Emerging Central & South Asian Tech Hubs: The Indonesian & Malaysian Hubs Of 10 Years Ago?
Webinar
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Over the past decade, Indonesia and Malaysia have developed into major tech hubs, attracting VC, PE and corporate capital globally. Indonesia ranks 7th in the world with 8 unicorns, the same number as Israel. Grab (Singapore) is close to completing a $40 billion US listing via a SPAC - all good news for 3 of Indonesia’s largest tech companies.
While Malaysia does not yet have any unicorns, it has over 3,500 tech companies, of which are soonicorns – or soon to be unicorns. Both countries have built world class ecosystems which have attracted global investors leading to heightened competition, especially over the past few years.
This webinar examines the rapid growth of VC investments- increasing volumes of IPOs and corporate M&A activity- over past 3 years in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Sri Lanka – markets which we believe could produce similar success in the future.
Most of these markets still possess relatively low valuation levels, but as you will see, the majority of the recent investments in these markets has come from international investors, some of which date back to the Indonesian and Malaysian hubs of over a decade ago. As such, we recommend that now is the time to begin to understand/invest in these markets before they become highly competitive
As evidence of this increasing activity – with global investors – last week Fintech Ecosystem Development, a blank check company targeting the fintech sector in South Asia, filed with the SEC to raise up to $100 million in an initial public offering.
Speaker:
Henry Tillman has had a 35+ year international banking career, with ExCo positions at Barclays and ABN Amro and a NED role at Wells Fargo EMEA. In 2003, he formed Grisons Peak LLP, a UK based merchant bank, focussed on UK/Tech partnerships with Asia, which advised on over $25 billion completed transactions before being wound down in 2018. In 2008, Mr Tillman launched a global China macro research product, China Outbound Investments, driven from a bespoke database launched in 2008, five years before the launch of the One-Belt-One-Road Initiative, later recast as the Belt Road Initiative (OBOR/BRI). Over the past few years, the firm’s business has shifted from large cap M&A advisory to BRI research/consultancy with related private placements operated within Grisons Peak Services. Mr Tillman is recognised as a western BRI expert and presents and writes on the BRI globally.
