BRAVE Southeast Asia Tech: Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines, Thailand & Malaysia Startups, Founders & Venture Capit

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.comWhatsApp Weekday Insight: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VakR55X6BIElUEvkN02eSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4TnqkaWpTT181lMA8xNu0TYoutube: https://www.youtube.com/@JeremyAuApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/sg/podcast/brave-southeast-asia-tech-singapore-indonesia-vietnam/id1506890464Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@jeremyauInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/jeremyauzTwitter: https://twitter.com/jeremyauLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bravesea

  1. 11h ago

    How Tech Became Sri Lanka’s Third-largest Export Earner | Chalinda Abeykoon - E744

    Chalinda Abeykoon, managing partner of nVentures, traces the seven or eight ways he tried to solve startup funding in Sri Lanka, most of which failed. At the Brandix apparel accelerator, the products were good, but the startups lacked the enterprise sales skills to sell to brands like Nike and Lululemon. A diaspora equity crowdfunding platform raised about $1 million in 20 months before the Easter bombings, the pandemic and the economic crisis ended it. nVentures is a $2 million fund, with 70% of LP money from the diaspora, backing B2B fintech. He reports two exits, about 30% IRR and 1.8x TVPI. He argues early-stage support is an art, going from minus one to zero, and that founders grow by leaving their comfort zone for Singapore. Chalinda Abeykoon is Managing Partner at nVentures, an early-stage VC fund investing in technology startups across South and Southeast Asia. His portfolio includes two global exits, including an acquisition by JPMorgan Chase. Chalinda is a recipient of the Chevening Fellowship from the University of Oxford and an Australia Award from the University of Queensland. Chalinda’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chalindaabeykoon/ nVentures: https://nventures.sg/  Watch, listen or read the full insight at https://www.bravesea.com/chalinda-abeykoon-sri-lanka-venture-capital  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 Opening themes 02:20 Graduating into a hiring freeze 04:38 Childhood in Colombo 06:40 Teaching students to pitch 08:40 The Brandix accelerator 12:00 B2B strength, B2C bias 14:30 How nVentures began 17:50 Fund structure and results 20:00 From minus one to zero 23:00 Sri Lanka and Singapore 30:40 Losing his father young #SriLanka #VentureCapital #Startups #SriLankaStartups #Fintech #B2B #SouthAsia #SoutheastAsia #Singapore #Entrepreneurship #StartupFunding #EarlyStageVC

    How Tech Became Sri Lanka’s Third-largest Export Earner | Chalinda Abeykoon - E744
  2. 4d ago

    The Future Of DeFi: One Connected Global Marketplace | Lennix Lai - E743

    Lennix Lai, general manager at OKX, describes moving from trading roles at JP Morgan and AIG into crypto after reading the two-page Bitcoin whitepaper, despite first thinking Bitcoin was a scam. He argues DeFi can grow into a connected global marketplace, citing the recent SEC innovation exemption for tokenized securities and OKX's joint venture with ICE for tokenized equities that trade around the clock. He explains OKX's shift toward serving agents as well as humans, including an agent-to-agent marketplace, private keys held in a trusted execution environment, user-defined security policies, and pre-trade risk simulation. Early adopters of OKX Agent Trade Kit and Onchain OS are semi-professional retail traders who trade more often and with more discipline. Lennix is one of crypto’s original builders out of Hong Kong, where so much of the early industry took shape. He joined OKX in 2017 and has been working alongside CEO and Founder Star Xu virtually since the beginning. He helped fight the defining derivatives battle with BitMEX in 2018, then built OKX’s institutional business from scratch. Today, he’s deeply involved in the group’s global licensing and regulated entities, while creating bridges between crypto and traditional finance, including OKX's landmark tri-party custody arrangement with Standard Chartered Bank. He's a recognized voice on the convergence of traditional and digital markets, institutional crypto adoption, and global regulatory compliance and has appeared on CNBC, Bloomberg and in the SCMP, CoinDesk and Cointelegraph as a commentator. Before crypto, he was at JPMorgan and AIG, so he has a rare front-row perspective on both the old financial system and the new one. Lennix’ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennix-lai-808abb1a/   OKX: http://www.okx.com/   Watch, listen or read the full insight at https://www.bravesea.com/lennix-lai-okx-ai-agents-defi  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 02:04 From banking to crypto 03:53 Why blockchain 08:26 The future of DeFi 12:21 Tokenized equities 14:35 Agent-to-agent marketplace 18:38 Building for agents safely 21:43 Agents moving value 25:09 Advice for agentic finance builders 27:36 Early adoption results 31:30 Staying the course #DeFi #AIAgents #Crypto #Blockchain #TokenizedStocks #Stablecoins #AgenticFinance #FutureOfFinance #FinTech #Bitcoin #Web3 #CryptoPodcast #TechPodcast #SoutheastAsia #Singapore #HongKong

