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
- Melissa Goh on the pains of being a latecomer
- Grab’s robotaxi debut in Singapore
- An OpenClaw beginner’s guide from a girlboss
Hello reader,
Starting from zero can be daunting.
Last week, a Singapore-based founder lamented to me about the challenges he’d had to confront in the early days of building his startup.
On paper, it didn’t look like he had a problem – he’d worked for a Big Tech firm and had the technical chops. Still, those skills didn’t necessarily mean he could run a company.
The reality was that he’d had to attend countless events to get acquainted with other like-minded founders and potential investors from scratch, learn what support was available to young firms like his, and deal with affairs like securing cost-efficient offices.
Several years old now, the firm has found venture backing and has seen some success.
Image credit: Timmy Loen
This is the same kind of environment that Sarvam AI, the India government-backed large language model is finding itself in. It’s trying to win over users already entrenched in competing LLMs like ChatGPT and Gemini, my colleague Samreen wrote this week.
Sarvam AI has a sizable war chest and the backing to make it work. The bigger question is whether it can win on its strengths in localization alone. You can find out more in my top editor’s pick this week.
Melissa Goh, senior editor
Editor’s pick
Sarvam is here, but will India’s startups use it?
Short cuts
Weekend deep dive
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