Asia Startup Pulse
The Asia Startup Pulse Podcast, previously known as China Startup Pulse Podcast, is an original weekly podcast for anyone interested in understanding the innovation, business, and tech landscape in Asia. We bring the best of the Asian startup ecosystem, showcasing entrepreneurial stories, insights from thought leaders, and dissecting the strategies employed by tech giants. Backed by SOSV, Chinaccelerator, and Mobile Only Accelerator (MOX), we understand firsthand what it’s like to be an entrepreneur in Asia. Over the last decade, we have helped over 170 startups cross borders and make their mark in Asia. With that in mind, the podcast offers real, practical, and unique insights. The Asia Startup Pulse is hosted by Oscar Ramos, Ryan Shuken, and William Bao Bean, hackers, and hustlers with years of experience in Asia and China’s startup scene. Subscribe to us on iTunes, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Ximalaya FM, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Episodes
Final call for signing up for Chinaccelerator 20 Demo Day Nov 24 on Eventbrite. We will soon be back with the brand-new season.
Today, ASP selected the special episode that Oscar Ramos sat down with venture capitalist and fintech investor Wei Hopeman. After beginning her career in financial services and investment banking, Wei co-founded Arbor Ventures in 2013, the first VC fund specialized in fintech in the Asian ecosystem. She ta...
Sign up for Chinaccelerator 20 Demo Day Nov 24 at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/chinaccelerator-demo-day-20-livestream-20-tickets-188035859317?aff=podcast
In this episode, we talk about Peng’s journey as an investor and how he perceives the great potential in Southeast Asia. More importantly, he summarizes a very important trend in SEA’s startup ecosystem, "Technification". We also talk about the impact that China's Internet giants h...
In today’s episode, we talk with Sanjay Nath, Co-founder and Managing Partner of Blume Ventures, one of India’s leading early-stage venture funds. Sanjay also represents Blume on the boards of Arka Venture Labs and the Draper Venture Network. Blume focuses on Seed to Pre-Series A stages of funding and has made over 100 investments across its 10-year history across multiple funds. Sanjay has invested in and advises a wide portfolio ...
In this episode, we go deep into marketplaces with James Tan, Managing Partner at Quest Ventures. James was co-founder and COO of 55tuan, a NASDAQ listed e-commerce group that grew to more than 200 cities and 5,000 employees across China.
Sign up for Chinaccelerator 20 Demo Day Nov 24 at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/chinaccelerator-demo-day-20-livestream-20-tickets-188035859317?aff=podcast
Show notes:
2:43 - Introduction to James T...
Having accomplished his goal of transforming the gaming industry, Johnson Yeh is now turning his attention to his long-time passion: circular economy and sustainability. He founded ROEHL to provide consumers with a more sustainable and convenient lifestyle, starting with a subscription-based home appliance service.
Johnson recently sat down with Oscar Ramos in our Shanghai recording studio. Listen for their discussion on:
- Why Joh...
“Drones, in itself, is just a dumb flying platform. What makes it intelligent is the analytics and smart sensors; and how that can be disruptive in providing real value to our enterprise clients,” said Kamarul Muhamed, who founded Aerodyne in 2014 and has grown the company into a world-leading drone-based enterprise solutions provider and, more importantly, a pioneer in the use of AI for large-scale data operations and process opti...
Robby Yung is the CEO of Animoca Brands, the developer of a broad portfolio of blockchain games, traditional games, and other products, many of which are based on popular global brands including Formula 1®, Marvel, WWE, Power Rangers, MotoGP™, and Doraemon. Animoca Brands is also a prolific investor with more than 50 investments in NFT-related blockchain companies, including Sky Mavis (Axie Infinity), Dapper Labs (CryptoKitties and...
The open-source model has been a big catalyst for technology businesses across the world. While it is clear how they fit into other business models, it is still unclear what the business model behind an open-source business is. In this episode, we aim to answer that and more. We invited Neil Han, Head of APAC and EMEA for PingCAP, the first open-source unicorn in China, which raised 340million USD in total. Neil is a hardcore softw...
In today’s episode, we invite Sanjay Nath, Co-founder and Managing Partner of Blume Ventures, one of India’s leading early-stage venture funds. Sanjay also reprerepresents Blume on the boards of Arka Venture Labs and the Draper Venture Network. Blume focuses on Seed to Pre-Series A stages of funding and has made over 100 investments across its 10-year history across multiple funds. Sanjay has invested in and advises a wide portfoli...
