"It took me 70 startups and $12 million deployed to build confidence and taste as an investor to concentrate more. If you want to build a concentrated portfolio, it’s quite hard to do that as a solo GP. One of the great joys in this business is when you decide you want to back someone, you plant a flag and say, 'I believe in you.' Building those relationships out to be very meaningful means being in the boardroom when decisions are made, understanding the company on a granular level, and bringing more context to every interaction with an entrepreneur." - Wing Vasiksiri, General Partner at Analog Ventures
"Companies that are building for local or regional markets are definitely struggling. It's harder to raise capital; there are not as many investors willing to fund this. They have to either turn profitable or look for alternative sources of financing. But one big trend we’re excited about is this shift in the types of companies being built: they are headquartered in Singapore but building for a global market—the US, Europe, or Australia. Because businesses are becoming more interconnected than ever, why can’t a global company be built out here now that everything is moving at such a fast speed?" - Wing Vasiksiri, General Partner at Analog Ventures
"Singapore is punching way above its weight class. Immigration to the US has gotten harder, so top talent from Indonesia, Thailand, or Vietnam—and even engineers from India and China who would have tried for the US—are all moving to Singapore. It’s now the new place to go. We are seeing a transition where Singapore is no longer just seeding the initial group of funds, but directly leading rounds for the hottest companies in the world, with the government acting as a live player in the game." - Wing Vasiksiri, General Partner at Analog Ventures
In this episode, Jeremy Au welcomes Wing Vasiksiri to discuss his transition from a solo GP at Wing Ventures to joining Analog Ventures (formerly Forge Ventures) as a Partner. Wing breaks down the evolving venture capital landscape in Southeast Asia, explaining why he moved from a diversified, collaborative strategy to a lead-investor model focused on institutional seed rounds.
The conversation dives deep into the "outside-in" macro shifts affecting the region, including the capital gap in Series A and B funding and the new wave of "global-from-Singapore" startups. They also tackle the brewing energy crisis in Thailand, analyzing its impact on manufacturing, data centers, and the agricultural sector. Wing and Jeremy explore whether Singapore can become the "next Israel" by doubling down on deep tech, semiconductors, and AI, while navigating the challenges of commercializing intellectual property stuck in academic labs.
02:14 Moving to Singapore and joining Analog Ventures (formerly Forge Ventures)
03:51 Solo GP vs. Institutional Firm: Why the model is shifting in Southeast Asia
05:46 Building "Investment Taste": Lessons from 70 startups and $12M deployed
07:56 Filling the "Lead Seed" void in the Southeast Asian market
09:51 The Macro Pullback: Interest rates, capital controls, and the AI boom
11:09 Thesis Shift: From "X for Southeast Asia" to Global-First companies
15:29 Singapore as a Talent Magnet: The influx of Indian and Chinese engineers
17:47 The New Founder Profile: Repeat founders and technical CEOs
30:18 The R&D Debate: Commercializing Singapore’s $125B research investment
37:34 Thailand’s Energy Crisis: Oil dependency, biofuel, and price caps
44:03 Second-order effects on data centers and agricultural fertilizers
Resources:
Thailand’s Power Generation Mix December 2025 https://www.jewelarc.com/performance/
Global Energy Shock: Southeast Asia & China Effects & Countermeasures - BRAVE E679 https://youtu.be/bkA6VTDSBB0
Keywords: Southeast Asia Venture Capital, Singapore Tech Talent, Thailand Energy Crisis, Global-First Startups, Lead Seed Investor, Deep Tech Commercialization, Southeast Asia Macro Economy, Biofuel and Renewables Thailand
Why Top Founders are Ditching the US for Singapore - EP681
Jeremy Au: Hey, Wing. Excited to have you in person for the first time.
Wing Vasiksiri: Yeah, I know we've done a couple of these, but I think this is our first one in person. Very exciting.
Jeremy Au: Excited to have you because there is so much news regarding your new role. Your outlook is obvious: Southeast Asia technology in today's climate. We also want to talk about Thailand’s energy crisis and some of the macro pieces. So, a lot to cover, but Wing, what's up with you?
Wing Vasiksiri: A lot has happened since we last caught up, both on the personal and macro fronts. The big news is I've moved to Singapore; I’ve been here for the last four months and have settled in. The big catalyst behind this was joining another fund, Analog Ventures.
