Episodes
Published 02/27/24
The CEO of a cutting-edge fintech explain how his start-up offers investment services once reserved for the ultra-wealthy to successful professionals. As the eight cofounders of Singapore-based Arta Finance got to know one other during their years together at Google, they recognized a massive market gap for investment services aimed people like themselves: successful professionals who were doing well, but not well enough to access top-tier financial services. With a total addressable market...
Published 02/27/24
The global coleader of Leap by McKinsey discusses the firm’s latest global survey, which finds that business leaders and investors are bullish on building new businesses. Despite ongoing economic uncertainty, businesses are increasingly enthusiastic about creating new ventures, according to McKinsey’s latest global survey on new-business building. More than 50 percent of surveyed CEOs cited new-business building as one of their top three priorities—unlike in the previous two years. And a...
Published 01/22/24
The global coleader of Leap by McKinsey discusses the firm’s latest global survey, which finds that business leaders and investors are bullish on building new businesses. Despite ongoing economic uncertainty, businesses are increasingly enthusiastic about creating new ventures, according to McKinsey’s latest global survey on new-business building. More than 50 percent of surveyed CEOs cited new-business building as one of their top three priorities—unlike in the previous two years. And a...
Published 01/17/24
The CEO of a leading Southeast Asian steel distributor explains why he decided to launch a venture designed to reuse steel, reduce carbon emissions, and disrupt his core business. If the many infrastructure projects across Southeast Asia have a common denominator, it’s steel. And in just 12 years, Singapore-based Mlion has become the region’s largest supplier of steel material for the construction of roads, bridges, ports, waterways, and underground tunnels, with offices in Malaysia, the...
Published 09/18/23
The founding partner of a Southeast Asian VC fund explains his company’s global ambitions to create economic opportunity, promote sustainability, and reduce carbon emissions. Human activity began altering the climate in the mid-19th century, when the industrial revolution began unleashing unprecedented amounts of carbon into the atmosphere. But an innovative new VC climate tech venture builder is trying to mitigate some of the ensuing catastrophic climate change with a laudable and lofty...
Published 06/12/23
Cardiovascular disease remains the number one killer in every developed country, but only one in ten US patients with severe heart ailments received treatment in 2022. Egnite, a healthcare start-up, has ambitious plans to dramatically improve treatment of heart disease by harnessing the power of AI and big data to identify patients who fell through the cracks after being diagnosed. Egnite was spun out from Edwards Lifesciences, a California-based medical technology company, in early 2021....
Published 05/10/23
In this episode of The Venture, we share a conversation with Thomas Gros, CEO and cofounder of circulee, a Berlin-based distributor of pre-owned digital hardware. The German start-up provides smaller businesses with a green and cost-effective alternative to new IT devices, offering them professionally tested and warrantied hardware previously leased by large corporates. Gros sat down with McKinsey’s Tomas Laboutka to discuss the central importance of the circular business model, the...
Published 04/10/23
In this episode of The Venture, we share a conversation with Brian Clark, chief product officer of Ascend Bit, a Bangkok start-up recently spun off from the Ascend Group, itself a part of Thailand’s C.P. Group.  Ascend Bit’s mandate is to leverage blockchain solutions on behalf of the group, focusing on applications for businesses and tokenization for consumers. Current efforts focus on productizing, loyalty, and gamification, with an emphasis on tokenizing non-traditional assets for...
Published 03/08/23
In this episode of The Venture, we share a conversation with Tirayu Songvetkasem, also known as Mac. He is the head of Maknet and chief digital officer of Siam Makro, the Thai branch of a multinational serving the hotel, restaurant, café and catering sector (HoReCa). Makro recently leveraged the mothership's market experience and network of partners to launch Maknet, an online marketplace that’s already Thailand’s leading B2B for food products and services. Songvetkasem sat down with...
Published 01/11/23
In this episode of The Venture, we share a conversation with Oi-Yee Choo, CEO of ADDX, a full-service capital markets platform based in Singapore. The fintech start-up uses blockchain and smart contract technology to provide access to a range of securities previously unavailable to mass affluent investors. And in less than three years, ADDX’s innovative approach has managed to attract funding from some high-profile regional financial institutions. Oi-Yee sat down with McKinsey’s Andrew Roth...
Published 11/16/22
In this episode of The Venture, we share a conversation with Moritz Hartmann, global head of Roche Information Solutions for Roche Diagnostics, one of the Swiss multinational’s two divisions. Adapting to constant technological change and disrupting via science has fueled the 125-year-old company’s longevity, which now uses digital tools and data science to provide insights, drive outcomes, and deliver personalized healthcare. Hartmann sat down with McKinsey’s Anand Swaminathan to explain his...
Published 10/31/22
In this episode of The Venture, Andrew Roth shares a conversation with Andre Menezes, cofounder and CEO of Next Gen Foods, a Singapore-based, food tech start-up. Its first product, TiNDLE, a plant-based chicken, is already making waves with chefs and diners in Singapore, Hong Kong, and Amsterdam. It recently debuted in the US, and helped Next Gen secure $100 million in funding. Andre talks about how Next Gen designed TiNDLE around three core elements, its decision to target restaurants before...
