Why ASEAN?
"ASEAN’s new economy addressable market to more than double to USD 800bn from 2020 to 2025"
(UBS, 2020)
A burgeoning middle class:
Home to around 230 million middle-income people currently, analysts expect this large consumer base to swell by an additional 170 million by 2030 which will drive B2B demand as well.
Rising technology adoption:
More than 200mn internet users expected to be added over the next ten years, growing at a rate five times faster than the population.
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Favourable regulatory environment:
Governments across the region providing digital friendly regulatory framework (e.g. sandbox, accelerators)
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Robust funding ecosystem:
ASEAN’s start-up ecosystem has benefitted from a healthy investment appetite over the past five years, given its structural growth potential
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Pool of talent:
Strong Governmental efforts to upskill employees and workers to digital skills.
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Why B2B in ASEAN?
"B2B in ASEAN has reached an inflection point in terms of digitization"
In ASEAN there are over 20’0000 SMEs (Small-Medium Enterprises) making up 96% of all firms.
They predominantly still operate in traditional ways, from paper based to semi-automated processes with too many inefficiencies. In the current economic environment increasing productivity has become a key for survival.
As these companies are beginning to adopt new technologies (e.g. AI) to improve productivity there are upcoming B2B & Enterprise Tech companies that develop meaningful solutions for them.
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At Hugo Capital Partners, we believe that in ASEAN the SME sector has reached an inflection point and we position ourselves to profit from this trend.
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Investment themes
We have identified investment themes that are supported by long-term secular growth in ASEAN:
B2B Digital Transformation
The next ten years will see a significant acceleration of digital transformation within legacy B2B industries in ASEAN
Enterprise &
B2B Tech
Solving complex enterprise problems increasingly require intelligent technologies like AI, Machine Learning, Big Data, Analytics, IoT and Blockchain
Robotics & Automation Deep Tech
The adoption of smart factory technologies, the spread of 5G, the industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and the adoption of Artificial Intelligence will accelerate in ASEAN in the coming years.