It’s undeniable – the world is in recession. Although it took longer for the downturn to hit Asia, startups and venture capitalists have been preparing for it for months. On this episode of Deep Dive, Tech in Asia emerging tech editor Collin Fu

A Startup's Guide to Remote Talent (Trailer)

Dec 20th, 2022 1m 16s

Once upon a time, all it took to build a workforce was a couple of ads in the classified section of the local newspaper. But with a global shift to remote working, companies have to consider a plethora of factors when hiring talent: Which marke

Deep Dive: Hodlnaut’s mismanagement and lies

Dec 11th, 2022 23m 51s

At the start of 2022, crypto firm Hodlnaut had the approval of the Monetary Authority of Singapore and close to US$1 billion in assets under management. Today, the Singapore-based company has halted its operations, faces lawsuits over allegatio

Vibe Check: Mental Health in the Startup World (Trailer)

Oct 17th, 2022 1m 36s

Vibe Check: Mental Health in the Startup World is a Tech in Asia podcast where writer and editor Winston Zhang speaks to startup leaders and mental health professionals to see what he can learn from them when it comes to managing his mental wel

Deep Dive: PayMongo’s precarious predicament

Oct 12th, 2022 26m

Once a rising fintech company that drew in investors such as Y Combinator and Stripe, Philippines-based PayMongo now finds itself in a precarious position. Allegations of questionable spending and employee harassment from senior leaders cropped

Deep Dive: How Animoca Brands became a blockchain gaming juggernaut

Jul 4th, 2022 23m 19s

Animoca Brands is a name that is practically synonymous with the blockchain scene, with news of its acquisitions, fundraising, and expansions regularly hitting the news. But the Web3 empire’s thrilling crypto success was sparked in a manner tha

Deep Dive: Does the rise of digibanks threaten Indonesia’s online lending industry?

May 31st, 2022 16m 4s

As digital banking rises to prominence in Indonesia, tech companies from various sectors have been dipping their toes in the game, partnering with and sometimes even acquiring digibanks. Leveraging their greater and easier access to capital, on

Deep Dive: How GoTo’s IPO went down

Apr 29th, 2022 26m 45s

GoTo Group, the new entity formed through the Gojek-Tokopedia merger last year, listed on the Indonesian Stock Exchange this month. While the company’s shares quickly soared past its initial offering price, it also fell just as quickly in a man

Deep Dive: The plight of Indonesia’s UangTeman

Mar 25th, 2022 33m 19s

Indonesian online lender UangTeman has had a tough few years. Its name has been in and out of headlines since 2018, with stories either focusing on the company’s financial troubles or its apparent recovery. But what’s at the core of UangTeman’s

Deep Dive: Asia’s crypto fever

Mar 7th, 2022 19m 12s

As blockchain-related projects gather steam across Asia, the region’s countries are adopting crypto in unique ways. While Vietnam’s strong gaming culture has driven its crypto boom, India’s NFT gold rush has been powered by Bollywood film stars

Deep Dive: Grab’s rollercoaster of an IPO

Jan 20th, 2022 15m 11s

Grab, one of the region’s most valuable tech companies, made its Nasdaq debut last month after a record US$40 billion merger with Altimeter, a New York-listed blank-check company. However, the super app’s first few weeks of public life haven’t

Deep Dive: The bright future of dark stores

Dec 9th, 2021 23m 40s

Dark stores – more widely known as microdistribution hubs – have been gaining prominence in India and Southeast Asia, with grocery delivery startups like Dropezy and Zepto raising millions of dollars in funding and setting up hundreds of center

Deep Dive: Atome’s enigmatic parent company

Nov 12th, 2021 16m 21s

After recently closing a US$400 million series D round from an investor consortium led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and Warburg Pincus, Singapore-headquartered Advance Intelligence Group joined the unicorn club. Its most well-known service? Atome,

Deep Dive: Stripe’s rough road into Indonesia

Oct 8th, 2021 21m 57s

Over the past year, financial services major Stripe has been stepping up its efforts to enter the Indonesian market, targeting key positions for early hires. Among them is former Grab Indonesia executive director Ongki Kurniawan, who’s now lead

Deep Dive: India’s D2C boom

Sep 10th, 2021 19m 41s

It wasn’t too long ago that in India, Kashmiri apparel sellers carrying large, red-checked bed sheets full of handmade embroidered shawls, dress materials, and stoles would spend their days knocking on door after door, trying to sell their ware

Deep Dive: Why Bukalapak’s IPO is a big deal for Indonesia

Aug 13th, 2021 22m 56s

Founded in 2010, Bukalapak initially had trouble raising funds because “nobody wanted to invest,” co-founder and former CEO Achmad Zaky said during a fireside chat at the Tech in Asia Conference in 2019. He even considered closing the business

Behind the idea that spawned a multimillion-dollar business

Aug 5th, 2021 17m 31s

[This episode was produced in partnership with CleverTap] In 2014, Sunil Thomas, Anand Jain, and Suresh Kondamudi had left their jobs at Indian media conglomerate Network18 to start up CleverTap. The mobile marketing platform’s birth was inspir

Deep Dive: Why HungryGoWhere ended up being all sizzle and no steak

Jul 2nd, 2021 19m 59s

For years, HungryGoWhere was the go-to platform for anyone looking for grub and sustenance in Singapore. But last month, the site announced that it’s ending its 15-year run, bidding loyal users - the few who were still around - farewell and tha

Deep Dive: Gojek and Tokopedia’s merger

Jun 10th, 2021 26m 45s

Last month, Indonesia-based super app Gojek and online marketplace Tokopedia announced a merger to form GoTo Group. The move would give both companies a boost against their respective rivals: Gojek against fellow super app Grab, and Tokopedia a

Deep Dive: Grab’s investor presentation

May 14th, 2021 26m 18s

Last month, Grab announced its plans to go public in the US via a merger with Altimeter Capital, a special purpose acquisition company. Shortly after, Grab unveiled an investor presentation that revealed previously closely guarded financial det

Deep Dive: How PatSnap joined the unicorn club

Apr 15th, 2021 21m 17s

Last month, innovation intelligence startup PatSnap raised US$300 million from big-name backers like SoftBank Vision Fund II and Tencent Investment, which the Singapore-based firm says brings its valuation over US$1 billion. But PatSnap’s bid t

Deep Dive: Behind Sea’s latest moves

Mar 26th, 2021 20m 29s

Over the past few weeks, one company that has frequently been hitting the headlines is Singapore-headquartered Sea. As the biggest Southeast Asian internet business, dwarfing startups and listed companies alike in valuation, every move that Sea

Deep Dive: The rising ‘buy now, pay later’ trend

Feb 19th, 2021 26m 50s

Towards the end of 2020, a number of “buy now, pay later” (BNPL) startups started ramping up their marketing, plastering ads across malls, train stations, and even social media platforms. What led to the rise of this new payment method? And is

Deep Dive: How CoAssets lost its investors millions of dollars

Jan 14th, 2021 21m 9s

In the last weeks of 2020, hundreds of retail investors were shocked when they discovered that Singapore-based investment platform CoAssets had disposed of over US$30 million of their investments to a virtually unknown debt recovery firm. Numer

Deep Dive: What’s going on with India’s OTT platforms

Dec 8th, 2020 33m 12s

A recent report by PricewaterhouseCoopers found that India is currently the world’s fastest-growing market for video streaming, and it’s set to become the sixth largest by 2024. With over 40 over-the-top streaming (OTT) players in the country v