TechBurst Talks

Over the past few years, delivering sustainable solutions and reducing carbon emissions have moved up the corporate agenda. But while many people like talking about it, few are ready to act.

One reason that people claim that holds them back is that sustainability solutions come with a green premium - which is the additional cost of choosing a clean technology over one that emits a greater amount of greenhouse gases. But that’s not always the case anymore.

In this podcast, we are joined by the CEO & Co-founder of Ampd Energy, Brandon Ng. His company proves that you don't have to increase your costs to decrease your carbon emissions.

01:40 Intro to Brandon & Ampd Energy

How an approach from Gammon Construction in Hong Kong changed Ampd’s focus to reducing carbon emissions in the construction industry

05:00 Ampd Energy targets the construction industry, which is an industry laggard when it comes to driving productivity and innovation. However, you are seeing very strong traction in your home market in Hong Kong. What is driving your success?

Sole focus is on the construction industry

First customer was a marquee company - Gammon Construction

Electric Vehicles have been in Hong Kong for over 10 years, so battery technology is viewed as “ready for primetime”, not an emerging tech.

The business case stacks up. Ampd Energy doesn’t come with a “green premium”, it actually reduces costs from the current solutions deployed.

10:00 Hong Kong’s Construction Industry Council partnered with Hong Kong’s Development Bureau to launch at HKD 1 Billion (USD 130m) Construction Innovation Technology Fund. How has this been adopted and leveraged by the construction industry and what benefits has it delivered?

12:45 What are the biggest challenges you face when trying to win new business?

Lack of product awareness leads to misconceptions and misunderstandings about what we do

Fear of change

14:45 What is your business model? Do customers have to buy (CapEx) yoru solution or can they lease (OpEx) it?

15:45 What are your key objectives to grow your business over the coming 12 - 24 months

Increase market share in HK

Expand to Singapore and other markets across Asia

Continue to educate and advocate for greener, cleaner and quieter construction sites using Ampd’s products

18:00 What impact has the rise in importance of sustainability and reducing carbon emissions had on your business?

Investment firms holding industry responsible for the carbon emissions

19:30 What are the Critical Success Factors for driving your long term (5-10 year) growth and success? And the biggest risks?

Urbanisation

Bridging the gap in debt financing to give Ampd the working capital to build more product in advance of orders received

Attracting talent

25:45 What do you know today that you wish you knew when you started Ampd in 2015?

26:40 When you expand into new markets, will you go direct or leverage channel partners?

28:00 How can the audience follow Ampd Energy or get in touch with you?

Website: www.ampd.energy

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ampd_energy/

Brandon Ng: https://www.linkedin.com/in/branng/

If you keep up to date with the latest technology news, you know that the momentum and investment has shifted from Asia to the Middle East. But gone are the days where countries like Saudi Arabia and the UAE just import technology and talent - the new trend across the Middle East is how to create a home-grown technology startup ecosystem - and this is what we are going to cover in today’s podcast.

Let’s face it - money is not going to be an issue - but as we have seen from other countries, just throwing money at the startup ecosystem is no guarantee that it will be successful.

To help us go through this topic, we are joined by the Partner & Co-Founder of SparkLabs Group, Bernard Moon. SparkLabs has made a name for itself by launching accelerators and VC funds in Asia, Australia and the US, but now they are entering the Middle East market, so let’s see what has drawn SparkLabs to that region - and what Bernard thinks will be the critical success factors to making sure they get a return on their investments.

Show Notes:

00:00 Intro to Bernard Moon and SparkLabs Group

02:30 SparkLabs new accelerator programs in Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi

06:00 How does SparkLabs plan to find the “best of the best” startups in the Middle East

08:45 Do you see any similarities between the Middle East markets and other countries where you have had success with your accelerators (e.g. Korea, Taiwan)? And are there any specific opportunities and / or risks compared to the other markets you operate in?

14:30 What are the critical success factors for the Middle East markets to develop a home grown startup ecosystem? And what is the role of academia in creating this?

20:30 What does SparkLabs look for in startups that they want to invest in? And are there any red flags that you watch out for?

24:00 What will it take for SparkLabs to view their entry into the Middle East accelerator market a success?

26:00 What can countries like Saudi Arabia and the UAE learn from other markets, like Singapore, that haven’t made the most of their investment / funding of their local startup ecosystem?

30:00 Why are startups keen to be involved with SparkLabs versus the many other accelerator programs in the market?

33:00 Last week, SparkLabs listed it’s USD 100m SPAC (Special Purpose Acquisition Company) on Nasdaq. Can you give us an overview of how this came about and what your strategy for the SPAC is?

More information on SparkLabs can be found here:

Contact Bernard directly: [email protected]

SparkLabs Saudi Arabia

SparkLabs Korea

SparkLabs Taiwan

SparkLabs Cultiv8

SparkLabs Group

Keeping up with Asia’s innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystems is challenging because the region’s DeepTech, Venture Capital and Start-up ecosystems are incredibly complex and diverse. Today, we are going to try to break it down by focusing on the ecosystems in just one country - Singapore.

We are going to discuss three key topics. First, we’ll look at DeepTech to discover the latest trends and to understand what unique challenges start-ups in this space face.

Second, we’ll look at the state of Venture Capital in Singapore, and, more specifically, is there enough VC funds available to support the longer commercialisation cycles of DeepTech Startups.

Finally, we’ll discuss how the start-up ecosystem is evolving and find out what cool new innovations are on the horizon.

To do this, we are joined by David Toh, the Interim CEO of NTUitive, which is the innovation and enterprise subsidiary of Nanyang Technological University (NTU), which is ranked Number 12 in the latest World University Rankings.

