RISE Offstage with Casey Lau

On this episode of the RISE Offstage podcast, host Casey Lau welcomes Akshay Bhushan, a Partner at Lightspeed who is leading the firm’s Southeast Asia investments, focusing on consumer tech investing across both Southeast Asia and India and in companies like Sharechat, Chilibeli, Grab and more. Akshay talks about how the pandemic has helped them to deploy more capital, which are the big Asian markets Lightspeed is looking at and the next group of exciting verticals they are looking into like The Passion Economy and empowering SME’s in Asia to more efficiently run their businesses using technology. This is a fascinating chat discovering what Lightspeed is looking at in terms of startup investments across Asia and their big bets on India, Indonesia and Vietnam.To get a warm intro to Akshay please reach out to Casey on Twitter.SHOW NOTESAkshay Bhushan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/akshaybhushan/Lightspeed Venture Partners: https://lsvp.com/portfolio/Sharechat: https://sharechat.com/Chilibeli: https://www.chilibeli.com/Grab: https://www.grab.com/The Passion Economy: https://www.passioneconomy.xyz/SME Market in Southeast Asia via EY 2019: https://assets.ey.com/content/dam/ey-sites/ey-com/en_sg/topics/growth/ey-smes-in-southeast-asia-redesigning-for-the-digital-economy.pdf====WE ARE HIRING IN JAPAN: https://www.websummit.com/careersCollision https://www.collisionconf.com/RISE https://www.riseconf.comWeb Summit Tokyo https://www.websummit.com/tokyoCasey Lau on Twitter: https://twitter.com/casey_lauCasey Lau on Clubhouse: https://www.joinclubhouse.com/@casey_lau

On this episode of RISE offstage, I welcome the new regional director of 500 Startups APAC Ee Ling Lim to the podcast.Ee Ling’s main role is to work with governments and corporates to build innovation programs using the 500 Startups network and has run programs in the city of Kobe Japan and with corporates like Malaysia’s Petronas with their FutureTech accelerator. We talk about how engaging with corporates and governments can accelerate not only startups but the ecosystem itself and Ee Ling gives us lots of information on how these goals are measured and obtained in the ongoing battle in Asia, where each country is fighting to become the digital hub of the region and the benefits that brings to startups all over the world. SHOW NOTES

Ee Ling LimLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ee-ling-lim/Clubhouse: https://www.joinclubhouse.com/@linglim500 Startups Ecosystems https://500.co/ecosystems500 Startups Demo Day 2020: https://youtu.be/YOy4LsFJU4Q500 Kobe: http://500kobe.com/Petronas x 500 Futuretech Accelerator: https://www.petronas.com/media/press-release/petronas-teams-silicon-valleys-500-startups===NOW HIRING FOR JAPAN: https://www.websummit.com/careers===Collision https://www.collisionconf.com/RISE https://www.riseconf.comWeb Summit Tokyo https://www.websummit.com/tokyoCasey Lau on Twitter: https://twitter.com/casey_lauCasey Lau on Clubhouse: https://www.joinclubhouse.com/@casey_lau

On this episode of RISE Offstage, host Casey Lau speaks with Animoca Brands founder and chairman Yat Siu about the current NFT craze and how it goes beyond the art and collectibles world and into games and pop culture. Based in Hong Kong, Yat has invested in Opensea, Dapper Labs and more and helps decipher the world of NFTs and explore the market opportunities in Asia that are coming up over the next year on this episode.Show Notes:Animoca Brandshttps://www.animocabrands.com/===Yat Siu on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ysiuYat Siu on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yatsiu/===Opensea: https://opensea.io/The Sandbox: https://www.sandbox.game/en/F1 Delta Time: https://f1deltatime.com/Cryptokitties: https://www.cryptokitties.co/Dapper Labs: https://www.dapperlabs.com/NBA Top Shot: https://nbatopshot.com/Quidd: https://market.onquidd.com/Foundation: https://foundation.app/NiftyGateway: https://niftygateway.com/The Metaverse: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MetaverseSnow Crash: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_CrashReady Player One: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ready_Player_One===Collision https://www.collisionconf.com/RISE https://www.riseconf.comWeb Summit Tokyo https://www.websummit.com/tokyoCasey Lau on Twitter: https://twitter.com/casey_lauCasey Lau on Clubhouse: https://www.joinclubhouse.com/@casey_lau

