#SpotlightOnASEAN: Charting New Frontiers

Kickstart Ventures President and Co-founder Minette Navarrete joined Malaysian Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry Tengku Zafrul Aziz, SGX CEO Loh Boon Chye, and Standard Chartered CEO Bill Winters in a global panel on ASEAN business opportunities at the Bloomberg event in September

Open Mic Night on Kickstart's 135th Raid the Fridge

Kickstart Ventures has announced that its 135th Raid the Fridge community event, happening on October 31, will feature the fifth edition of its Open Mic Night. Tech startups that prefer to skip traditional pitch competitions will have the chance to connect directly with investors searching for promising ventures. The event is also an opportunity for startups to hustle for valuable business development leads.

With the ASEAN region becoming increasingly attractive to investors, there is much potential for Southeast Asia's digital landscape—and startups have a vital role to play. Kickstart Ventures President and Co-founder Minette Navarrete put this forward in a panel discussion at the Bloomberg Spotlight on ASEAN Business held on September 9 in Singapore.

Highlighting the ASEAN’s demographic advantage, Navarrete said, “That’s not just about building a cadre, a cohort of consumers, but it was also bringing forth a generation of people who are digital natives, who see themselves as citizens of the world, who have a bit more care for their place in the global environment.” This young, tech-savvy population, she explained, brings openness to looking at innovation, enabling them to reshape trends and redefine innovation culture across the region.

Navarrete touched on GCash’s story to illustrate the Philippines and China’s business ties. GCash has Alibaba unit Ant Financial as a significant shareholder, and she said that learnings from Alipay's experience have helped the growth of digital financial payments in the Philippines. “We are confident that the commercial relationships will remain. […] And we will diversify so that geographic risk is well managed,” she added.

Navarrete also described Kickstart’s work in healthcare. Recognizing the lack of large databases focused on Asian pathways to health, Kickstart is leveraging AI to understand the healthcare system in the Philippines and the ASEAN region. Using data, Kickstart is seeing developments in disease, health progression, insurance, and investments.

With digitalization, artificial intelligence, electric vehicles, digital banking, and the digital economy making their way and making waves across the region, Navarrete said that it is time to consider prospects for Southeast Asia.

View the Bloomberg Live event at ww.youtube.com/watch?v=efBCqBa7eqs.