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Antler’s founder on its vertical AI bet in Southeast Asia
A growing roster of vertical AI startups is emerging in Southeast Asia to serve sectors ranging from seafood to finance. Singapore-based venture capital A growing roster of vertical AI startups is emerging in Southeast Asia to serve sectors ranging from seafood to finance. Singapore-based venture capital firm Antler recently made a bet on 37 of them, investing $5.1 million in total for pre-seed deals. This included a strategic partnership with Khazanah, Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund, which invested into seven startups.
He adds that even though Southeast Asia doesn’t have the talent pool to build something like OpenAI yet, they can take a customer-first approach to AI apps, solving pain points unique to different sectors and markets. “It’s super unclear why you would throw endless amounts of human hours into researching a market when AI can do so much more effectively and efficiently,” he says, adding that CapGo’s competitive moat is its ability to build data sources that are tailored first for Southeast Asia. “If you want to raise funding for a quote unquote ‘hardcore’ horizontal AI out of Southeast Asia, it would be challenging, especially to enter into a race with a company based in Silicon Valley,” he adds.
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