Welcome to Tech in Asia’s Sunday newsletter, your weekend brief on the biggest moves in Asia’s tech and startup world. Not on the mailing list? Register here. Got a story tip? Send it to editors@techinasia.com.
In focus
- Thu Huong Le on why taking risks doesn’t always look risky
- What’s left when Indonesia’s state-backed VCs are too scared to make tech bets?
- Thoughts on an unaffordable iPhone, robots making robots, and Sam Altman’s Hollywood treatment
Hello reader,
I might be the last person to lecture anyone about taking risks. I often skip any activity that looks remotely dangerous, which means an absolute no to thrill rides at theme parks.
But at 16, I went to the US alone without even knowing how to speak English properly.
Risk-taking, I’ve learned, comes in many forms. Courage doesn’t always look like jumping out of a plane or getting on a roller coaster. Sometimes, it’s going somewhere you don’t know and having no idea whether you’ll be OK.
Working in tech journalism allows me to speak with founders who take much bigger risks every day. They leave stable jobs, put their savings into ideas that may go nowhere, and build companies knowing that 90% of startups fail within five years.
But founders aren’t supposed to take on the uncertainty alone. They need investors willing to make bets on them.
Image credit: Ulla
That willingness is being stretched to the limit in Indonesia, as Jofie Yordan shows in this week’s editor’s pick.
Indonesia’s tech scene has had a rough few years: the collapse of eFishery as well as the high-profile prison sentences of Nadiem Makarim and other executives, you name it. Against that backdrop, the country’s state-backed VCs have become more cautious, especially when it seems a bad investment can invite unwanted scrutiny.
Some are finding their way toward safer ground, whether by investing outside Indonesia or shifting away from riskier tech bets. For each firm, that may be a rational decision. Collectively, though, it could leave a hole that may dampen Indonesia’s startup ecosystem.
Over the past decade, Indonesia gave us names like Gojek, Tokopedia, and Traveloka. The next generation of startups will be building for the AI era. They have to. But they’ll need investors willing to see them when they’re still invisible.
Speaking of taking risks, we have a small one of our own. This will be the last Sunday newsletter in its current format. Starting next week, Sunday will take on a simpler form as we put more of our writing firepower behind our AI newsletters.
Editor’s pick
Short cuts
Weekend deep dive
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