    The Future Of DeFi: One Connected Global Marketplace | Lennix Lai - E743
  3. Oct 25

    Enabling the Future of Design | Goh Yiping - E742

    Goh Yiping, co-founder and CEO of Formas.ai, traces her path from startup founder and venture capitalist to McKinsey partner, then to an executive role at immersive entertainment company NEON, and explains how each stage taught her to scale and think at an institutional level. She then explains the family decision to found Formas.ai with her husband Carlos: an AI-native design workspace, billed as the “Figma of architecture,” that aims to cut seven weeks of rendering work to two days. She closes on risk, courage, and why she chose to drive AI rather than consume it. Yiping Goh is the Co-Founder & CEO of FORMAS.AI, an AI Design and Agentic 3D Modelling Workspace for architecture, interior design, and the built environment. FORMAS.AI helps designers move from sketches, floor plans, references, notes, and spatial intent into visual design iterations, photorealistic renders, and connected design workflows with greater speed and control. Under her leadership, FORMAS.AI was named the Global Winner of SuperAI Genesis 2026, strengthening its position as one of the emerging AI companies shaping the future of spatial design. Yiping is an entrepreneur, operator, investor, and business builder with nearly two decades of experience across startups, venture capital, private equity, and corporate innovation in Asia. Prior to FORMAS.AI, she was a Partner at McKinsey & Company, where she worked across new business building, growth strategy, and private capital. She was also a Partner at Quest Ventures, one of Southeast Asia’s leading venture capital firms, backing and advising high-growth technology companies across the region. Earlier in her career, Yiping co-founded and scaled ventures including All Deals Asia, and contributed to the growth of MatahariMall in Indonesia. She has been recognised as one of Singapore’s notable women in technology and entrepreneurship, named among Singapore’s 100 Women in Tech, awarded the NUS Outstanding Young Alumni Award, and featured in Harper’s Bazaar Singapore, Tatler Asia, and The Peak Singapore. She also serves on the National University of Singapore Alumni Advisory Board and is an active voice on AI, venture building, and the transformation of design-led industries. Yiping’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yipinggoh/  FORMAS.AI: https://www.formas.ai/  Watch, listen or read the full insight at https://www.bravesea.com/yiping-goh-formas-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 00:00 Episode highlights 02:39 From Venture Capital to McKinsey 05:23 Lessons from Joining McKinsey as a Partner 11:37 Scaling Operations at NEON 13:24 Choosing When to Buy or Build 17:10 Returning to Entrepreneurship with FORMAS.AI 22:15 What FORMAS.AI Does 26:39 Rethinking Architecture and Design Workflows 31:58 Building Beyond AI Rendering 35:28 Building FORMAS.AI as Husband-and-Wife Co-founders 44:17 Choosing Entrepreneurship in the AI Era #Singapore #Architecture #AI #DesignTech #Startups #Founders #VentureCapital #WomenInTech #Entrepreneurship #SoutheastAsiaTech

    Enabling the Future of Design | Goh Yiping - E742
  4. Oct 21

    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

    Starting Again at 65: Rosaline Koo on Building covee’s AI Insurance Ecosystem | E741
  5. Oct 18

    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

    Finding Hope In A Long View Of History - Gita Sjahrir | BRAVE E740
  6. Oct 15

    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

    Making a Podcast About Lawrence Wong: 20+ Interviews, 15+ Drafts and a Story to Weave | Jean Hew - E739
  7. Oct 11

    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

    Unlearning Prestige & Unlocking the Golden Handcuffs - E738
  8. Oct 7

    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

    China’s AI & Robotics Are Advancing Faster Than Expected - E737
4.9
out of 5
9 Ratings

About

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.comWhatsApp Weekday Insight: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VakR55X6BIElUEvkN02eSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4TnqkaWpTT181lMA8xNu0TYoutube: https://www.youtube.com/@JeremyAuApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/sg/podcast/brave-southeast-asia-tech-singapore-indonesia-vietnam/id1506890464Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@jeremyauInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/jeremyauzTwitter: https://twitter.com/jeremyauLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bravesea

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