Built in Thailand, funded in Singapore, as startups gravitate to city-state
Thailand has made big strides in building its digital infrastructure. As at the first quarter of 2025, 70 data centres have been approved, alongside heavy investments in cloud computing, nationwide 5G coverage, and booming digital commerce, with e-commerce transactions reaching six trillion baht (S$237.5 billion) and e-payments hitting eight trillion baht in 2024.
Yet despite these promising numbers, the country continues to lag regional peers in critical areas such as information and communications technology manufacturing, digital services, and, most notably, venture capital (VC) funding for startups, according to the World Bank's latest Thailand Economic Monitor.
Startups are widely seen as key drivers of digital transformation, yet successive Thai governments have offered limited financial backing and policy support for the sector.
'While Thailand has made progress in e-commerce adoption, this success has not translated into robust investments in digital startups or advanced support for digital entrepreneurship,' said the World Bank in its July report.
No government push
Part of the challenge lies in the absence of government policy to support the sector.
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Douglas Abrams, managing director of Expara, an early-stage VC firm based in Singapore and focused on South-east Asia, said: 'A successful entrepreneurial ecosystem – startups and venture capital – always needs to be catalysed by the government.'
Expara was one of several early-stage investors in 2C2P, a payments platform launched in Thailand that has since grown into a regional player. Today, it powers transactions for major clients such as Lazada, Singlife, Lenovo, AirAsia, Thai Airways, Changi Airport Group and luxury hotel brand Capella.
The platform was founded by Myanmar national Aung Kyaw Moe, 50, who moved to Thailand in 1997, where he found work as a teacher and software programmer for computer games.
In April 2003, Aung Kyaw Moe set up his own company, SinaptIQ, that developed a payment software (providing one-time passwords for credit card transactions) for Thai banks that is still in use today.
A year later, he co-founded Paysbuy – a Thai equivalent of PayPal – which was eventually sold to Thai telecom giant DTAC in 2007 for around 200 million baht.
At loose ends after the sale, Aung Kyaw Moe joined Sasin School of Management in Bangkok, where he met Abrams, who, besides running Expara, also taught venture capitalism at Sasin.
Eager to build a new company offering comprehensive payment solutions for banks and merchants, Aung Kyaw Moe, acting on Abram's advice, relocated 2C2P's headquarters to Singapore in 2008, drawn by the government's active push to promote its enterprise ecosystem programme.
Aung Kyaw Moe told The Business Times: 'Singapore is the only country (in South-east Asia) where you can get serious venture capital investment.'
Singapore appeal
One reason foreign VC gravitates towards Singapore is its legal framework, which is in English and based on British common law, thus offering clarity and investor confidence.
Aung Kyaw Moe said: 'The second thing is that in Singapore, you can issue different classes of shares at different prices. In Thailand, if you want to increase your shares, you have to pay for those shares at par value.'
Providing free stock options to employees is one of the key early compensation structures in Western startups.
'You basically cannot provide incentive stock options for employees (in Thailand),' said Kasima Tharnpipitchai, SCB 10X's AI strategy head. 'It's an ongoing problem that the government says they will look at, but haven't addressed.'
Given the challenges of legal reform in Thailand, Aung Kyaw Moe suggests that Bangkok take inspiration from Dubai, where the government has set up the Dubai International Financial Centre as a separate jurisdiction governed by British common law to attract VC and startups.
Scaling up
In 2022, Aung Kyaw Moe and his co-founders sold 2C2P to Ant Financial/Alibaba Group for US$590 million.
'If this was a Thai company, the exit would never have happened, because as a Thai company I would never have been able to grow the company to this size,' he said. 'Singapore is where the capital is, and the image too.'
The company now has 11 subsidiaries in nine countries, with Thailand still its largest market. 'Eight out of 10 transactions in Thailand today are processed by 2C2P. Every single airline here has its payments processed by 2C2P,' noted Aung Kyaw Moe.
Another dynamic Thai startup to watch is Meticuly, founded by Thai national Boonrat Lohwongwatana, a graduate of Caltech in the US.
After years of research on mineral science at US universities, Dr Boonrat returned to Thailand and joined Chulalongkorn University's engineering department where he developed a process for speeding up the manufacture of titanium body implants – skulls, kneecaps, hips and others.
He currently is in Boston and sells the technology to US hospitals. His technology is already widely used in Thai hospitals.
Dr Boonrat said: 'In a nutshell, it is artificial intelligence-powered 3D printing technology for personalised implants, and we can deliver them in a matter of days.'
To support its growth ambitions, Meticuly also established its headquarters in Singapore in 2022.
While Thailand has struggled to attract independent VC, it does have several corporate VC arms operated by major banks and conglomerates. But Dr Boonrat is wary of going down that route.
'When you don't have enough financial VC (firms) leveraging your growth, then the country is in trouble,' he said. '(All) the bank-backed corporate VC (firms) want is to invest and take over. It's not that they want you to grow and exit.'
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