Suwira Teo

🇭🇰🇸🇬 Hong Kong startups’ global expansion demands deep, sector-specific groundwork. Ecosystem players — especially public institutions — must act as multi-dimensional bridges. This involves mapping regional demand, aligning with specific value chain strategies, and curating tailored networks. It can’t just be surface-level introductions. Investors are sometimes builders with the team and thus we do have the frontline experiences. Crucially, we need to rethink how we measure success. Simply gathering data one-way from startups for meeting those KPIs is not classified as “building”. Instead, trackable metrics like engagement frequency, domain knowledge, stakeholder seniority bring us the real picture. #Holistic 360 feedback involving the startups, their clients, and stakeholders speak way more than simply presenting a pptx. For founders, “going global” isn’t just about incremental growth. Fixating solely on deal size misses the point. It is a fundamental shift from a local player to an international entity — a “3D evolution” that reshapes operational mindset, market reach, and long-term competitiveness. Responding to this post as a beneficary shareholder, our portfolio companies in HKSTP (PanopticAI , Fano (Fano Labs) , ZENCE OBJECT TECH, Clear Robotics, Immuno Cure , Great Bay Bio 大湾生物, Aitrasound Medical Group , GenEditBio Limited, viAct, RaSpect, and others) did receive high-impact opportunities in regional markets. The deep tech ecosystem relies on the “sleeve-rolling” #builder —the people who dig in and focus on high-value, long-term work, who prioritize solid progress over phoning it in: 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝘂𝗹𝗮 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗲𝗰𝗼𝘀𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺’𝘀 𝘀𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗱 𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗹𝘁𝗵

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🔔Sequoia Capital’s Roelof Botha steps down; Alfred Lin, Pat Grady to lead Silicon Valley VC firm 📌📌Roelof Botha is stepping down as Sequoia Capital’s managing partner after three years. Alfred Lin and Pat Grady will take over leadership. 👉Botha, a long-time partner since 2003, will stay on as adviser. 👉Sequoia, founded in 1972, was an early investor in many top tech names including Alphabet's Google and YouTube, Apple and Cisco.

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Interesting data: "Singapore early-stage emerging tech startups see 14% rise in deal volume, but funds raised slip 8%. There were 56 deals in 2024, up from 49 a year ago, though funds raised dipped from US$402 million to US$371 million." "Singapore’s early stage emerging-technology startups had a 14 per cent increase in deal volume in 2024, even as funding fell 8 per cent. There was notable growth in advanced manufacturing and sustainability, on the back of strong global demand for computing hardware and decarbonisation solutions, with 56 deals in 2024 – up from 49 in 2023. This was despite a dip in funds raised from US$402 million to US$371 million. The number of emerging tech startups identified within their year of incorporation inched up from 25 to 27 year on year, with the number of health and biomedical science startups incorporated rising 44 per cent. In contrast, the agrifood segment’s startup incorporations fell 88 per cent." What do you think? If you’re an entrepreneur looking for investors or to sell tour fim and don’t have the time to do this yourself my team and I would love to help you find them on LinkedIn for you, service details are here on this LinkedIn SmartLink: https://lnkd.in/dMPjdsge Link to the story here: https://lnkd.in/d5fsFQRv

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We just led the US$2M seed round for Blue Whale Energy, Singapore's first battery-powered virtual power plant! I've known Gabriel Lim since his Saleswhale, a 6sense company days. When he told me he was building Blue Whale, I became the first institutional investor. The vision was that compelling 😎 Here's what Blue Whale is doing: Singapore gets 95% of its electricity from gas. Blue Whale installs sodium-ion battery systems in commercial buildings, connects them through software, and operates them as a coordinated virtual power plant that participates in Singapore's wholesale electricity market. The execution challenge is real. The software has to work perfectly—they bid into the market every half-hour, 48 times a day. If they win a bid and can't deliver, they get penalised, and prices spike. Blue Whale shares revenue from energy arbitrage and grid services with clients. This means clients can earn meaningfully while contributing to grid stability. ⚡️ They've been selected by the Energy Market Authority (EMA) for Singapore's VPP Regulatory Sandbox alongside Nanyang Technological University Singapore and SP Group. The pipeline of partners and customers is already looking very exciting. 📈 Singapore's energy grid is already reliable, but Blue Whale makes participating in the clean energy transition an economic choice, not just an environmental one. Excited to be building this future with Gabriel and his team (Matthew Wong Haojin Yang Reshma Prabhu Bryan Leong ) and fellow investors (Monk's Hill Ventures, UntroD Capital). 🚀 https://lnkd.in/g8w9e_v5

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Singapore became the leader of Asian VC... And it happened almost overnight. Here's how: The government offered an 85/15 matching scenario. Set up your fund in Singapore, and for every 15 cents you raise, the government gives you 85 cents. Every talented VC in the region had the same reaction: "I'm an idiot if I don't move to Singapore." So they moved. All of them. Flipkart (the Amazon of India) moved to Singapore. They started in India, but when it was time to raise money? All the VCs were in Singapore. (Now they're undergoing a reverse flip ahead of a 2026 IPO) One policy change. One bold move. Regional dominance. Singapore ran this program for just a year or two. The effects were permanent.

