Southeast Asia Venture Capital News

December 21, 2021

Jessica Huang Pouleur Announced as General Partner

We are thrilled to announce the promotion of Jessica Huang Pouleur to General Partner. She is the first to join co-founders Shane Chesson and Hian Goh, who have led the firm since 2014

December 14, 2021

Kumu's soundtrack with SB19 knocks BTS off Billboard's newest chart

SB19’s “Bazinga” rockets from No. 8 to the peak position, in a very promising shift for P-pop music on the global stage.

December 8, 2021

Openspace Awarded 10th Best Place to Work in Singapore 🏆

Openspace has been recognised by GPTW as the 10th Best Place to Work in Singapore amongst companies with <100 employees.

November 30, 2021

Kumu: not content with just content

An article from our friends at The Ken on Kumu and its growth strategies.

November 16, 2021

Hian Goh and Gervin Yang open #PHSW21, sharing insights on scaling

Yesterday, as Philippine Startup Week 2021 #PHSW21 kicked off, we were thrilled to have Hian Goh and Gervin Yang from Openspace deliver a keynote, addressing a large audience joining the Mainstage

November 8, 2021

Openspace backs JIWA Group to fuel expansion and strengthen tech ☕️

JIWA Group, a leader in Indonesia’s technology-enabled food and beverage industry, has announced new funding from Openspace and Capsquare Asia Partners.

November 2, 2021

Openspace evolves brand to focus on Active Intelligence

The story of why we evolved our brand and how we've built the biggest VC operations team in SEA.

October 29, 2021

Openspace meets Kumu: The Story

Hian Goh, Founding Partner, reflects on the first time Openspace met Kumu - and the early opportunity we saw in the Philippines.

May 4, 2023

Founding Partner Shane Chesson is elected Vice-Chairman of SVCA

Openspace is glad to be an active participant in the Singapore Venture & Private Capital Association (“SVCA”), spearheaded by Founding Partner, Shane Chesson, who has been on the Board since 2020 and is now helping to shape the agenda after his recent election as Vice-Chairman. We extend our congrats to Shane, Sunil Mishra as Chairman and the other board members elected

May 3, 2023

Meet The Team: Dennis

In this week's Meet The Team, Dennis from our investment team shares more about himself as well as his experience at Openspace, from his passion for mathematics to his prior work experience.

April 26, 2023

Portfolio Company Feature: Janji Jiwa

Today we're featuring Janji Jiwa, a coffee chain from Indonesia that has made a name for itself not just for its delicious food and beverages, but also for its exceptional hospitality

April 21, 2023

Recommendation: the Unthinkable podcast

The Unthinkable podcast is a show that explores the unexpected events and circumstances that can turn our lives upside down

April 14, 2023

Recommendation: the Hidden Brain Podcast

We're recommending Hidden Brain as a podcast to listen to this week

April 13, 2023

Capabilities Focus: Nicole on Investor Relations

At Openspace, we like to shine a spotlight on various members of our team to highlight their strengths, as well as showcase various aspects of what we do on a day-to-day basis. This week, we ask Nicole, who handles investor relations, for several pieces of advice when it comes to the subject.

April 11, 2023

Portfolio Company Feature: Love Bonito

We're featuring our portfolio company, Love, Bonito, on the Openspace blog today, being a case study of a highly successful womenswear company from Singapore which has achieved notable global recognition.

April 6, 2023

The Craft Revisited: Tom Wright on Investigation

In this episode of The Craft Revisited, our Ocular fund lead, Amy talks to the investigative journalist Tom Wright, author of Billion Dollar Whale and co-founder of Project Brazen, producer of the captivating Fat Leonard podcast. ‍It's a rich conversation about the art of investigation - and how we might apply some of the techniques to our own diligence processes. Here are some of our key takeaways:‍

June 15, 2023

Thought Leadership: Shane’s Takeaways at SVCA Conference 2023

Shane Chesson was given the privilege to be one of the keynote speakers at SVCA Conference 2023 - Asia and the World: Inside The Dynamics of a Changing Relationship. Shane provided a deeper understanding of market dynamics, enhanced diligence practices, and the future of exit strategies during the VC Panel.

June 7, 2023

Meet the Team: Jonathan Chandra

In this week's edition of Meet The Team, we learn a little more about Jonathan, our Senior Analyst (OSV+), who sources, assesses and manages a number of the fund's portfolio companies.

February 9, 2023

Capabilities Focus: Wenbo Zong on Tech & Engineering

We’re starting a new series called Capabilities Focus, which is highlighting members of our Portfolio Success team and the integral role they play at Openspace and for our portfolio companies.

February 8, 2023

The Craft Revisited: Rory Sutherland on Alchemy

This week, we’re revisiting a previous episode of The Craft, where Hian, our General Partner, discusses behavioral psychology with Rory Sutherland - author of Alchemy and Vice Chairman of the Oglivy group. Here are 5 key takeaways we gained from their conversation:

December 23, 2022

Happy Holidays, from us to you

From everyone at Openspace to everyone we have the heartfelt pleasure of knowing or working with.

July 27, 2022

New Craft Episode 🔥: Nir Eyal On Habits

In this episode of The Craft, Jessica talks to Nir Eyal about habits. He's behavioural design consultant, investor, entrepreneur and author of the seminal book ‘Hooked’.

June 14, 2022

New The Craft episode - Chris Lemons on Courage 💪

In this episode, Shane Chesson talks to Chris Lemons, a saturation diver and subject of the Netflix documentary, Last Breath.

March 8, 2022

Stronger through diversity: Openspace on International Women’s Day 2022

At Openspace, we see diversity as both a social and business imperative. It’s because we believe that by valuing diversity, we will encourage more diverse idea exchange–a fundamental element of our firm’s Active Intelligence philosophy.

September 9, 2024

Openspace Sustainability Progress Report 2023

Awareness of ESG issues has grown significantly but translating this into real, deliberate action has been slow. To highlight how we are moving from awareness to action, we are pleased to release our 4th annual Sustainability Progress Report

October 3, 2023

Nano: How Earned Wage Access is Improving Employee Financial Wellbeing in Vietnam

The report was conducted in early 2023 by Center for Impact Investing and Practices (CIIP), a non-profit centre established by Temasek Trust to advance the impact investing ecosystem in Asia

August 30, 2023

Reaping the Regional Dividend: The Southeast Asia Coalesce Index

Openspace and Stripe release Reaping the Regional Dividend: The Southeast Asia Coalesce Index, which studies the extent to which the region is growing closer together, and the upside opportunities that brings.

August 11, 2023

Openspace Releases Sustainability Progress Report 2022

We are pleased to be publishing our 2022 Sustainability Progress Report for the third year! In this report, we do a deep dive on ESG issues material to tech companies in Southeast Asia, focusing particularly on consumer protection principles, responsible AI, and cybersecurity and data governance.

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