We were excited to host the Openspace Annual General Meeting (AGM) 2023 in Singapore on November 10, welcoming over a hundred global investors, entrepreneurs, experts, and friends of the firm. The theme for this year's AGM was "Rebase," reflecting how we are setting the foundations for a new era of growth in Southeast Asia.
Our partners, Shane, Hian, and Jessica kicked off the morning session with insights into the current state of Southeast Asia's economy amid global challenges. "This year has been the most complex yet," Hian acknowledged. However, despite facing the headwinds and geopolitical complexities, he noted that Southeast Asia has experienced a very good year, showing developments that point toward agility and progress.
Amidst the challenging market conditions, Openspace has continued to fund, with Shane highlighting rounds at Kredivo and Halodoc. He also emphasized Openspace's disciplined approach to deployment, maintaining steady growth through market fluctuations, and our commitment to diversifying across countries, sectors, business models, and currencies as a core principle. He then introduced several new additions to the Openspace family, including Lucence, Broom, Rukita, LXA, and Kinetic.
Hian came on to explain that Rebase, in our view, means exploiting the strengths, addressing the weaknesses, and building new features to strategically position ourselves for a stronger foundation to prepare for this next productive growth phase.
Jessica wrapped up the Partners' address by highlighting Openspace's focus on Malaysia. We believe that our presence there offers unique and early opportunities for both investors and founders across Southeast Asia. She also covered how we are building our culture at Openspace, and our pride at being recognised as one of Singapore’s best workplaces for the third year in a row this year.
The morning session continued with a speaker panel talk on fintech in Southeast Asia. Moderated by our Senior Fintech Advisor, Jason Thompson, the panel featured insights from key figures in the industry, including Claudia Kolonas from Pluang, Hong Yea from GRVT, Huy Nghiem from Finhay, and Jessada Sookdhis from Finnomena.
The tech sector experienced significant rebasing, particularly in fintech, from both a valuation and performance perspective over the past year. The panel discussed whether this shift was anticipated, how the market was prepared for it, and the subsequent impact on their businesses.
The panelists all shared strategies for sustaining their businesses. They focused on managing costs, staying resilient in fundraising, and diversifying. Claudia shared how Pluang has strategically pivoted towards a more sustainable multi-asset platform, and how this shift positively influenced their trading activity and volumes. In the crypto sector, Hong brought attention to an interesting trend: the convergence of crypto and traditional finance.
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Both Jet and Claudia stressed the significance of diversification. Claudia talked about Pluang's focus on serving pro-traders, tapping into an undeserved professional population, while Jet mentioned Finnomena's projects to diversify revenue streams and use human advisors to attract larger investments from investors. Hui outlined how Finhay is diversifying marketing channels, with a focus on 3 key areas for user acquisition: enhancing website quality and garnering positive reviews, SEO strategies through blog posts and articles to boost organic growth, and search engine marketing.
As the Fintech panel concluded, Jason noted the increasing similarities in the strategies and operations of Southeast Asian leaders. He highlighted the emerging opportunities for cross-border collaboration. This shared challenges and synergies among leaders provided an opportunity for continued innovation and growth in the region's dynamic tech landscape.
The morning session concluded with an insightful fireside chat with Tom Wright, a long-term Southeast Asian investigative journalist, best-selling author of Billion Dollar Whale, and co-founder of the content studio, Project Brazen. Moderated by Hian, the session discussed the Southeast Asian nations, their changing realities and the strange parallels between investigative journalism and venture capital.
He shared how he, like us in companies, looks for stories with an ‘edge.’ For instance, many had tried to cover the Fat Leonard scandal before their podcast, but they were the first to get a voice recorder posted to the house he was being detained in. To conclude, he shared his optimism that, while Southeast Asia has its challenges, it is beginning to course-correct, is largely stable, and remains pro-business.
As the event unfolded through the morning's and afternoon’s various sessions and discussions, Openspace showed our commitment to navigating tomorrow's Southeast Asia and contributing to the growth and resilience of the ecosystem within the region. Looking ahead, Openspace will continue to drive innovation, foster cross-border collaborations, and contribute to shaping the dynamic tech landscape of Southeast Asia. Stay tuned for more updates on Openspace's endeavors.