The RISE Offstage podcast with Casey Lau highlights chats with community leaders, startup founders and investors across Asia about their startup ecosystems and how they are facing new challenges and new opportunities.On this episode I welcome Koichi Saito and Kuan Hsu the co-founders and general partners of KK Fund. These two investors have worked in Japanese venture capital and now through their own fund are investing in startups in various verticals from e-Sports to AutoTech to InsurTech and more across South East Asia, Taiwan and Hong Kong .This is a truly pan-asian conversation as we talk about the Japanese, South East Asian and Singaporean startup scenes and what KK Fund look to invest in, and what they see happening post-pandemic in this exciting market they have been helping to build.KK Fundhttp://kkfund.co/Koichi Saitohttps://www.linkedin.com/in/koichisaito/Kuan Hsuhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/alankhsu/RoomMehttps://roomme.id/Meet Your Matchhttps://medium.com/@kk_info/meet-your-match-sea-fd95926d9856Smart Nation Singaporehttps://www.smartnation.gov.sg/Razerhttps://www.razer.com/Secret Labhttps://secretlab.co/Family offices in Singapore, lured by the city-state's ample incentives and low taxeshttps://www.businessinsider.com/singapore-attracts-ray-dalio-sergey-brin-family-offices-2021-2===Collision 2021 https://www.collisionconf.comRISE 2022 https://www.riseconf.comWeb Summit Tokyo https://www.websummit.com/tokyoCasey Lau on Twitter: https://twitter.com/casey_lau

The South Korea startup ecosystem has been booming - some of the most exciting new companies are coming out of Seoul. On this episode of the RISE Offstage podcast I welcome Jimmy Kim and Bernard Moon the co-founders of SparkLabs one of South Korea’s most successful startup accelerators.===SHOW NOTES:Jimmy Kim LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimmykim1/Bernard Moon LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernardmoon/SparkLabs Korea http://www.sparklabs.co.kr/lb/index.phpSparkLabs Group: http://www.sparklabsgroup.com/SparkLabs Demo Day http://www.sparklabsdemoday.com/en/index.phpSparkLabs Ventures http://www.sparklabsventures.com/v/index.phpSparkLabs Taipei: https://www.sparklabstaipei.com/Bespin Global: https://en.bespinglobal.com/===RISE https://www.riseconf.comWeb Summit Tokyo https://www.websummit.com/tokyoCollision https://collisionconf.com/Web Summit Lisbon https://websummit.com/Casey Lau on Twitter: https://twitter.com/casey_lauCasey Lau on Clubhouse: https://www.bit.ly/caseyonclubhouseStartup Yumcha on Clubhouse every Tuesday 10am Hong Kong time.

Amarit “Aim” Charoenphan is best known as the Co-founder and Former CEO of HUBBA, Thailand’s first coworking space and community that is the only Google for Startups Partner Hub in Thailand. He is also Chief International Officer and Cofounder of Techsauce, one of Southeast Asia's leading technology media and events company. His passion for the startup community and to help entrepreneurs grow has led him to angel invest in many of the top Thai startups and actively coaches over 1000+ different startups founders over the past decade. Show Notes:Aim on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AimAmaritAim on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amaritcharoenphan/Hubba: https://www.hubbathailand.com/Techsauce: https://techsauce.co/Unfold Ventures: https://www.facebook.com/unfold.venturesImpact Collective: https://impactcollective.earthAlmond Digital Group: https://www.almond.group/===RISE https://www.riseconf.comWeb Summit Tokyo https://www.websummit.com/tokyoCollision https://collisionconf.com/Web Summit Lisbon https://websummit.com/Casey Lau on Twitter: https://twitter.com/casey_lauCasey Lau on Clubhouse: https://www.bit.ly/caseyonclubhouse

