The $60m question about this Thai AI firm

IN FOCUS

In today’s newsletter, we look at:

• Is CP Group scion’s AI startup worth the $60m it raised?
• What does the bursting AI bubble mean for the Magnificent Seven?

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Hello there,

I once asked an economist why markets often seem to crash on Mondays.

The question isn’t as idiotic as it might seem. The US markets have seen 10 Black Mondays over the last 95 years. Eleven, if you include last week’s sell-off.

The answer, the economist said, had nothing to do with Mondays or markets. The real issue is that investors, when spooked by something big affecting equity markets, spend their Saturdays and Sundays thinking about potential losses. When Monday morning arrives, they have worked themselves into a frenzy and begin panic selling.

Last week, a US labor report spooked investors and sparked a sell-off on a Monday. Analysts began pointing the finger at tech stocks in general and AI in particular, which could mean problems for some startups.

In Southeast Asia, there’s been a rush to attract investor funding, and many AI companies here are promoting their plans to build large language models. In this week’s Big Story, my colleague Elyssa takes a look at Thailand-based enterprise chatbot platform Amity Solutions, which raised US$60 million last month.

Is CP Group scion’s AI startup worth the $60m it raised?

Image credit: Made by Tech in Asia using Midjourney

Amity Solutions has moved into developing genAI for its SaaS products. The firm isn’t developing an LLM, but it does plan to go public sometime next year.

Its next step, according to a consultant for the Boston Consulting Group, was to see how well the company could compete in the global market.

The timing is unfortunate, because following last week’s sell-off, the fight for funding just got tougher.

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