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Deeptech manufacturing startup Leumas® has raised $2.2 million in a seed funding round led by Capital 2B, a deeptech-focused fund backed by Info Edge and Temasek, along with participation from Capital-A and Anicut Capital. The proceeds will be used to expand its R&D capabilities, scale on-demand manufacturing infrastructure, and launch pilot deployments of dedicated factories for wellness and pharma brands. Co-founded in 2016 by Subhajit Biswas and Nitesh K., Leumas offers on-demand manufacturing and factory-as-a-service models for wellness and pharma brands. #venturecapital #investment #funding

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Deeptech manufacturing startup Leumas® has raised $2.2M in seed funding led by Capital 2B (backed by Info Edge & Temasek), with participation from Capital-A and Anicut Capital.   The capital will support R&D expansion, scale its digital manufacturing infrastructure, and launch pilot factories for wellness and pharma brands in India and abroad.   Founded in 2016 by Subhajit Biswas and Nitesh K., Leumas offers a Factory-as-a-Service (FaaS) platform using modular, AI-powered robotic factories to digitize and automate legacy production systems.   Read the full news: https://lnkd.in/gK_jPTgr   #Leumas #DeepTech #ManufacturingTech #FaaS #Robotics #AIinManufacturing #StartupFunding #Capital2B #IndianStartups #Ceovine

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At the recent Startup Connext: Energy Tech / Green Tech panel on "Funding the Next Wave of Climate Solution“ organized by National Innovation Agency (Public Organization), Petch Wannissorn, Investment Director – Corporate Venture Capital, represented Banpu to highlight how we invest in innovation and strategic collaboration that turns emerging technologies into real-world impact. From clean energy solutions and Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) to Next-gen mining and AI optimization, our focus is on scalable solutions that integrate with Banpu’s value chain and drive long-term sustainability. #Banpu #EnergySymphonics #BanpuCVC #EnergyTransition #ClimateTech #GreenTech #Innovation #FutureOfEnergy #Sustainability #VentureCapital #StartupEcosystem

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S$6.6B disbursed. 45M users. 2 founders who've built some of SEA's biggest companies. They're sharing the mistakes founders rarely talk about. Kelvin Teo, CPA ☀️ built Southeast Asia's largest SME digital financing platform — Funding Societies | Modalku Group has disbursed S$6.6B+ to 100,000+ SMEs across 5 countries. Justin Lee scaled ShopBack to 45M+ users and paid out US$1B+ in cashback. They rarely talk about the hard stuff. But on 8 April, they are. We're hosting Startup Fxckups — a night where founders share the bad decisions, painful pivots, and hard lessons they learned the expensive way. 125+ founders have RSVP'd — we only approve a fraction to keep it curated. What you'll get: - Unfiltered panel sharing - Q&A with both founders - Open mic to share your own fxckups - Dinner, drinks, and networking If you're building a tech startup, you'll fit right in. Huge thanks to Airwallex and Endeavor Indonesia for making this happen. Join here → https://luma.com/wwheggis P.S. The lessons they're sharing? You won't find them in any podcast or interview. #startup

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AI capex spend: We seeAI-related capex as a durable multi-year theme and push back on the idea that we're in a capex bubble that will pop any time. This means ~US$2.9 trillion in data‑center‑related capex over the next several years, and roughly half will need to be financed through credit markets. US IG will see the bulk of issuance - we expect US$1trn of net supply this year - but securitized credit markets could also see heavy supply. With some credit segments relatively well-insulated from a supply perspective, expect differentiated performance within spread products, with US IG and Data Center ABS underperfoming.

