How Nordic companies are expanding to Southeast Asia, the world’s fastest-growing internet economy

Southeast Asia (SEA) is an exciting growth frontier for founders and companies, with a rapidly expanding middle class and the world’s fastest-growing internet economy that’s projected to hit US$1 trillion (S$1.37t) by 2030.

To offer insights and advice to Nordic startups and scaleups on accessing market opportunities in SEA, EDB organised a fireside chat and mixer with companies that have successfully established a presence in the region. The event, “The Future of Innovation in Asia” was held at TechBBQ in Copenhagen. 
 

Event speakers

1) SEA offers a diverse range of market opportunities, amid global headwinds

Eurazeo, a leading global investment company based in both Europe and Southeast Asia, closed its Eurazeo Smart City Fund II at €400 million (S$579.9m) in July 2023. The company’s focus on new technologies and digital innovation for sustainable cities is helping to address challenges related to climate change that are unique to Southeast Asia. This is done by investing in areas within the low-carbon economy like renewable energy, advanced mobility, logistics, manufacturing, and the built environment. 

Amid the broader pullback in capital markets, Eurazeo remains confident in the region’s growth prospects and continues to support startups seeking to address challenges in SEA, from its offices in Singapore. “We found that it is a massive market in Southeast Asia, and felt that we could adopt a global vision to identify specific pockets of technology and talent in the region, and from there, build the best investing case,” shared Eurazeo’s Investment Director for Venture Smart City, Alice Besomi. 

Confidence in Southeast Asia’s market potential led Eurazeo to establish its Singapore-based offices, as part of a global network of 12 offices spanning the Americas, western Europe, East Asia and Southeast Asia.
 

2) Finding local partners helps to accelerate the go-to-market strategy

Besomi notes: “Companies need to identify local companies and partners that can fast-track their business entry.”

KONE partnered with Singapore's Changi General Hospital and Capitaland, real estate management firm that manages large malls and office buildings in Singapore, to integrate multifunctional robots and building infrastructure as part of a Smart Urban Co-Innovation Lab. 

KONE’s innovation pilot with Singapore-based partners supports the effective deployment of robots in both vertical and horizontal spaces, allows various robots to communicate with lifts and doorways, and travel in a safe and autonomous manner across outdoor and indoor spaces. 

By supporting the navigation of autonomous robots in human-rich environments and allowing robots to independently coordinate navigation routes across narrow pathways, KONE realised a more productive and innovative use of robotics technologies in complex healthcare operational workflows.

These partnerships showcase the rich innovation ecosystem in Singapore, where corporations and startups come together to drive technological advancements. “The great thing about Singapore’s ecosystem is the ability to work with many different partners,” shared Amy Chen, Senior Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer, KONE. “In our partnership with Changi General Hospital (CGH), we were able to work with 14 different robotics suppliers and players, and build interesting innovation experiments to solve key problem statements, such as the interaction between humans and robots in the elevator space.”
 

In Singapore, potential partners abound for Nordic companies looking to go global. For those looking to access potential partners and customers, Singapore-based platforms like the Open Innovation Network and the Infocomm and Media Authority’s Accreditation programme for government contracts also provide opportunities to streamline the customer discovery process.

Ecosystem leaders such as the Nordic Innovation House - Singapore have also set up in recent years to help startups accelerate their expansion into the SEA region. Singapore’s Nordic Innovation House serves as one of four flagship Nordic Innovation Houses globally, providing Nordic startups access to high-quality mentors via their community and networks.

3) To build an effective global team, understand the local talent landscapes

Zendesk, a leading customer relationship management software-as-a-service platform, charted its international expansion with a globally distributed engineering model. This model features a network of research and development (R&D) hubs working together, with each node bringing unique strengths.

Zendesk Singapore designs, builds, and maintains messaging and live chat systems that are rolled out across the world.

Chaminda Peiris, Director of Engineering, Zendesk noted that building this strong global team began with understanding the local talent landscape. 

“To grow effectively, it is really important to understand whether you have the talent that you need [in a given ecosystem]. You need to go there on the ground, and one thing we do [in assessing an ecosystem] is to find local tech meetups, talk with the local talent pool, and get a good idea on how good the talent is,” said Peiris.

In Singapore, Zendesk does so by offering internship opportunities that help inspire students to pursue future careers in tech, supporting local tech event sponsorships, and hosting meetups to help the community exchange ideas and collaborate.

Notably, Singapore provided Zendesk with an accessible hub to connect with a wide range of talent needed to support its expansion. 
 

Beyond being a hub for top talent, Singapore also provides a range of bespoke passes to give individuals more flexibility, including the ONE Pass and Personalised Employment Pass for individual entrepreneurs and top talent. For companies that seek to recruit highly-skilled tech talent internationally, the Tech@SG Programme also ensures greater certainty and speed in visa processing, by providing eligible companies with company-level endorsement to reduce the risk of rejections by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) for Employment Pass (EP) applications.

As the SEA region's prominence as a new frontier for innovation continues to rise and with access to the right funding, talent, partners, and a supportive innovation ecosystem from Singapore, the stage is set for the next wave of Nordic companies to scale their operations in one of the world's most promising regional markets.