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 fact, the rate of growth in valuation of startups has accelerated over the last 5 years and is a pace on par, if not greater, than the average for the rest of the world. In addition, the old “funding” valley of death series A, B, or even C is well gone, and we are in the age of “plugging the gap” between VC and PE stages, with a thick blur in between.

Topics discussed:

• The unicorn DNA – What technology, talent, economic and legislative tailwinds have created the current unicorns
• 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?
• To what extent do the US, China, and India unicorns provide models for SEA unicorns, or do they not?
• Do unicorns “suck up” all of the capital?
• How will the unicorns exit

Soundbites

Shaun Chong – “People only see the success stories, they don’t know the hardships.“

Watch the full episode here.