Rising Sun Startups

For innovative Japanese companies looking beyond their home market, Southeast Asia is a high-potential choice. ASEAN has become one of the world’s most vibrant startup ecosystems—topped only by the US and China. “The importance of ASEAN as a new startup hub becomes especially evident when looking at the investment flows of venture capital being injected into early-stage companies across Southeast Asia," BCGDV’s Hanno Stegmann tells Bangkok Post. Last year, there was roughly $15 billion in total venture capital funding across Southeast Asia. Annually, there are about 1,000 Series A investments in the region.

“Driven by the strong inflow of capital, solid underlying economics, growing populations and advances in infrastructure development, a lot of startups in ASEAN have done very well over the past few years. In fact, on average they have performed better than the benchmark, as typical VC economics see 70% of ventures failing,” Stegmann says.