U.K. VC Firm Focused on Artificial Intelligence Expands to Southeast Asia The company, which will target Malaysia and Indonesia first, said it believes the two countries have a lot of untapped potential to build AI talent and ecosystem

By Aparajita Saxena Feb 12, 2020

Opinions expressed by BIZ Experiences contributors are their own.

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Skymind Global Ventures, a venture capital firm that invests in artificial intelligence companies, on Wednesday launched an $800 million fund and said it would expand to Southeast Asia region.

A significant portion of the $800 million fund will be used to invest in Southeast Asian AI companies, the company said in a statement to the press.

The company, which will target Malaysia and Indonesia first, said it believes the two countries have a lot of untapped potential to build AI talent and ecosystem.

The AI sector in Southeast Asia has boomed over the last couple of years with the proliferation of fintech and data and analytic companies. Singapore leads the group in AI-related research, followed by Malaysia, which has built a budding ecosystem of deep tech companies.

The global AI market was valued at $20.67 billion in 2018, and is expected to reach $202.57 billion by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 33.1 per cent during the forecast period, according to Fortune Business Insights.

Heavy manufacturing, healthcare and retail are three industries expected to be most disrupted by AI, globally, but in Asia Pacific, AI systems are expected to spend the most on the banking sector, followed by retail and telecommunications, according to an IDC research.

Aparajita Saxena

Former Deputy Associate Editor, Asia Pacific

Aparajita is Former Deputy Associate Editor for BIZ Experiences Asia Pacific. She joined BIZ Experiences after nearly five years with Reuters, where she chased the Asian and U.S. finance markets.

At BIZ Experiences Asia Pacific, she wrote about trends in the Asia Pacific startup ecosystem. She also loves to look for problems startups face in their day-to-day and tries to present ways to deal with those issues via her stories, with inputs from other startups that may have once been in that boat.

Outside of work, she likes spending her time reading books (fiction/non-fiction/back of a shampoo bottle), chasing her two dogs around the house, exploring new wines, solo-travelling, laughing at memes, and losing online multiplayer battle royale games.

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