Singapore-based tech firm Sea Limited has announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with American artificial intelligence (AI) firm OpenAI to advance the use of AI across Southeast Asia. Sea said in a statement on last Friday that the MOU focuses on making cutting-edge AI tools more accessible to consumers and small businesses in the region. Building on the Operator launch announced in February 2025, the MOU’s expanded scope for collaboration underscores Sea’s...

Salesforce has on last Friday released its Global AI Readiness Index, which finds Singapore ranking second globally in overall artificial intelligence (AI) readiness, exemplifying how aligned strategy, public-private collaboration, and digital investment create fertile ground for agentic AI. The ranking affirms Singapore’s position as a global AI leader and underscores the success of its national AI strategy in driving AI transformation, paving the way for enterprises to unlock the...

Google Play, Ant International’s Antom and KASIKORNBANK announced last Friday the launch of K PLUS as a new local payment method on Google Play, marking the first time that a Southeast Asia (SEA) mobile banking app is made available as a payment option in the platform. The trio said in a statement that the rollout also marks the first time that Antom, the unified merchant payment service under Ant International, enables recurring payment capabilities on a banking app to support global...

Foxmont Capital Partners, the Philippines’ institutional early growth capital firm, announced Friday the first close of its third fund at $30 million — more than doubling its assets under management (AUM) and surpassing the combined size of its first two funds. With Fund 3, Foxmont welcomes two new institutional investors with the first close: The Dutch Good Growth Fund (DGGF), a development finance type institution, serves as an anchor investor, marking the first DFI commitment...

Every July, we recognize SysAdmin Day on the 25th, a global nod to the unsung heroes who keep our digital infrastructure running smoothly. From maintaining uptime to safeguarding systems, system administrators (sysadmins) are often the first and last line of defense against cybersecurity threats. This day of recognition also presents a critical moment for system administrators and CISOs in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region to reflect on one of their most persistent and high-stakes challenges:...

Kenanga Research has foreseen compelling growth opportunities for Malaysian telcos, driven by the rapid expansion of digital infrastructure across ASEAN. This is underpinned by investments from hyperscalers, internet giants, content application providers, and co-location (co-lo) data center operators in cloud regions, hyperscale data centers, points-of-presence (PoPs), and edge-caching infrastructure, the research house said in a note on Tuesday. As ASEAN emerges as a digital infrastructure...

Analysts said Malaysian government’s effort to reestablish the country’s positioning in the semiconductor global supply chain has started to yield results. According to MBSB Research, a year after the announcement of the National Semiconductor Strategy (NSS), a notable strategic investment of MYR 63 billion ($14.88 billion) has been secured, along with over 13,000 talent being groom as well as wider research and development (R&D) footprint. It is noted that in 2023, the...

Thunes, a Singapore-based fintech firm, announces a new collaboration with EzyRemit, an Australia-based digital money transfer operator, to enable fast, secure and cost-effective cross-border payments to overseas communities worldwide. Through its direct integration into Thunes’ proprietary Direct Global Network, EzyRemit now offers customers access to real-time payouts to billions of mobile wallets, bank accounts, cards, and cash pickup locations in over 45 countries across Asia,...

NTT DATA, a Japan-based digital business and technology services firm, and Mistral AI, a France-based innovator in open-weight, high-performance generative AI (GenAI) models, have on Wednesday announced plans to jointly sell and deploy safe and private enterprise-grade artificial intelligence (AI) solutions that are able to foster strategic autonomy for clients. The duo said in a statement that they will combine NTT DATA’s comprehensive GenAI and IT services portfolio, global delivery...

ZA Global, a Hong Kong-based digital finance firm, has led a $40 million Series A2 financing round for fintech firm RD Technologies (RD). This strategic milestone accelerates the development of a regulated stablecoin ecosystem and next-generation Web3 financial infrastructure in Hong Kong, ZA Global said in a statement on Wednesday. As the lead investor, ZA Global’s involvement underscores its strong conviction in RD’s long-term potential and vision in the regulated stablecoin...

The myth of the natural leader There is this idea that some people are simply born with the talent to lead. Meanwhile, I’ll say that being a leader is a muscle you need to train. During the first year of the pandemic, nearly 40 percent of managers reported feeling unprepared to lead remote teams, according to a study by Harvard Business Review. The sudden shift to distributed work didn’t care who had the most polished CV. A new set of leaders had to be born. I was lucky to be...

Southeast Asia’s superapp Grab announced Thursday that it has achieved a profit of $20 million in the second quarter of FY2025 amid higher revenue. Grab said in a statement that its revenue grew 23 percent year-over-year, or 19 percent on a constant currency basis, with year on year growth accelerating from the prior quarter, to $819 million in the second quarter of 2025, driven by growth across its on-demand and financial services segments. The firm’s profit for the period was...