A joint collaboration between North Ridge Partners and PRecious Communications

Southeast Asia Connect is the only platform with an aim to connect founders and investors of Southeast Asian startups to the world.

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Episode 1 | The COVID-19 Winners

The Chinese character for crisis is danger and opportunity. Every crisis produces winners, and today’s giants were yesterday’s survivors (Amazon, Alibaba, Zoom, and hundreds of other examples).

When we say winners and losers of COVID-19, we want to highlight that the pandemic is a massive tragedy for health and for the economy. This is our humble attempt to help businesses, big and small, to emerge stronger from this crisis.

In this webinar, we discover:

• Who the likely winners will be

• Key trends

• New opportunities

Guest speakers: Nicolas du Cray, Partner at Cathay Innovation and Andrew Mawikere, CEO & Co-founder of Bizzy Indonesia

Watch the full episode here.

Episode 2 | Bringing the Sexy Back to Enterprise SaaS

94% of enterprises now use cloud software. According to the US Tech Bank, Raymond James, top Cloud SaaS companies still command over 10x trailing revenue multiples, despite recent volatility.

Leading global software VC Bessemer Venture Partners, with over US$5 billion in funds under management, and an investor in legendary companies such as LinkedIn and Twillio, just released their ‘State of the Cloud 2020’ report.

Key findings include:
- The top 5 cloud companies of 2008, Adobe, PayPal, Salesforce, ServiceNow, and Shopify, have seen a 50x increase in market cap to US$600 billion from 2008 to 2020
- In a little over 10 years, we have seen 86 private cloud unicorns emerge, including companies like HashiCorp, UiPath, Snowflake, Stripe, Toast, Procore, and more.

In this webinar, we:

• Explore why investors are looking at Enterprise SaaS

• Discover what one of the largest regional SaaS AI companies is up to

• Analyze high growth and robust business models of 2020

Guest speakers: Anvesh Ramineni, MD at MassMutual Ventures and Dr. Sinuhe Arroyo, Founder & CEO of Taiger

Watch the full episode here.

Episode 3 | Educated and Dangerous

Rising wages in Southeast Asia demand a more productive workforce to mitigate real income growth. Challenging this is not lower-cost countries but in fact machines. In Q3 2017, Goldman Sachs revealed that the average cost of a tier-1 Chinese factory worker exceeded that of a robot. Indeed, US Presidential Candidate Andrew Yang cites automation as a real factor in unemployment and what also got Trump into power.

For more than 99% of the population in Southeast Asia, excluding Singapore, there is no university ranked within the global 300. The greater challenge is to create high wage jobs given the lack of high-quality educational institutions.

In this webinar, we ask:

• Could the lack of the right education for the economy of tomorrow derail the Southeast Asian economic and social miracle?

• How the education design, delivery, engagement, and payment models adapting and why is it working?

• What are the success factors behind China and India’s education unicorns and could Southeast Asia produce its own?

Guest speakers: Jan Lambrechts, CEO and Founder of Epitome and Raj Shastri, Partner at Kaizenvest

Watch the full episode here.

Episode 4 | Back on the Map: The Smart City Opportunity for SEA

Cities across the globe are harnessing new technologies to improve the quality of life of their residents. It’s no surprise that China, India, and Southeast Asia have some of the most populous cities in the world and are pursuing strategies to deliver smarter cities. Singapore, for example, has labeled itself as a Smart Nation and is building its economy on digital innovation.

In this webinar, we question:

• Whether the ‘smart city’ concept has finally evolved from buzzword to reality

• What defines a smart city, and how does a city become “smart”

• The role and applications of Big Data, IoT, and other Smart City technologies

Guest speakers: Stanimira Koleva, General Manager and Senior VP at HERE Technologies, APAC, and Charles Reed Anderson, Managing Partner at SparkLabs Connex.

Watch the full episode here.

Episode 5 | HealthTech – Wonder Drug or Bitter Pill?

For Southeast Asia to maximise life expectancy and quality of life, for its young population, the quality and accessibility of healthcare options must improve.

Across the region, the HealthTech sector is utilising technology to improve the digital delivery and outcome of healthcare services, with health management solutions, patient solutions, medical diagnostics, medical education, and population health management, attracting the most funding.

The COVID-19 pandemic has further exposed the limitations of existing healthcare infrastructure and forcing the adoption of online delivery of services.

In this webinar, we analyse:

• Whether Southeast Asia, with government and VC support, will create the next HealthTech unicorn

• Recent investment trends. With US$140 million already invested this year, will invested capital across HealthTech in 2020 exceed 2019’s record of $270 miilion across Southeast Asia

• How regional HealthTech startups are responding to COVID-19

Guest speakers: Dr Huren Sivaraj, CEO & Co-founder of Oncoshot and Hareesh Nair, Ex-Fosun and an angel investor in Asian healthcare

Watch the full episode here.

Episode 6 | Social Commerce in Southeast Asia - Does it check out?

According to McKinsey, consumers recently “vaulted” five years of digital adoption in just eight weeks. The speed of adoption is arguably accelerated thanks to social commerce, where eCommerce transactions are facilitated on social media platforms via communities, conversations, and digital influencers.

Social media is gaining traction across Asia, quickly. Pinduoduo, took three years to become the third-largest retailer in China, while Jingling, Ecomobi, Mucho, and Fingo, disrupt local ecosystems and challenge their competitors.

In this webinar, we analyse:

• How communities and influencers are changing our shopping behaviour

• Social Commerce - From Nowhere to Everywhere

• What social commerce disruptors are doing differently

Guest speakers: Helen Wong, Partner at Qiming Venture Partners and Sachin Bhanot, Principal at B Capital Group

Watch the full episode here.

