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Southeast Asian VCs brace for Chinese disruption to regional markets
Two Singapore-based VC executives said Southeast Asian firms still had an advantage because of their cultural and business insights into local markets, despite tighter competition due to the growing presence of Chinese investors in the region.
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Insignia Ventures CEO and founding managing partner Tan Yinglan (right) and Cocoon Capital managing partner William Klippgen address a media briefing on Nov. 1, 2023 during the Singapore Week of Innovation and Technology (SWITCH) 2023 in Singapore. (JP/Ruth Dea Juwita )
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outheast Asian venture capital (VC) firms anticipate tighter competition in the regional market due to the increasing presence of Chinese investors and tech talent, which they have dubbed “Global China 2.0”.
According to Insignia Ventures CEO and founding managing partner Tan Yinglan, Chinese firms, battle-tested with their experience in China’s tech market, are poised to bring their product-market fit along with their own talent, technology, resources and capital, potentially causing disruption to markets across the region, including in Singapore and Indonesia.
“This is a result of more intense competition from Chinese companies. They have seen [and] done it all back in China, and now they’re bringing it here,” Tan told a media briefing on Wednesday at the Singapore Week of Innovation and Technology (SWITCH) 2023.
The annual conference, themed “The Global Gateway to Innovation in Asia” this year, runs from Oct. 31 to Nov. 2 at Sands Expo & Convention Centre in Singapore.
In response, governments in the region had proactively introduced “interesting, innovative policies” to counter an influx of Chinese tech companies, he added.
One recent example was the Indonesian Trade Ministry’s regulation aimed at curbing the growing traction of TikTok Shop, owned by Beijing-based ByteDance, by “separating chat and commerce platforms” to “bar cross-border trade segments for transactions under US$100”.
Read also: Meta, YouTube, TikTok want e-commerce licenses. Why?
