Miguel Cordon · · 5 min readWhat Grab’s early backer sees in AI
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In focus
- Granite Asia boss on identifying early AI winners
- Crypto firms shed the “crypto” label
- China starts 2026 off hot, funding-wise
Hello reader,
Recently, I was deep in the weeds researching tech IPOs in Southeast Asia.
One thing became clear: preparing a company for a market debut is a fundamentally different beast from early-stage venture building, requiring a distinct playbook and a much higher tolerance for risk.
Granite Asia, an early backer of Grab and Alibaba, is looking to replicate that risk appetite in AI by identifying winners early. In February, it launched a US$110 million fund focused on taking AI companies to IPO. One of its AI portfolio firms, Manycore, is already preparing for a Hong Kong listing.
In a conversation with my colleague Melissa Goh, Granite Asia senior managing partner Jixun Foo breaks down the firm’s thesis in AI investing and talks about why he expects AI founders to understand the technology better than he does.
The current AI surge mirrors crypto’s boom several years ago, but sentiment toward the sector has since reversed.
In a guest piece for Tech in Asia, Ben Wee, a former vice president of Crypto.com, writes that many companies are now treating the “crypto firm” label as a liability, with the sector also losing its shine to retail investors.
But he argues that while crypto won’t likely be its own category in the future, its presence will eventually bleed into every tech stack, “much like the internet did.”
Miguel Cordon, journalist
Top Stories
1️⃣ Granite Asia’s Jixun Foo on where Asia’s AI edge is forming
Granite Asia senior managing partner Jixun Foo/ Photo credit: Granite Asia
Foo believes startups in Southeast Asia can tap into Asia’s strength in the manufacturing supply chain to give them an edge over competitors.
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