At Web Summit 2020, we announced that RISE will move from Hong Kong to its new home of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 2022.Malaysia is fast becoming the digital hub of the ASEAN region and I thought it would be great to talk to some people who live and breathe the Malaysia startups ecosystem and give us some insight into what is happening there right now, the challenges and successes and the massive opportunity, so I welcome two amazing women on the podcast to talk about the startup ecosystem in Malaysia:Lalitha Wemel is the regional director of community for Techstars and while she travels Asia to build ecosystems for Techstars she calls KL her home. She works with corporate and government partners in the region to build out hundreds of startup programs annually in APAC.Lennise Ng, the co-founder and CEO of Dropee.com a B2b e-commerce startup redefining the business sourcing experience across South East Asia . Lennise was also the second Malaysian startup to be accepted into Y Combinator and is also a Forbes 30 under 30. SO here we go - an introduction to the Malaysia startup ecosystem on this episode of the RISE Offstage podcast.SHOW NOTES:Lalitha Wemel LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lalswemel/Techstars: https://www.techstars.com/Happy Messy Humans podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/happy-messy-humans/id1516074368Lennise Ng LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lenniseng/Dropee: https://www.dropee.comY Combinator W2020 batch: https://blog.ycombinator.com/yc-winter-2020-batch-stats/Forbes 30 Under 30: https://www.forbes.com/30-under-30/2020/asia/retail-ecommerce/===Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation: https://mdec.my/Malaysia Startups are Booming via Mashable: https://sea.mashable.com/tech/8956/malaysian-startups-are-booming-heres-the-reason-why-theyll-get-even-biggerWhy the Malaysian startup ecosystem will survive this pandemic via e27: https://e27.co/out-of-the-woods-why-the-malaysian-startup-ecosystem-will-survive-this-pandemic-20200827/===RISE moves to Kuala Lumpur in 2022 via Techcrunch: https://techcrunch.com/2020/12/02/web-summit-will-hold-rise-2022-in-kuala-lumpur-launch-a-new-event-in-tokyo/With RISE tech conference, Malaysia aims for place on global digital map via SCMP: https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/3113085/rise-tech-conference-malaysia-aims-place-global-digital-mapHong Kong just lost a splashy tech conference to Kuala Lumpur via CNN: https://edition.cnn.com/2020/12/03/tech/rise-hong-kong-moves-hnk-intl/index.html===RISE 2022 https://www.riseconf.comWeb Summit Tokyo https://www.websummit.com/tokyoCasey Lau on Twitter: https://twitter.com/casey_lau

On this episode of RISE Offstage our guests are Mark Wang, Head of East Asia for Shopify who heads up the e-commerce platforms growth in Japan and he invited one his e-commerce success stories Kaz from kiko & gg to provide insight from a local Japanese entrepreneurs perspective and how her e-commerce business is operating, and not only during a pandemic, but more importantly internationally and with Japanese retail culture intact.SHOW NOTESShopify: https://www.shopify.comShopify Japan https://www.shopify.jpSelling in Japan https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/intro-to-shopify/initial-setup/sell-in-japan===kiko & gg English website https://www.kikoandgg.comJapanese website https://www.kukkia.jpEnglish Instagram https://www.instagram.com/kikoandgg/Japanese Instagram https://www.instagram.com/kikoandgg_jp/===Stores.jp https://www.stores.jpCommerce Cloud https://www.salesforce.com/ca/products/commerce-cloud/overview/Rakuten https://www.rakuten.co.jpAmazon Japan https://www.amazon.co.jpYahoo Japan https://shopping.yahoo.co.jp/Don Quixote https://www.donki.com/en/Tokyu Hands https://www.tokyu-hands.co.jp/en/Mercari https://www.mercari.com/jp/===Japan E-commerce Stats https://ecommercedb.com/en/markets/jp/all===What is Kodawari? https://exploringkodawari.blog/what-is-kodawari/===RISE https://www.riseconf.comWeb Summit https://www.websummit.comCasey Lau on Twitter https://twitter.com/casey_lau===RISE Offstage on Apple Podcastshttps://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rise-offstage-with-casey-lau/id1532312429===RISE Offstage on Spotify Podcastshttps://open.spotify.com/show/0zniLKC4MapdE7VmhZUDC2?si=77ubUkw7RPKpTNW_Kcew7A

On this episode of RISE Offstage, Casey Lau sits down with Roland Yau of CoCoon Ignite Ventures and Ben Wong of Eureka Nova to talk about the recent challenges facing the Hong Kong startup ecosystem and how it will thrive as part of China's Greater Bay Area and amidst the enactment of the National Security Law. RISE returns in March 2021.Show Notes:Roland Yau on LinkedInhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/roland-yau-0228611/Ben Wong on LInkedInhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/thebenwong/Eureka Novahttps://www.eurekanova.com/New World Group https://www.nwd.com.hk/CoCoon Ignite Ventureshttp://www.cocoonigniteventures.com/CoCoon Hong Konghttps://www.hkcocoon.com/NWD x Mizuho Bank Acceleratorhttps://www.eurekanova.com/mizuho-crowd-brainHong Kong protests news via South China Morning Posthttps://www.scmp.com/topics/hong-kong-protestsNational Security Law via CNNhttps://www.cnn.com/2020/06/25/asia/hong-kong-national-security-law-explainer-intl-hnk-scli/index.htmlBaidu, Alibaba and Tencent, known as the BATs via CNBChttps://www.cnbc.com/2020/01/10/china-tech-outlook-2020-baidu-bidu-alibaba-baba-and-tencent.htmlGreater Bay Area via South China Morning Posthttps://www.scmp.com/topics/greater-bay-area======RISEHttps://www.riseconf.comRISE on TwitterHttps://www.twitter.com/riseconfhqRISE on LinkedInhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/riseconf/RISE on FacebookHttps://www.facebook.com/riseconfhqRISE on InstagramHttps://www.instagram.com/riseconfHQCasey Lau on TwitterHttps://www.twitter.com/casey_lau