Tiang, who is the founder and GP of Analog Ventures (formerly called Forge Ventures), and I spent a long time getting to know each other and thinking through what we wanted to build. We finally decided to partner up at the end of last year, and that catalyzed the move to Singapore.
Jeremy Au: I think it's actually a really good match in terms of networks. You obviously have the US corridor, Thailand, and Vietnam, and Tiang has more of a Singapore and Indonesia corridor. It’s a good fit.
Wing Vasiksiri: We're super excited. For the last couple of months, learning from Tiang and working with him has been great. He's one of the OG seed investors in the region, doing this for 10-plus years. I’m a little newer, but bringing a different network and skill set that are hopefully complementary to what we're excited to build at Analog Ventures.
Jeremy Au: What's changed? Because the last time we talked, we were discussing Solo GPs and velocity investing, often coded from the Silicon Valley approach. Southeast Asia was a very different macro environment. Could you give a "before and after"? What are the assumptions or drivers that have changed?
Wing Vasiksiri: There are pros and cons to the solo GP model. In the US, there are people who have reached escape velocity running the solo route—folks like Elad Gil, Oren Zeev, or Lachy Groom. Having gone that solo route for the last couple of years and now deciding to partner up to build a firm more than just a one-off fund, there are a couple of things to get into.
Number one: I was based in Bangkok investing across Southeast Asia, but most of my portfolio companies were actually in Singapore. It got lonely working as a solo GP. I didn't have a thought partner or a sparring partner. When you do have that, your growth as an investor can be multiplied.
Number two: my style of investing evolved. With my first two funds, I ran a collaborative strategy—a more diversified portfolio making about one investment a month. Toward the end of my second fund, I started leading more investments, taking board seats, and filling a much different role. The responsibilities of a lead investor include spending more time with companies and going deeper. I wanted to concentrate more and make fewer investments.
One of the great joys in this business is when you decide to back someone, you plant a flag and say, "I believe in you." I wanted to build those relationships to be more meaningful. It took me 70 startups and $12 million deployed to build confidence and taste as an investor to concentrate more. If you're only making one or two investments a year, you can't build a standard portfolio of 20 to 30 companies as a solo GP.
Our North Star is always what founders want that they’re not getting. Filling that role of an institutional lead seed investor is something missing in the market right now. A common response founders hear is, "This looks great, come back to me when you have a lead investor." That can be frustrating. We want to fill that void.
Jeremy Au: That resonates with me. Southeast Asia’s macro environment has changed significantly. Before 2021, it was slow growth led by the Singapore government. Then 2021 to 2024 was the heyday of massive inflows from the West, driven by remote investments and large check sizes because America was "throwing cash off helicopters" with low interest rates.
Today, there's a big pullback. Interest rates are no longer negative, and there's high inflation driven by the energy crisis. US investors have more capital controls and less interest in pushing capital out, especially when American AI companies in San Francisco are the "hottest" thing right now. As a result, the Southeast Asia market seems to have a capital gap at almost every stage: Angel, Seed, Series A, and Growth.
Wing Vasiksiri: I generally agree, but I actually see it differently and I'm very optimistic right now. I think there hasn't been as good a time to build a company in Singapore, but it's only true for a specific type of company. Companies building for local or regional markets are definitely struggling to raise capital.
One big thesis we have at Analog is a shift in the types of companies being built here. In 2020, all the companies were building "X for Southeast Asia"—Uber for Southeast Asia, Airbnb for Southeast Asia. Zoom forward to 2025, and all the companies raising the largest rounds look very different. They are headquartered in Singapore but building for a global market—the US, Europe, and Australia.
On the AI side, we have companies like Manus, Supabase, or AMI Labs (Yann LeCun's new company). On the FinTech side, there's Nium and Airwallex. Immigration to the US has gotten harder, so top talent from Indonesia, India, or China who would have tried to go to the US are moving out here.
On the funding side, the "heyday" of 2021 was about pushing capital and dominating market share. Today, US investors are investing here just because they found a great founder. Why can’t a global company be built here now that everything is faster and more interconnected?
