Investment tech must ride the swell of fintech in Southeast Asia. Does tech have a hierarchy of need
If tech consumers had their own Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, internet access would form the bottom rung, and financial-technology would be the one above it. You need to be able to connect to the world wide web and leverage this access to store value. The next natural progression once these basic needs are met is investment technology: Once you have extended financial inclusion, you don’t want it just sitting there idly, losing value against your country’s monetary inflation.
What Singapore can learn from Silicon Valley
It was my second official business visit to Silicon Valley in three years. This time, I was part of a Singapore government delegation who’s objective was to connect and establish partnerships between the two startup ecosystems. But going beyond the norm of just focusing on business, I found myself diving deep into what makes Silicon Valley the way it is and how Singapore can learn from it. In my travels, I engaged various parties at the Bay for their insights on what makes Si
Mastercard, Kuok Ventures, SGInnovate invest in AI startup
AIDA Technologies, a startup that uses machine learning to generate insights that help financial services companies make decisions, announced today that it has raised a series A round from Mastercard, Kuok Ventures (belonging to the Kuok Group), and Singapore government-linked SGInnovate. AIDA’s CEO Tan Geok Leng was a senior fellow and executive director at A*STAR, the Singapore government’s research agency. He has a PhD in engineering from Cambridge University. The investme
AirTrunk raises $450m to build Singapore data centre
BEIJING (BLOOMBERG) - Data centre start-up AirTrunk has raised $450 million in debt and equity to help build its first Singapore facility as part of a multi-billion dollar plan to become a regional technology powerhouse. The Goldman Sachs Group and TPG Sixth Street Partners-backed company has already spent more than A$1 billion (S$964.7 million) on two data centres in Australia and will open its Singapore facility in two phases, according to founder Robin Khuda. The first sta
Upcoming events in Singapore for start-ups, SMEs and entrepreneurs
Singapore has such a dynamic ecosystem that sometimes the number of events offered can be overwhelming. Here at FirstCOUNSEL, we're going to help you out by putting together a curated list of upcoming events in Singapore for start-ups, SMEs and entrepreneurs: Jun 01 - How to Build a Successful Startup (Lily Patrascu and Harry Sardinas) Free Jun 04 - How to kickstart your Startup Entrepreneur Journey (AlphaXLab Pte Ltd) Free Jun 07 - Networking Night & Panel Discussion for Ent
The WORK series - Leflair
The WORK series Next up in the series of FirstCOUNSEL sponsored videos produced by Vietcetera, which features various entrepreneurial businesses and industries with an inside look at how they operate and what makes them successful is – Leflair, one of Vietnam's most trusted e-commerce platforms. About Vietcetera Vietcetera is Vietnam’s popular online magazine for Vietnam affairs, society, business, and more, aimed at a globally-minded audience of readers, both within and outs
