00:01Ok, di AMNC 2000.6 ini kita bercakap soal bagaimana inovasi bergerak ke hadapan dan salah satu elemen paling penting
00:08dalam soal inovasi adalah pelaburan itu sendiri.
00:10Ini setiasa menjadi topik yang hangat dibincangkan dari masa ke masa oleh penggiat dalam industri tersebut, startup juga termasuk dan
00:17juga pelabur itu sendiri.
00:18Untuk berongkai bagaimana trend ini berubah seiring dengan perubahan teknologi dan juga perubahan landscape.
00:24Sekarang kami bersama dengan Thomas Tau, iaitu ia merupakan venture capital investor dan juga co-founder of Kobe Partners.
00:30Tom, Thomas, thank you so much for joining us.
00:33Should I call you Tom or Thomas?
00:34Call me Tom now, Steve.
00:35Tom, because he said call him Tom if you are a friend.
00:38So we are friend Tom.
00:39We're friends now.
00:40Tom, thank you so much for joining us at Dahlian China.
00:43So for the past two decades, basically, you know, much of the venture capital conversation revolves around Silicon Valley and
00:50also China.
00:51But today we've seen, you know, the rise of new innovation corridors across Southeast Asia, for instance.
00:57So and also not just Southeast Asia, in the Gulf region and also India, for instance, right?
01:02So where do you think the next decades, you know, most important startup ecosystem will emerge?
01:08Well, I think that's a great question.
01:09And at Gobi, we've always been big believers in what we call distributed innovation.
01:14We think what happened in Silicon Valley, fantastic.
01:18What's going on in China, amazing.
01:20The world needs more of that everywhere.
01:23And at Gobi, our strategy is to try to build out a network, right, and support more ecosystems to innovate
01:31and solve the world's problems, right?
01:33That's why I've been in KL for 11 years now, right?
01:37So, you know, we're based in Ilham.
01:39We were just talking about that.
01:40Yes.
01:40And at Gobi, we've been really, I think, helping build out.
01:43At the time, there was a vision to build out Malaysia's ecosystem.
01:47And we played a small role.
01:49One of our companies who are very fortunate was Skychip that just listed.
01:53And so, again, that's a great example of how a country like Malaysia, Penang, and the semiconductor industry in Malaysia
02:00is playing such a vital role in the entire global ecosystem.
02:05And also with AI, right?
02:07Because AI is one of the main topics being discussed here.
02:10So, you know, AI is, of course, dramatically reducing the cost of building companies.
02:15So, in your point of view, does this, you know, fundamentally change how venture capitalists evaluate startups?
02:22Oh, yeah, absolutely.
02:23I think what AI has done now is bring down the cost, right, of creating a company.
02:31You're seeing the rise of what we call solopreneurs, solo entrepreneurs, creating companies just with one person, you know, going
02:39leaner.
02:40But at the same time, you need that support system and you need very experienced kind of a support system
02:46to help those entrepreneurs grow because the problems now are getting more difficult, right?
02:51Especially here at Summer Davos.
02:54I mean, I'm just amazed by the opportunities, but at the same time, very cognizant that there is a cost
03:00to all this.
03:01And I think all of us here are trying to figure out, right, to make sure that there are no
03:04bottlenecks and that the ecological price that we have to pay is commensurate, right, with the rewards that are coming
03:11from all these opportunities.
03:12Right. And Gobi, you know, have, you know, invested extensively both in China and also Southeast Asia, I believe.
03:20So, how do you see with the, you know, durable tensions and supply chain alignment, how do you see between
03:26these two innovation ecosystems evolving amid all this challenging?
03:30Between China and Southeast Asia?
03:31Yes.
03:32I think you're seeing growing linkages.
03:33And I think, again, what's really going on now from a global and macro standpoint is the importance of Southeast
03:41Asia.
03:42And we're seeing that.
03:43And I think within Southeast Asia, Malaysia is perfectly positioned.