We invited Chris Lerner, Managing Partner at MSA Capital, to join us to share his experience on starting and running a successful venture fund, and also how MSA Capital has supported startups to grow and expand to different markets. Founded in 2014, MSA Capital is an independent global private equity and venture capital firm with over $1.5 billion assets under management. Most notably, 60% of its 26 early stage investments have bec...
While Southeast Asia remains one of the hottest markets in the region, South Asia is also catching up, especially with the likes of Bangladesh and Pakistan. The region is also home to some of the fastest-growing tech startups, and today, we venture down south to Bangladesh and talk to the co-founder and CEO of Pathao, Bangladesh's largest tech company which is valued at over $100 million. Pathao is the leading ride-sharing, on-dema...
In this episode, we are joined by Ilaria Chan, Advisor on Tech & Social Impact for Grab, one of Asia’s most prominent tech unicorns. Having started her career in investment banking with Goldman Sachs, today Ilaria is a global keynote speaker, private investor, and serves on the Board of Trustees of several humanitarian organizations. We talk all about impact investment and socially conscious startups and the investment ecosystem th...
In today’s episode, we invite Ronen Mense, President and Managing Director APAC for AppsFlyer, to help us answer these questions and more. In the last 7 years with AppsFlyer, Ronen has managed to grow the mobile analytics platform from newcomer to market leader in APAC achieving 70% market share, triple digital revenue growth year on year, and building an amazing team of 175+ across 7 offices in the region.
Show Notes:
02:12 Introdu...
Today, we are going to dig deeper into marketplaces again with James Tan, Managing Partner at Quest Ventures. Prior to this, James was co-founder and COO of 55tuan, a NASDAQ listed e-commerce group that grew to more than 200 cities and 5,000 employees across China.
Show notes:
2:10 Introduction to James Tan
3:48 Transition from startup founder to venture capitalist
5:35 Introduction to Quest Ventures
6:50 Most rewarding achievements of ...
For this special episode, we invite Mia Deng, Partner at Dragonfly Capital and Co-founder of NFT marketplace TR Lab, to dive deeper into the NFT space and also talk more about Dragonfly Capital’s latest $225 million fund, primarily focused on DeFi and NFTs. We also cover topics around the evolution of the crypto industry and the synergies between traditional VCs and crypto VCs.
Show Notes:
1:29 Introduction to Mia Deng
4:12 How the n...
Today, we invite our guest Rui Ma, founder of Tech Buzz China and former Investment Partner at 500 Startups, to discuss these questions in detail on our show. Rui has fifteen years of experience in technology and finance, spanning seed stage to pre-IPO investing spread evenly between the U.S. and China.
Show Notes:
1:51 Introduction to Rui Ma
2:01 The anti-monopoly policy in China
3:28 The reason why Chinese Internet ecosystems don’t c...
Victoria Hoang is the Data Partner at Bristol Myers Squibb, where she counsels teams on data privacy and cybersecurity law. In her 20+ years of experience in life sciences and management consulting, she has served on several innovation programs working closely with startups. In today’s talk, she covers one of the most important pre-requisite for startups, which is building trust.
Jack Ren is the Managing Director of Eminence Venture...
Rui Ma is a former VC-turned independent tech analyst with her experience spanning from seed stage to pre-IPO investing spread between the US and China. She is well versed with the startup ecosystems in the US and China, having previously worked at 500 Startups as an investment partner. In today’s talk, she offers some invaluable insights for startups going across borders and brings light to potential pitfalls that startups must av...
In today’s episode, we dig deeper into esports as a business in SEA with Allan Phang, the Regional Head of Marketing PR at EVOS Esports and former Head of Esports at AirAsia.
Show Notes:
02:50 Allan Phang’s experience in esports
09:00 Introduction to EVOS Esports
12:21 Debunking common myths about professional esports
14:08 Career lifespan of professional esports players
17:55 The role of game publishers in the industry
20:40 Ramification...
This is a special episode which we recorded live on Clubhouse with our guest Aaron Tan, Founder of Carro, one of the biggest used-car marketplaces in Southeast Asia.
Show Notes:
0:00 - Introduction to Aaron Tan
1:32 - Aaron’s motivation to founding a startup
6:01 - The supportive ecosystem around Carro
8:19 - The importance of “Trust” in a business
8:50 - The reasons behind starting an automotive marketplace in SEA
13:35 - Inspiration fr...
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