Show Notes:

01:00 Intro to NTUitive, including how it supports start-ups and engages with the technology innovation ecosystem.

06:00 How does NTU look at DeepTech? And some examples of DeepTech solutions coming out of NTU.

13:30 What unique challenges do DeepTech start-ups face? And due to their longer commercialisation cycle, how do they set near-term success metrics?

19:30 Where has NTUitive been successful, and where is there room for improvement?

21:30 David’s journey from semicon engineer to equity analyst to fund manager to the world of Venture Capital.

27:45 Some of the start-ups David has helped on their start-up journey

29:45 What’s the current state of Singapore’s start-up and venture capital ecosystems?

37:45 What characteristics does David look for in start-ups - and are there any red flags that would prevent him engaging with a start-up.

43:45 Let’s look five to ten years in the future, and DeepTech has been incredibly successful in Singapore. How did the ecosystem evolve to enable that success?

Alternatively, let’s say that DeepTech bombs. What mistakes did the ecosystem make?

48:30 What advice do you have for someone who is thinking about creating a start-up? Or someone who wants to go into Venture Capital?

We live in a world where the latest technologies, including AI, 5G, and blockchain, have the capability to truly transform the way we work, live and play. The problem is, they don’t always live up to the hype.

Far too often, the ICT industry pushes the latest technologies and solutions on the market and hope they get adopted, rather than by tailoring solutions to meet the market’s needs and proving that they can deliver tangible business value. The supply and demand sides of the market don’t work together as effectively as they should, and that’s why we are lucky to have today’s guest, Michael Gryseels, with us because he sits at the crossroads of technology supply and market demand.He’s currently the Executive Vice Chairman of Thailand’s True Digital Group and the Chief Digital Officer for CP Group, which is Thailand’s largest private company and one of the largest conglomerates globally.

This combination of roles provides him not only with insights into the market’s requirements - but also the capability to launch solutions to meet those requirements.

Prior to these roles, he spent nearly 20 years with McKinsey & Company, where he was a Senior Partner and led McKinsey Digital Labs in Asia.

Show notes:

01:15 Intro to True Digital, CP Group and A Day in the Life of Michael

05:15 CP Group operates in 15 industry verticals. What process do you follow to identify the opportunities and source the innovation that will digitise these industries?

07:00 You have been in your roles for 3 years, can you give us some examples of the initiatives that you've implemented, or solutions that you've deployed, that you're proud of?

10:00 Status of 5G in Thailand, including which 5G use cases has True Digital identified, does Thailand’s strong manufacturing sector create an opportunity for Private 5G, and what are the Critical Success Factors for operators to be successful in 5G?

15:10 Where would you like to see True Digital and CP Group in 3 years time?

17:15 When you look at the global mobile operators, which ones do you think are doing the best job at driving digital solutions?

19:00 When implementing digital solutions, companies often get stuck in what McKinsey defines as “Pilot Purgatory”. What advice do you have for companies to overcome this?

22:10 Which technologies do you think will have the biggest impact in the next 12 to 24 months?

24:00 Fun Questions

• What do you know today about True Digital / CP Group / Thailand that you wish you understood when you started on this journey?
• You have lived in 15 countries - and worked in many more. Outside of Thailand, where did you find the most exciting place to work?
• When I was 16 years old, I had a blond mohawk, spent my after school hours skateboarding and attending as many punk rock shows as possible. What were you doing at 16?
• Let’s say I have the power to turn back time - and I can turn you into a university student today. What would you study - and what would you want to do with your career?

As we approach the end of 2021, we enter into one of the tech industry’s favourite seasons - 2022 Predictions. While all the industry evangelists will be predicting what mega-trends are going to transform our cities next year, I’m going to take a different approach. I’m going to focus on the mega-blockers that we need to overcome in order to live up to the industry hype.

And to do this, I am joined by 3 guests who sit in different areas of the Smart Cities ecosystem.

Josh Sattler, A/CEO - General Manager Innovation, Growth and Development Services at City of Darwin in Australia

Tim Kobe, Founder & CEO of the global strategic design firm Eight Inc.

Zachary Wang, the Founder & CEO of Neuron Mobility, a leading rental e-scooter company and micro-mobility technology developer operating in cities across Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, South Korea and Canada.

For simplicity’s sake, view it this way. Zach represents the tech innovator’s supplying Smart City solutions, Josh represents the market demand, and Tim the planning and design side that has to liaise between the supply and demand side.

Show Notes:

01:20 Guest Intros

03:40 Smart Cities have not lived up to the hype. What types of challenges have you encountered that are holding back innovation?

07:35 Mega-blockers for the adoption of AI / Facial Recognition: how to overcome citizen’s concerns over data privacy

15:00 Mega-blockers for the adoption of Urban Mobility: eScooters, eVTOLs (electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft - aka Flying Taxis), etc.

20:50 Mega-blockers for the adoption of Sustainability solutions: balancing ROI and social impact

27:40 We have the technology to deliver transformative solutions, but sometimes people and processes hold us back. What do we need to do as humans to become Smart City enablers instead of blockers?

34:00 Rapid Fire round

Do we need more government regulation to drive innovation?

What is the one thing that needs to happen to the Smart Cities ecosystem to drive more innovation?

What’s the biggest risk that Smart Cities face in 2022?

What’s your personal wish list?

Tim - name one client you would like to work with

Josh - if you could lead any city’s Smart City initiatives, which would it be?

Zach - if Neuron could “win” one new city in 2022, which city would it be?

Let’s close on a positive - tell me something that you are proud of that happened during the pandemic.