#activeintelligence
We were excited to host the Openspace Annual General Meeting (AGM) 2023 in Singapore on November 10, welcoming over a hundred global investors, entrepreneurs, experts, and friends of the firm. The theme for this year's AGM was "Rebase," reflecting how we are setting the foundations for a new era of growth in Southeast Asia.
Our partners, Shane, Hian, and Jessica kicked off the morning session with insights into the current state of Southeast Asia's economy amid global challenges. "This year has been the most complex yet," Hian acknowledged. However, despite facing the headwinds and geopolitical complexities, he noted that Southeast Asia has experienced a very good year, showing developments that point toward agility and progress.
Amidst the challenging market conditions, Openspace has continued to fund, with Shane highlighting rounds at Kredivo and Halodoc. He also emphasized Openspace's disciplined approach to deployment, maintaining steady growth through market fluctuations, and our commitment to diversifying across countries, sectors, business models, and currencies as a core principle. He then introduced several new additions to the Openspace family, including Lucence, Broom, Rukita, LXA, and Kinetic.
Hian came on to explain that Rebase, in our view, means exploiting the strengths, addressing the weaknesses, and building new features to strategically position ourselves for a stronger foundation to prepare for this next productive growth phase.
Jessica wrapped up the Partners' address by highlighting Openspace's focus on Malaysia. We believe that our presence there offers unique and early opportunities for both investors and founders across Southeast Asia. She also covered how we are building our culture at Openspace, and our pride at being recognised as one of Singapore’s best workplaces for the third year in a row this year.
The morning session continued with a speaker panel talk on fintech in Southeast Asia. Moderated by our Senior Fintech Advisor, Jason Thompson, the panel featured insights from key figures in the industry, including Claudia Kolonas from Pluang, Hong Yea from GRVT, Huy Nghiem from Finhay, and Jessada Sookdhis from Finnomena.
The tech sector experienced significant rebasing, particularly in fintech, from both a valuation and performance perspective over the past year. The panel discussed whether this shift was anticipated, how the market was prepared for it, and the subsequent impact on their businesses.
The panelists all shared strategies for sustaining their businesses. They focused on managing costs, staying resilient in fundraising, and diversifying. Claudia shared how Pluang has strategically pivoted towards a more sustainable multi-asset platform, and how this shift positively influenced their trading activity and volumes. In the crypto sector, Hong brought attention to an interesting trend: the convergence of crypto and traditional finance.
Both Jet and Claudia stressed the significance of diversification. Claudia talked about Pluang's focus on serving pro-traders, tapping into an undeserved professional population, while Jet mentioned Finnomena's projects to diversify revenue streams and use human advisors to attract larger investments from investors. Hui outlined how Finhay is diversifying marketing channels, with a focus on 3 key areas for user acquisition: enhancing website quality and garnering positive reviews, SEO strategies through blog posts and articles to boost organic growth, and search engine marketing.
As the Fintech panel concluded, Jason noted the increasing similarities in the strategies and operations of Southeast Asian leaders. He highlighted the emerging opportunities for cross-border collaboration. This shared challenges and synergies among leaders provided an opportunity for continued innovation and growth in the region's dynamic tech landscape.
The morning session concluded with an insightful fireside chat with Tom Wright, a long-term Southeast Asian investigative journalist, best-selling author of Billion Dollar Whale, and co-founder of the content studio, Project Brazen. Moderated by Hian, the session discussed the Southeast Asian nations, their changing realities and the strange parallels between investigative journalism and venture capital.
He shared how he, like us in companies, looks for stories with an ‘edge.’ For instance, many had tried to cover the Fat Leonard scandal before their podcast, but they were the first to get a voice recorder posted to the house he was being detained in. To conclude, he shared his optimism that, while Southeast Asia has its challenges, it is beginning to course-correct, is largely stable, and remains pro-business.
As the event unfolded through the morning's and afternoon’s various sessions and discussions, Openspace showed our commitment to navigating tomorrow's Southeast Asia and contributing to the growth and resilience of the ecosystem within the region. Looking ahead, Openspace will continue to drive innovation, foster cross-border collaborations, and contribute to shaping the dynamic tech landscape of Southeast Asia. Stay tuned for more updates on Openspace's endeavors.
#activeintelligence
