both Hong Kong Economic Journal and Singtao for the hour-long interview. It was a pleasure to talk about Hong Kong’s dynamic investment landscape and the Greater Bay Area (#GBA). Thank you Hong Kong Trade Development Council for the arrangement. #BIPAsia Are we telling good stories about Hong Kong? Absolutely. We #gobi feel a strong responsibility to showcase the city’s opportunities within the GBA to the world. Here are selected points we discussed during the chat: 🌏 Capital Market Dynamics: The landscape shifts as US-Sino offshore funds fade out, making way for emerging players. This transition is reshaping the capital flow into GBA, creating new opportunities for local and regional investors. 🌏 Valuing Fundamentals: Investors are now placing greater emphasis on startups' fundamentals, focusing on their industry positioning and commercial viability. Over the past three years, valuation recalibration has made investments more attractive and realistic. 🌏 DeepTech Opportunities: Deep tech is becoming a focal point for investors, with many identifying promising opportunities through spin-offs from academic and scientific institutions. This approach not only shortens R&D cycles but also aligns with global trends in innovation. 🌏 Innovative Exit Strategies: In today’s market, we need to be creative with exit strategies. Small-cap listings can serve as stepping stones, enabling companies to raise funds at lower costs while collaborating with larger groups or listed companies to scale further. 🌏 Maintaining Momentum: Despite market challenges, we have remained disciplined in supporting startups and fostering innovation. This year alone, Gobi Partners has invested in approximately 10 new projects in GBA, including re-ups of existing portfolios and more than one transaction per month. Hong Kong is uniquely positioned to thrive as an investment hub. With government policies encouraging innovation, universities setting up venture initiatives, and a growing pool of investable projects, the ecosystem is more vibrant than ever. Over 90% of Gobi’s 100 investments in the GBA are highly related to Hong Kong, either through founders or university research—a testament to the city’s potential. Moreover, new capital is flowing into Hong Kong as Mainland Chinese funds and corporate strategic investors establish local branches. This trend complements Hong Kong’s growing role as a key city for raising USD-denominated funds amidst geopolitical shifts like U.S. restrictions on investments in China’s semiconductor and AI sectors. Hong Kong’s startup ecosystem is evolving rapidly. From profound tech innovations to creative exit pathways, we are building a robust foundation for long-term growth. Let’s keep telling these good stories—because there’s so much more to share! The original article link is in the comment box. 📮 Christopher Lai Gobi Partners GBA Gobi Partners Thomas G. Tsao Chibo Tang Catherine Shu Hazel Wong #VC #venturecapital

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Ultimately, no company, even unicorns can escape the fundamental law and raison d'etre of doing business, which is to make profits. 'Most Asean equity fund managers are cautious about putting money in new economy companies that have sprouted in South-east Asia from changing consumer behaviour as a result of digitalisation. Portfolios today are still dominated by well-established, money-making old economy stocks of banks, industrial conglomerates and telecommunications providers instead of younger companies in e-commerce, digital entertainment and online ride-hailing. A few fund managers have capitalised on early investments in such stocks like Sea, Grab and GoTo Gojek Tokopedia, but most have opted for a more conservative approach, avoiding these high-risk sectors altogether, said analyst Hunter Beaudoin at Morningstar Manager Research Services Asia. These nascent firms offer much higher growth prospects and access to innovative technologies than their traditional rivals in the region, but their risks cannot be overlooked, the analyst said.' https://lnkd.in/gJ39xQyR