Published 08/25/22
In this episode of The Venture, Andrew Roth shares a conversation with Samuel Rhee, Chairman, Chief Investment Officer, and cofounder of Endowus, a Singapore-based financial technology company that transformed the city-state’s cumbersome social security investment process into a fully digital experience. It’s now the only investment platform in Singapore approved for the investment of all funds, an eye-popping trillion-dollar wealth market. Samuel talks about Endowus’ mission to solve the...
Published 06/14/22
In this episode of The Venture, Andrew Roth shares a conversation with Josh Tetrick, CEO and cofounder of Eat Just, a California-based company that makes eggs from plants and produces meat from animal cells. The company was founded in 2011, and has sold the equivalent of more than 200 million eggs via JUST Egg, a plant- based egg made from mung beans. In 2017, the unicorn announced its intention to develop cultivated meat, and in 2020, Singapore became the first place to approve the sale of...
Published 03/31/22
In this episode of The Venture, Andrew Roth shares a conversation with Josh Tetrick, CEO and cofounder of Eat Just, a California-based company that makes eggs from plants and produces meat from animal cells. The company was founded in 2011, and has sold the equivalent of more than 200 million eggs via JUST Egg, a plant- based egg made from mung beans. In 2017, the unicorn announced its intention to develop cultivated meat, and in 2020, Singapore became the first place to approve the sale of...
Published 03/31/22
In this episode of The Venture, Andrew Roth shares a conversation with Hugh Yao, CEO and founder of LingoAce, a Singapore-based online language learning service aimed at children. Hugh founded the company in 2017, and after a couple years of deliberately glacial growth, the business exploded during the pandemic, growing some 4,000 percent and attracting students in more than 100 countries. Hugh talk about the genesis of LingoAce, why he kept his foot on the brake for so long, and how the...
Published 03/09/22
In this episode of The Venture, Andrew Roth shares a conversation with Hugh Yao, CEO and founder of LingoAce, a Singapore-based online language learning service aimed at children. Hugh founded the company in 2017, and after a couple years of deliberately glacial growth, the business exploded during the pandemic, growing some 4,000 percent and attracting students in more than 100 countries. Hugh talk about the genesis of LingoAce, why he kept his foot on the brake for so long, and how the...
Published 03/09/22
In this episode of The Venture, Andrew Roth shares a conversation with Edward Ying, former director of planning and transformation at Indonesian telco Telkomsel, and Trio Lumbantoruan, vice president of by.U, the carrier’s fully digital start-up. Telkomsel is Southeast Asia’s largest wireless provider, with more than 170 million subscribers and a 66 percent market share. In 2019, it launched by.U to win new customers in the Gen Z market and develop a brand with digital natives. Ying and...
Published 10/26/21
In this episode of The Venture, Andrew Roth shares a conversation with Jakob Angele, CEO of Foodpanda APAC, part of Delivery Hero’s global network of food-delivery services. Angele talks about building a business based on delivering a restaurant meal to someone’s home, which at the time was something new to consumers and restaurants alike. Angele describes Foodpanda’s emphasis on speed, scale, and brand to build market share even as competitors entered the market.
Published 09/07/21
In this episode of The Venture, Andrew Roth shares a conversation with Alvin Cai, vice president of New Ventures, the corporate business-building arm of Singapore’s Economic Development Board. Cai talks about his group’s new Corporate Venture Launchpad, a S$10 million pilot program designed to help corporates build Singapore- based start-ups by partnering with established venture studios, and why he believes success depends on agility and autonomy from the mothership.
Published 08/01/21
In this episode of The Venture, we discuss the importance of a programmatic approach to acquiring and scaling brands, and the multiple advantages of business-building on the world’s largest e- commerce platform–Amazon. JJ Chai, CEO and cofounder of Rainforest, a Singapore-based, e-commerce brand aggregator, shares how his previous start-up experience helps him identify, acquire, and scale Asian “solopreneurs” targeting US consumers on Amazon’s marketplace.
Published 06/27/21
In this episode of The Venture, we discuss the importance of establishing dominance in the core business before branching out, key success factors for a company to win in new marketplaces, and the need to constantly reexamine your key differentiator. Lai Chang Wen, CEO and cofounder of Ninja Van, a Singapore-based express delivery company in Southeast Asia, shares how the company has thrived due to a vast addressable market, an equal emphasis on technology and human nature, and a commitment...
Published 04/30/21
In this episode of The Venture, we discuss the challenge of launching a traditional utility player on a path of innovation and how an organization can build sustainability into its strategy, promote a culture of innovation within the organization, and reinvent its business for the future. Austin Bryan, senior director of innovation for CLP Holdings, a Hong Kong–based regional energy supplier, shares his commitment to transform a 120-year-old company through digitization and decarbonization...
Published 03/31/21
In this episode of The Venture, we discuss the challenge of entering a highly competitive Chinese market without a local partner, the importance of being data driven to understand the customer, and how to embrace a culture of failing and learning in order to scale. Jesper Jos Olsson, group CEO and founding partner of White Peak Real Estate, explains the company's unshakeable commitment to green and sustainable development and its innovative, community-based concept for urban living.
Published 02/26/21