Our bot’s tribute to AI investors in SEA

Sign up for the Daily Newsletter, sent exclusively to our Premium subscribers. We break down the big and messy topics of Asia’s tech and startup community. Get the newsletter in your inbox everyday with a Premium subscription.

Hello reader,

For quite some time now, I’ve been trying to ignore the suggestions given by Smart Compose, a tool that Google released in 2018 to at least 1.5 billion users of Gmail. As you type, Smart Compose offers suggestions for how to end your sentences.

That was a little step for artificial intelligence, but did my own intelligence take one step backward? Very likely. But it was fascinating because, sometimes, the AI had a better idea of what I intended to write than I did.

Today’s big story is our dear bot paying its tribute to the investors who are betting on Southeast Asia’s AI sector.

Today we look at:

• The investors betting big on AI firms in Southeast Asia.
• A Philippine edtech platform that has tripled its revenue since 2020.
• Other newsy highlights such as an Indian DeFi protocol that has been backed by Sequoia and fresh updates from the Three Arrows Capital saga.

If you’re interested in AI and startups, you might consider filling out this CDP x Tech in Asia questionnaire survey and being part of our campaign to help the startup ecosystem go green.

— Deepti

Premium summary

Investors processing AI

Image credit: Timmy Loen

We can all quote instances when AI has changed our lives. Suddenly, machines can perform tasks that once required human cognition. But who are the investors taking a shot at the Southeast Asian firms developing these groundbreaking technologies? Let’s take a look.

• The cool club: Investors including Entrepreneur First, Antler, and Seeds Capital – the investment arm of Enterprise Singapore – have all taken a chance on Southeast Asian firms developing disruptive AI. Some of these companies include Waste Labs, which aims to improve waste collection efficiency, and Polymerize.io, a SaaS platform for R&D teams in chemical companies.

• Chasing big bucks: The list also includes several big-ticket investors such as Sequoia Capital, Wavemaker Partners, and GGV Capital – all of whom are hot on the heels of the Southeast Asian AI market, which is expected to grow at the fastest pace globally by 2028.

Acing funding class in the Philippines

Quick bytes