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The “chiriakhana (zoo)” of angel investors The Angel investor ecosystem WA is abuzz with debates about Vinod Khosla’s recently made statement that 90% investors add no value to their investment and 70% detract value. They inspired the title from the legendary director Satyajit Ray’s old thriller movie about the idiosyncrasies of a highly heterogeneous group of people in one contained colony… aka the angel investment ecosystem. Here’s my take on the different types of Angel investors. Any resemblance to anyone specific in my angel networks is, of course, purely coincidental if not totally unintended. 1. The “Divine angels”- they are the God’s gift to founders - those who strike up a close relationship with founders and get involved on a regular basis from making connects, to brainstorming ideas to being an agony aunt/uncle. They are a rare breed. 2. The “main bhi CEO”s- these are the ultra intrusive folks who gun for 100% credit of success, 0% of failure with 5 % of effort. Founders suffer them due to SHA constraints before being compelled to rudely refuse the persistent advances. 3. The “impact players” - these investors only get deeply active during critical events like fund raises, big business pivots etc. Founders may dislike them when challenged but sometimes grudgingly respect them post facto. 4. The “main bhi angel”s - they are typically the victims of peer pressure in funding someone familiar with a “change the world” story, usually having to write those initial (mis)adventures off and retreating into inactivity before falling again for FOMO. Failed founders, if contactable, have to deal with their “how could this happen” lament. 5. The “equal opportunity” investors - blessed with large corpuses they invest in anything that sounds interesting … law of averages inevitably catches up with them. Founders love them as much for the money as for their indifference. 6. The “probability punters” - they follow their own versions of optimum portfolio size aspiring to improve the abysmal probability of success by leveraging multiple levels of curation through experts and platform processes in addition to their own instincts. They may wear the hats of “impact players” and “divine angels” for a few of their investments. 7. The “Shashi Tharoor” investors - typically tenured large company professionals who have ill adjusted to the start up ecosystem…they attempt to apply mega businesses idioms to fledging startups leading to incredulous founders and co investors. 8. The “consultant uninvestor” - they love the sound of their own voices and on angel platforms typically ask questions which are longer than the answers and, unsurprisingly, find very few ventures worthy of investing in. Many angel investors are like chameleons.. they can change their colours for different founders. But all of them are convinced that they are at least always in the 30% and on a good day in the 10% as per Mr. Khosla’s definitions. We are all exceptions.

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🚀 Millennial lifestyle subsidy? Airbnb's average daily rate rose by 36% ('19-'22) Uber's price rose by 45% ('19-'22) Instacart's service fees rose by 61% ('19-'22) Here's the challenge. These services have always been expensive. VCs have subsidized the cost to drive growth. (Thank You, VCs!) I believe there is a very important bet for two of these services that haven't paid off (yet). Autonomous Cars. What is driving the high costs of two of these businesses? Wages. Remove the driver, and the costs drop substantially. They haven't been able to do that (yet). So, prices must reflect the cost of driving a hamburger 40 minutes across NYC. (It's not $5). What could bring #airbnb prices back down to earth...? Inspiration, Juliana Kaplan https://lnkd.in/gTACYHdR

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Engaging chat with 🚀PETER A. K. and Marco van Zomeren from Expanding Experts about their expansion into Indonesia and Southeast Asia. Exciting to see how we can collaborate and grow together in these dynamic markets. #VentureCapital #GlobalPartnership #VCPartnership #GrowthOpportunities #MandiriCapitalIndonesia #MCI

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To the founders that I didn't invest in: For most of you, it was the right call. You were too early. You were missing something. You were too good and/or past the stage where it makes sense to join our program. For some of you I missed a great opportunity. If that's the case, I'm sure you did just fine. The good ones always find a way. I'm sorry I missed riding alongside you. For those of you that I didn't invest in and it was the right decision, I hope you'll apply again on your next go around. Some of our best investments applied 2 or 3 times before they got it. Often I have to invest at a higher valuation because you deserve it and I wish I'd seen your potential earlier. Early stage startup investing is at least as much art (and luck) as science. Keep on building, keep on learning. Hope to see your application for cohort 10: https://lnkd.in/gv6n_k8E

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VC can learn from PE and vice-versa. Is there a best of both worlds? Could they be the yin to each other’s yang? Imagine a conference with partners from both VCs and PE firms. 🤔 What would they be talking about?  🤔 What would they be learning from each other?  🤔 What topics would be alien to each other?  🤔 What blind spots will be revealed? Both are very important sectors to the UK and the global economy and we will all benefit if they evolve and raise their game. In my second essay on this topic, please note I’m making generalisations and my comments will not apply to all firms. (yes, I’m talking to you John O'Connell!) - - - - - 📑 Read the article in full below. 👀 Keep your eyes peeled for more info on this topic! https://lnkd.in/eAKPmNQp #privateequity #venturecapital #PE #VC #RaisingCapital

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Thanks to DealStreetAsia for letting us contribute to this interesting topical piece... #DPI is indeed an issue that needs to be addressed but it is also important to find solutions and tools which can provide positive outcomes for all stakeholders, something that is central to Collyer Capital's strategy! #CCPL #CollyerCapital #DPI #Secondaries #Liquidity

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