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🚀 i10X raises $1M pre-seed to build a unified #AI workspace Singapore-based startup i10x.ai has raised $1 million in pre-seed funding, led by early-stage investors Iterative, Antler AI Disrupt, and PPR Ventures. The funding will accelerate product development, enhance technical infrastructure, and support team growth as i10X expands its platform. Founded by Patrick Linden, René Linden, and Pawel Netreba, i10X offers a single platform connecting users to over 500 specialized AI tools, including integrations with #GPT, #Claude, and #Gemini. By unifying access to powerful AI models, i10X simplifies workflows and reduces the need for multiple subscriptions. Although headquartered in Singapore, i10X also operates an office in Berlin, reflecting its ambition to build a strong global presence in the rapidly growing AI market. The pre-seed funding underscores investor confidence in i10X’s vision to create a centralized, user-friendly AI workspace that empowers professionals worldwide. #AI #StartupFunding #PreSeed #ArtificialIntelligence #SaaS #Innovation #AIWorkspace #DeepTech #SingaporeStartups

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🔋 From SaaS to climate tech: Saleswhale founder Gabriel Lim’s second act takes shape ⚡ Blue Whale Energy raises US$2M seed to build Singapore’s first battery-powered virtual power plant 🌱 Backed by sodium-ion batteries and regulatory sandbox support, the startup bets on clean energy economics.

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🏠 Julien Bek's thesis (at Sequoia Capital) lives rent free in my head. "Services don't scale" is now the most expensive wrong belief in tech. The punch line is that on avg for $1 spent on software, $6 are spent on services. The copilot fights over the tools budget, but the autopilot fights over the services budget. Autopilots will eat copilots, not because they sell services, but because they sell OUTCOMES. Even management consulting industry (canonically "services") is feeling the heat. It turns out McKinsey consultants are tools. In a way, humans are just expensive API wrappers between the work and the outcome, and in most industries this is becoming automated. A prison doesn't want more K9 units. They want contraband-free cellblocks. An airport doesn't want a swab machine. They want cleared passengers. A clinic doesn't want a spectrograph. They want disease-free patients. --- 🐕 What we're building at General Sense is removing as much "middleware" from the instrument and the outcome as possible. Yes, we sell AI-enhanced dogs that are super smellers. But what we're REALLY selling is contextual chemical intelligence delivered as a finished result. The customers get answers, not alerts. No interpretation. No experts. No bias. Minimal decision fatigue. --- 🪏 Are you fighting over picks and shovels, or are you building something that can capture the gold?

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Leumas®, a startup focused on advanced manufacturing technology, has raised $2.2 million in seed funding. The round was led by Capital 2B, a fund that supports deep tech companies and is backed by Info Edge and Temasek. Capital-A and Anicut Capital also took part in the funding round. The money will be used to grow Leumas’s research team, expand its on-demand manufacturing services, and set up trial factories for wellness and pharmaceutical brands. Subhajit Biswas | Nitesh K. 🔗 Read full article link in the comment #leumas #capital2b #deeptech #fundingnews #startupnews #businessupdate

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Deeptech manufacturing startup Leumas® has raised $2.2 million in a seed funding round led by Capital 2B, a deeptech-focused fund backed by Info Edge and Temasek, with participation from Capital-A and Anicut Capital. The funds will be used to expand Leumas’ R&D capabilities, scale its on-demand manufacturing infrastructure, and launch pilot factory deployments for wellness and pharma brands. Founded in 2016 by Subhajit Biswas and Nitesh K., Leumas delivers Factory-as-a-Service solutions through software-defined, modular robot factories. These systems blend AI-led robotics, vision-based quality control, and autonomous operations to streamline manufacturing from development to commercial production—helping brands scale faster, maintain product quality, and reduce operational risk. Leumas’ cyber-physical manufacturing platform transforms traditional production lines into software-driven, intelligent systems that ensure optimal output and regulatory compliance. This innovation addresses the massive global outsourced development and manufacturing market, projected to exceed $400 billion by 2030 in the pharma and wellness sectors. In the past year, Leumas has co-developed its technology with leading wellness brands, helping scale 120+ products across India, the US, and the MENA region. The company has also signed strategic agreements with pharma and food research institutions to build dedicated, modular factory capacities. #LeumasTech #DeeptechManufacturing #FactoryAsAService #WellnessTech #PharmaManufacturing #AIinManufacturing #Capital2B #ModularFactories #RoboFactories #ManufacturingInnovation

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Garry Tan just dropped the cheat code: “The purest alpha? Say interesting things online.” When the YC President talks leverage, I take notes. Here’s the TL;DR from his chat on My First Million: 1. Distribution is the new moat: "If you're not a creator, you have to buy eyeballs. And guess who's got the monopoly? Larry, Sergey, and Mark Zuckerberg." Grow your owned audience or keep paying Larry, Sergey & Zuck for traffic. 2. Your POV = long-term leverage Insights from real experience cut through the noise better than bland company updates or worse, silence. They attract investors, talent, and customers who align with your vision - building trust before the first call. 3. The long game wins: Of your next 100 customers, only 5% are ready to buy now. Speak to the 95% while they’re still choosing sides. 4. Authenticity is the moat in an AI world No explanation needed here. Garry Tan’s point is simple: Audience building isn’t just a “nice-to-have” marketing tactic anymore - it’s a structural advantage. What perspective will you ship this week?

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