Jeremy Au: I agree on the talent side. There's a lot of renewed interest in moving to Singapore. The government is also acting as a "live player"—GIC co-led Anthropic’s latest round and Temasek led the round for AMI Labs.
Some might argue that Singapore is in deep trouble because America and China are innovating like crazy and we are falling behind. How would you react to that?
Wing Vasiksiri: It’s not fair to compare us to the US; the Bay Area will always be the center of the universe. But outside of those three core markets (US, China, India), Singapore is punching way above its weight class. For the number of people it has, the quality of talent it attracts is very high.
The big challenge is building a product engineering team here because you don't have that mass scale of talent to hire from. But the types of founders in Singapore are changing. In 2020, everyone was "ex-McKinsey/Stanford." Now, we see many repeat founders—second-time founders who have either shut down a company or had an acquisition. Their learnings are compressed, and their scale of ambition is larger.
We’re also seeing technical founders—engineers and product people being CEOs, not just CTOs. They can innovate on the technology level and build zero-to-one products.
Jeremy Au: I see those trends too. I also see more focus on deep tech—AI, semiconductors, or chemical engineers getting the startup bug. Adriel Yong mentioned that Southeast Asia’s GDP is the same as California’s, and that founders should build from California for the world. What do you think?
Wing Vasiksiri: There’s truth to it. Some companies launch in Singapore but move to the US once they realize the market pull is there. But you can also do the opposite: build globally from Singapore. If you raise larger rounds comparable to the US, you can outbid local companies for talent. Sometimes it’s helpful to be away from the crowd in your own sandbox to build a differentiated product. I’ve seen some founders struggle in the US because they don't understand the enterprise client or the culture. When your startup has a finite runway of two years, spending six months relearning the sales cycle can be painful.
Jeremy Au: What verticals are you interested in?
Wing Vasiksiri: Personally, I am a bottoms-up investor—I find the best people and back them. But we think about the three or four biggest tailwinds.
The obvious one is AI. We are in an "App Store moment." It’s not clear yet which applications the big players like OpenAI or Gemini will own versus what they will let startups build. We want to look at applications that are very specific to a vertical or niche. Moats today are about proprietary data or being part of a sticky workflow.
We’re also thinking about infrastructure for autonomous agents. If agents transact on your behalf, they’ll likely use stablecoin rails because they are 24/7 and easy to access. Lastly, deep tech—energy, robotics, and advanced manufacturing.
Jeremy Au: The Singapore government has invested heavily in R&D—estimated at $125 billion over 30 years. But I see three struggles: technology gets stuck in the lab, there is a lack of velocity to commercialize, and an insufficient understanding that IP has a shelf life. The USB thumb drive was invented in Singapore, but we didn't commercialize it fast enough or protect it, and others took the market share.
Wing Vasiksiri: Very few governments can commercialize technology themselves. The best governments reduce friction, ease restrictions, and allow the free market to work. Singapore is a small country, but its sovereign wealth funds are globally relevant. A better analogy today for Singapore isn't India, but Israel—the "Startup Nation." Can Singapore double down on certain sectors to produce global outcomes like Wiz, which was acquired for $23 billion?
Jeremy Au: Shifting to Thailand—I feel like I’m being gaslit. The news says Thailand is okay, but social media shows long lines for gas. What is the reality?
Wing Vasiksiri: I haven't been back in a little bit, but my mom says people are panicking. Thailand imports 90% of its oil, 50% of which comes from the Middle East. The government has set price caps and is subsidizing fuel, but that fund is in a deficit.
Second-order effects: many data centers were built there. As energy prices rise, they will struggle. This might force innovation in battery storage or solar. Interestingly, the government recently signaled it is open to testing small modular reactors (nuclear).
Jeremy Au: If gas prices stay high, it hits power generation, petrol, and fertilizers. Since Thailand has a massive food industry, this could impact food stability and create inflationary costs for Singapore, which imports from the region.
Wing Vasiksiri: There will be second-order effects in agriculture, especially as the government encourages biofuel to reduce reliance on oil imports.
Jeremy Au: To wrap up: thanks for sharing about joining Analog Ventures. It’s interesting to see two Solo GPs—you and Tiang—coming together. Also, thanks for the macro insights and the look at Thailand’s energy crisis.
Wing Vasiksiri: This was fun. Thanks, Jeremy.
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