03:48Again, I think due to, I think, a very stable government now that has been very visionary implementing policies.
03:55And I think it's attracting in a lot of foreign investment.
03:59And, again, I think, again, the entrepreneurs in Malaysia can compete with the best entrepreneurs anywhere in the world.
04:05And we're seeing that.
04:07And so, again, we got companies like a Skychip, right, like a Carson.
04:12that are coming.
04:13We have another company called CompAsia.
04:14And the first two companies, Carson and CompAsia, are in the circular economy.
04:19And this is a very, very important theme that's coming out of Dalian this year.
04:25And you've spent 11 years in Malaysia.
04:28And, of course, you've spent over a decade helping build Malaysia's venture ecosystem, if I may say so.
04:34So what is the biggest misconception you think that international investors still have about Malaysia?
04:40Well, I think, you know, when I first, you know, when I first came out to Southeast Asia from Shanghai
04:4611 years ago,
04:47everybody was like, wait, why would you go to Southeast Asia?
04:51And the second question I always got was, hey, Tom, you came to Southeast Asia, why not Singapore?
04:56And, look, I love Singapore, but at the time we already had a partner in Singapore.
05:00Yes.
05:00And so I think one of the things that's changing is, again, in the old days,
05:06there was a sense that maybe Malaysia was not the place to be.
05:10But I think now, as you see what's going on, the level of entrepreneurial activity,
05:16Malaysia's strategic positioning within not only the Southeast Asia innovation ecosystem,
05:21but more broadly in this global now ecosystem, right, in AI,
05:26where those semiconductor, that semiconductor supply chain is so strategic.
05:31You know, Malaysia's now the place to be.
05:34And so I think that's very exciting.
05:37Again, I think when I came out there back in 2015, a lot of my friends were laughing.
05:41A lot of the friends I see here now at Summer Davos, they were like,
05:44you know, maybe, Tom, you were a bit too early.
05:46But now, wow.
05:48And so, again, I think as an investor at Gobi, what we try to do is you've got to take
05:52that long-term view.
05:53And you have to be consistent, and you have to show commitment and conviction, and you have to have a
06:01belief.
06:01Yeah.
06:01So we believed that there was going to be a growing integration between Southeast Asia and Northeast Asia.
06:08Yeah.
06:08Right?
06:09We called that our crouching panda, a hidden top here strategy, right?
06:15The panda and the top here, you know, coming, interacting, playing together, and it's happening.
06:21All right.
06:21What about Takwa Tech?
06:23This is very interesting because, you know, you've been building a Gobi's Takwa Tech investment practice,
06:30you know, targeting solutions for Muslim communities.
06:32So beyond, you know, Islamic finance, where do you see the largest untapped opportunities in the Muslim digital economy?
06:40Oh, wow.
06:40I think the biggest opportunity right now, and again, and thank you for bringing it up, Takwa Tech,
06:44because, you know, when I look back to when Gobi was set up back in 2002, you know, we saw
06:49the opportunity in China, right?
06:51Like, wow, one point at the time, 1.1 billion people, and now when I look at an opportunity,
06:55there's a bigger opportunity in China than in 2002.
06:59That's Takwa Tech, because you're now looking at a potential market of 2 billion global Muslim consumers.
07:06Wow.
07:07Right?
07:08And so what we see as an opportunity is whoever can create a super app, a community for the global
07:16Muslim community,
07:18that's going to be huge.
07:19And we've already made an investment.
07:20It's a company called Muslim Pro.
07:23Yes.
07:23Yeah.
07:24An avid user of Muslim Pro.
07:25There you go.
07:26And so, you know, so when you said there's obviously, you know, FinTech, Islamic FinTech,
07:31but, again, what Muslim Pro is doing, and you've already used the platform,
07:35is to take a lot of those important apps for the global Muslim community
07:42and bring that onto one platform.
07:44Super app.
07:44Yep.
07:45A super app for the global ummah.