Episode 7 | Impact Investing - Old Heroes with New Labels?

If there is one good thing the COVID-19 pandemic has brought, it is a momentous pivot in the realm of impact investing. We have seen a spotlight of inequality at all levels, a greater consciousness of impact across all demographics, and greater accessibility to free-market capital for founders of impact businesses.

This trend has seen much acceleration especially in Southeast Asia, where we see USD 11.3 billion deployed across 289 deals this decade. As we grapple with this new paradigm shift, what lies ahead and how should different stakeholders navigate these new but promising changes?

In this webinar, we explore:

• The fundamental differences between impact investing and ESG investing

• Challenges and opportunities that lie ahead for impact investing

• Outlook for continued and positive societal change for Southeast Asia

• What companies that are on the cusp of impact work are doing

Guest speakers: Shuyin Tang, Partner at Patamar Capital and Paul Meyers, serial entrepreneur, Asian digital veteran, and former advisor at ADB Ventures.

Watch the full episode here.

Episode 8 | Cybersecurity - The Next Battleground

According to CB Insights, there were over 7,000 data breaches in 2019 alone and an increase in the sophistication of cyberattacks across corporations. The most affected industries are information technology, healthcare, finance, and insurance.

While threats created by misinformation and other campaigns have created a huge amount of insecurity, these challenges create opportunities for the next generation of cybersecurity startups - the cyber defenders. A record high of 10 billion of funding and 770 deals were done in 2019, compared to less than half of that in 2015. Investments have remained strong and bullish with the most active investors globally being Lightspeed and Accel.

In this webinar, we analyse:

• Why the threat of cyberattacks is greater than ever in the post-COVID world

• The importance of investing in underlying enabling businesses for digitalisation and cybersecurity

• The importance of localising cybersecurity operations in Southeast Asia and factors that make the Southeast Asian market compelling

Guest speakers: Kuo-Yi Lim, Co-founder & Managing Partner, Monk’s Hill Ventures and Paul Hadjy, CEO & Co-founder, Horangi Cybersecurity

Watch the full episode here.

Episode 9 | Fintech - More Wall Street or More Silicon Valley?

Fintech in Southeast Asia is the only sector set to nearly double funding in 2020 compared to 2019. Out of 109 startups in Southeast Asia, 35 startups are now valued at more than $100 million.

Ant Financial is the most anticipated IPO of the year at a rumoured $250 billion, which would make it roughly the 5th largest “bank” in the world. Fintech is not only impossible to ignore but too important not to understand.

In this webinar, we talk about:

• Whether the smaller players will be able to compete for market share with the larger Unicorns like Grab, GoJek, ZaloPay, OVO, etc

• The revenge of the banks

• Digital banking, and what it means in 2020

• Embedded finance

• What is next in the Fintech space

Guest speakers: Pinn Lawjindakul, Vice President at Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Kelvin Teo, Co-founder and Group CEO at Funding Societies.

Watch the full episode here.

Episode 10 | Unicorn Breeding in Southeast Asia

Over the past decade, Asia's startup scene has been led by China, which created some of the world's most valuable unlisted startups that are now household names like Alibaba and Tencent. Of course, we all know the hits keep on coming with TikTok operator ByteDance.

After India, Southeast Asia has followed up with 13 unicorns.

In this webinar, we speak to Grab, the largest unicorn in the region at US$14.3 billion, and Ninja Van, the Singapore-based ride-hailing giant and the next unicorn, valued at US$750 million. We explore:

1. The unicorn DNA - What technology, talent, economic and legislative tailwinds have created the current unicorns?
2. What factors will create the next wave and is there a shift in the nature of unicorns to come e.g. more B2B, more fintech, more logistics.
3. To what extent do the US, China, and India unicorns provide models for SEA unicorns, or do they not?
4. Do unicorns "suck up" all of the capital?
5. How will the unicorns exit?

Guest speakers: Aditi Sharma, Director at Grab Ventures, and Shaun Chong, Co-founder & CTO at Ninja Van

Watch the full episode here.

Episode 11 | Merchant Platforms in Southeast Asia - The Next Billion Users

Google talks about finding the next “billion” users - is it the case that a significant part of the next billion users will be served and acquired indirectly via the millions of MSME merchants embedded in the emerging markets of Southeast Asia?

In this episode, we speak to Apis Partners, with an AUM of roughly USD 1 billion in 3 funds, and Fave, Southeast Asia’s leading royalty & rewards platform. We explore:

1. The shift to B2B Super Apps

2. The size of the “Merchant Enterprise Segment”

3. Economics around Merchants & Merchant Platforms

Guest speakers: Nigel Lee, Operating Partner at Apis Partners, and Joel Neoh, Founder of Fave.

You can watch the full episode here.

Episode 12 | Why it takes a village to build a startup in Southeast Asia

In the last 5 years, we have witnessed the increasing relevance of startup initiatives globally. the likes of Station F in Europe and Surge and Antler in Asia have thousands of startups combined that receive help in growing their companies. In China similarly, Chinaccelerator, operated by venture fund SOSV, has more than 140 startups in its portfolio.

The astonishing growth in the number of such initiatives worldwide from 200 in 2011, to well beyond 10,000 now, proves that there is an increasing need for them in the making of a startup.

In the final episode of the year, we talk about:

1. Bridging startups and B2B enterprises, and how startups can win pilots with corporates

2. Working with local players in the ecosystem and enabling digital transformation

3. Ecosystem success stories

Guest speakers: Janise Tan, Startup Ecosystem Manager at Google, and Keziah Quek, Ecosystem Lead at Capgemini Applied Innovation Exchange.

You can watch the full episode here.

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