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As Southeast Asia’s tech ecosystem matures, a question that has emerged is one of succession. What would Sea Group be without Forrest Li, or Grab without Anthony Tan? What happens when the person – or people – with the vision that built the company in the first place are no longer at the helm?
In today’s premium story, we try to answer that question by taking a look at Asia’s founderless unicorns. These are all startups that have seen their founders depart the firm, leaving management in the hands of so-called professional managers. How are they doing? Let’s find out.
Today we look at:
- How Asia’s founderless unicorns are faring
- An Indian ice cream brand that’s raised fresh funds
- Other newsy highlights such as East Ventures’ new platform for AI innovation and layoffs at TikTok Singapore
Premium summary
Founder not found
Image credit: Timmy Loen
For this article, we identified at least 15 unicorns in Asia that have no founders sitting in the C-suite or on the company’s board. There are more founderless firms out there, but we focused on the 15 with publicly available valuations. Here’s how they’ve fared since their founders left them.
- A drop: Ten out of the 15 firms we analyzed saw their valuations decline after their founders left. However, these drops in valuation can be attributed to the tech winter, as many of the founders noted in our list exited their companies between 2022 and 2024.
- Ups and downs: Some unicorns have managed to recover, such as Luckin Coffee – its market capitalization stood at US$8.3 billion in 2025, up from US$550 million when its founder was terminated from her post as CEO in 2020. Others have not been so lucky – Bukalapak recorded its first EBITDA-profitable quarter in Q1 2024, but its valuation remained below its peak market capitalization of US$2.5 billion it recorded when it went public in 2021.
- Founder vs. CEO: This begs the question – is it better for a business to be founder-led? According to investors, it depends on what stage the company is at and what it needs to grow.
Read more: Asia’s founderless unicorns struggle to fly in tech winter
Startup spotlight
We all scream for ice cream
Image credit: Timmy Loen
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