07:47Yeah.
07:47Can you imagine that?
07:48Yes.
07:49All right.
07:50Tom, you know, many founders today are building, you know, businesses in the world
07:55that is becoming more fragmented geopolitically, economically, also technologically, in a sense.
08:00Yeah.
08:00So what advice do you give entrepreneurs, especially in trying to scale globally
08:06in an increasingly multipolar home?
08:09Yeah, again, I think the world right now is a little bit bifurcated.
08:14You know, there's kind of the government to government, and, you know, there are policies.
08:19I mean, you know, Astro does a great job reporting the headlines, and it can seem kind of confusing.
08:23I think for entrepreneurs, though, is the people-to-people connections
08:28are still there.
08:31People still want to interact and work together.
08:33I think as an entrepreneur, you have to look at global opportunities, and thinking
08:39beyond your market is intentional.
08:42It's so easy right now in certain economies where people are just like, hey, I want to
08:45just focus on one.
08:47I don't want to play with other, you know, countries, et cetera.
08:50That's happening at a government-to-government level, and I get that.
08:54But I think for entrepreneurs who are creating solutions that can scale, right, you've got
08:59to think global.
08:59And really, the theme of this conference is innovating, you know, at scale, right?
09:05So if you want to do that, it's going to take conferences like this, right, what the World
09:09Economic Forum is doing, bringing people together.
09:12And the entrepreneurs want to work with everybody because if their solution is good enough, you
09:17know, it's not my country or your country.
09:19It's only one planet.
09:21It's one Earth when we all live here.
09:24My final question, because you've backed startups through multiple crisis, the dot-com
09:30era, the global financial crisis, COVID-19.
09:33Oh, yeah.
09:34Yeah, and to this AI disruption.
09:36So this is not implying, you know, how old you are.
09:38This is telling the audience, you know, your expertise level in that sense.
09:42Experience.
09:42Experience.
09:43Yeah, yeah, yeah.
09:44So looking back, what is the most single, the most, you know, single most important lessons
09:49you've learned about basically, you know, identifying founders who can strive through
09:54uncertainty?
09:55You know, it's really a conviction, you know, and I think you're looking for entrepreneurs
10:02because we've seen, look, you know, Gobi's average holding period, you know, is like seven
10:07and a half years, you know, we now have a portfolio of close to 500 startups.
10:12Being an entrepreneur is hard, right?
10:15And everybody, you know, everybody talks long-term, but very few people actually act
10:20long-term.
10:22And the one thing that I've learned is, like you were saying, Najib, thank you for pointing
10:25it out, we've seen a lot of cycles.
10:28So Gobi, you know, we're about to enter our 25th, about to celebrate our 25th anniversary
10:33next year, and you're all welcome.
10:34Thank you.
10:36You know, 25 years sounds like a long time, but in VC world, it's only two and a half
10:40cycles.
10:41Each cycle is 10 years.
10:42So while it sounds like a lot of years, when we compare ourselves to other Silicon
10:46Valley guys, they've been around for maybe four, five cycles, right?
10:51And you're looking for entrepreneurs that can really, you know, persist, be tenacious,
10:59and really work through and be committed through the ups and downs of that cycle.
11:04So that's what's key.
11:05Tom, thank you so much for joining us.
11:07I really appreciate this quite difficult to get Tom in Dalian, China.
11:11I really appreciate your time.
11:12I guess I'll see you in Malaysia.
11:13Absolutely.
11:14All right.
11:14Thank you so much, Tom.
11:15Good, good, good.
11:15Okay, itu berkaitan dengan pelaburan.
11:18Aspek ini sangat penting untuk memajukan lagi inovasi dan juga dalam keadaan sekarang ini
11:23penuh cabaran apa lagi yang dinilai oleh pelabur-pelabur dalam meletakkan wang mereka,
11:28mendanam modal mereka untuk startup kita dalam sektor inovasi.
11:35Terima kasih.