On this episode of RISE Offstage I welcome co-founder and president of AirWallex Lucy Liu to the podcast - Airwallex is one of the fastest growing fintech startups in Asia having raised a new $160mm Series D round in April with investors like Tencent, Sequoia China and Horizon Ventures.On this episode (which was shot in person back in January 2020 as a pilot to a video version of this podcast) Lucy and I start at Airwallex’s super cool offices in Quarry Bay, Hong Kong….and then we walk over to one of Lucy’s favorite coffee shops nearby and I get a chance to learn more about her startup journey as a female founder in fintech, being a young mother managing a unicorn-level startup and starting a new tech company in Australia and then growing internationally from their Hong Kong headquarters.Please welcome co-founder and CEO of Airwallex Lucy Liu to RISE Offstage.Airwallexhttps://www.airwallex.comAirwallex - Your Passport to Global Businesshttps://youtu.be/Wg0NZhD5HH4Airwallex gets $160 million Series D to launch more cross-border financial productshttps://techcrunch.com/2020/04/15/airwallex-raises-160-million-series-d-to-launch-more-cross-border-financial-products/What is 996?https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/29/technology/china-996-jack-ma.htmlWeb Summit returns December 2-4, 2020https://www.websummit.comRISE returns March 2021https://www.riseconf.comFollow me on Twitterhttps://www.twitter.com/casey_lau

Taiwan has the lowest number of COVID-19 cases in Asia so much so that entrepreneurs from around the world have been moving to Taiwan in droves that they actually have a Chinese name for “COVID Refugee.” This is amazing to hear and why I wanted to feature the Taiwan ecosystem early on in this new podcast series because this is an amazing opportunity for startups as my guests and I will discuss.Some people refer to Taiwan as the "Asian Wakanda" - that magical place in the Marvel Universe where the Black Panther hails from - and it's not too far off point a comparison.This is a quick snapshot of what Taiwan's startup ecosystem feels like right now on this episode of RISE Offstage with my guests Elisa Chiu from Anchor Taiwan and Ping Wang from Techstars Taiwan.Links to companies mentioned in the podcast:Anchor Taiwan: https://www.anchortaiwan.comTechstars Taiwan: https://taiwan.startupweek.coRISE: https://www.riseconf.comFurbo: https://www.furbo.comiKala: https://ikala.tv/PicCollage: https://piccollage.com/Taiwan Gold Card: https://www.taiwangoldcard.comTensorTech: https://tensortech.com.tw/Freebionics: https://freebionics.com.tw/Appier: https://www.appier.com/Gogoro: https://www.gogoro.com/Taiwan Tech Area: https://www.taiwanarena.tech

The RISE Offstage FinTech Roundtable featuring special guest Mikaal Abdulla co-founder of 8Securities.com 8 Securities has been acquired by SoFi and so this will be Mikaal's final interview as 8 Securities!Mikaal AbdullaTwitter: https://twitter.com/mikaalabdullaSoFiHK: https://twitter.com/SoFiA letter from the founders:https://www.8securities.com/From Bloomberg:https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articl...From TechCrunch:https://techcrunch.com/2020/04/21/sof...This roundtable represents a selection of key leaders in the Hong Kong startup ecosystem and we ask Mikaal the questions all startups want to know about being acquired, how to manage funding, how to manage the team and what's next.On the virtual roundtable today:Casey Lau, co-host, RISEhttps://twitter.com/casey_lauhttps://www.riseconf.comJames Giancotti, CEO of Alluva and Co-founder of Odduphttps://twitter.com/JamesGiancottiTytus Michalski, Managing Partner, Fresco Capitalhttps://twitter.com/tytusm

Subscribe to RISE Offstage with Casey Lau and connect with the most exciting region in the world for tech startups.