Replacing legacy market research firms with fast surveys

This article is a part of Startup Spotlight, a series that features young, up-and-coming startups.

Photo credit: Vase.ai

Vase.ai began as a hackathon project built to help companies validate ideas before spending money. The team lost the competition but continued developing the concept. They named it after their core premise of Validation as a Service.

😟 Problem

Traditional market research requires weeks of waiting and prices out small companies. Meanwhile, free survey tools leave teams struggling to source qualified respondents and interpret data. This forces organizations to guess, risking marketing budgets on unverified assumptions.

💡 Solution

The startup provides a consumer research platform offering rapid results. The platform offers several capabilities:

• Delivers automated survey insights through a live dashboard within 24 hours.
• Combines AI-driven insights with on-demand support from human researchers.
• Allows clients to handle surveys independently or request complete report generation.

Image credit: Vase.ai

📊 Market size

Southeast Asia recently added over 200 million internet users. Shrinking consumer budgets make accurate product targeting critical. Malaysia currently holds roughly 324,000 small and medium enterprises. Capturing just 2% of Malaysian small businesses represents an immediate pool of 6,490 potential buyers.

🤝 Team

• Julie Ng. Co-founder and CEO. Launched the company in 2015 and scaled it to over 250 customers.
• Ellana Selvaraj. Research lead. Assists clients in designing surveys and interpreting data effectively.
• Chah Wei Cheong. Operations lead. Manages internal workflows to ensure tight project deadlines are met.

🚀 Traction

• Reached over 250 corporate, startup, and NGO customers.
• Built a verified respondent panel of 3.6 million consumers across Southeast Asia.
• Won at the Malaysia Technology Excellence Awards 2025.
• Achieved consistent repeat usage from enterprise clients running quarterly tracking surveys.

🏆 Competition

Legacy firms like Nielsen and Kantar offer deep trust but move slowly at high costs. Do-it-yourself platforms like SurveyMonkey offer cheap tools without providing a respondent audience.

The startup differentiates itself by offering expert research capabilities at rapid speeds. It leverages a proprietary regional panel to gather actionable data in one day.

💰 Financials

Vase.ai charges clients per research project, with prices starting at US$1,060.Its average deal size is around US$2,120. Clients can also purchase additional services, including custom survey design and comprehensive research reports.

🚩 Risks