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This Friday, the semifinals of the Valorant Champions tournament will take place at 3 a.m. SGT.
It will feature two teams: Paper Rex, a Southeast Asian squad based in Singapore, and Evil Geniuses, a well-established North American organization. Who I’m supporting is obvious, but it’s even more special because it’s so rare to see a strong esports team from Southeast Asia.
In addition, the two teams had gone head-to-head in another tournament, with Paper Rex losing narrowly by a score of 2-3 even though they had to play with a substitute. This time round, Paper Rex’s original player, Ilya “something” Petrov, is back on the roster, which should make for an interesting rematch.
In some ways, it feels like this is the start of a burning rivalry between the two teams, and everyone loves a good rivalry story. The back and forth, close calls, and bold personalities involved will leave anyone on the edge of their seat.
Strong rivalries are also prevalent in the business world too.
In Asia Pacific, I think that many people see Hong Kong and Singapore as contenders for the same piece of the business pie. That’s why when Mirxes, a Singapore-based biotech startup, announced that it was listing in Hong Kong instead of in its home market, it probably took a lot of people by surprise.
Today we look at:
- Mirxes’ decision to pick Hong Kong over Singapore for its IPO
- A US$3 million seed round for a generative AI firm
- Other newsy highlights such as VNG Corporation filing for an IPO on the NASDAQ Global Select market and Grab’s strong quarterly results.
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I’ve never taken rivalries too seriously, though they’re fun to think about. For instance, Singaporeans and Malaysians like to poke fun at each other over which country has the better food (Bak Kut Teh tastes better when peppery, and I will die on that hill). But for now, let’s see what Mirxes is up to in that other ex-fishing village.
- So long: The company has long been involved in Singapore’s tech ecosystem, starting out as a spinoff from the government-owned Agency for Science, Technology and Research. That said, Mirxes CEO Zhou Lihan says that Hong Kong offers a better valuation and a more savvy investor pool.
- Playing catch up: It makes sense when you look at Hong Kong’s biotech sector. Chinese investments in the industry have been growing since 2015. In contrast, Singapore’s biotech scene is still rather new, with only a handful of companies having listed locally.
- Still in the running?: That said, Mirxes is considering a secondary listing on SGX while leveraging the valuation benchmark in Hong Kong, according to Zhou. This will allow Mirxes to offer its shares to Singapore investors even as it taps into Hong Kong’s better valuations.
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