‘Champions League' mindset drives more SEA founders to US

Business Times

2 days ago

FELIX Lee still keeps his diary from the one-month solo trip he took to San Francisco in 2018.
Then 19 and fresh out of pre-university, the Singaporean entrepreneur had just sold his trip-planning startup, Packdat, to an Indonesian-listed SIM card provider.
Meeting at least three new people each day on that trip, Lee jotted down everything he saw, heard, and learned. His goal? To answer one question: Why do amazing ideas seem to be born only in Silicon Valley?
Later, it clicked: 'What we lack, in South-east Asia, is not resources, but the guts,' said Lee.
Many founders in Silicon Valley do not rely on earning credentials or establishing networks before starting a company, he observed. Instead, they head straight to San Francisco in hopes of building the next billion-dollar startup.
Lee did not see the same spirit in Singapore.
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Fast forward to today, he has spent over half a year in San Francisco building ADPList, a platform connecting individuals with mentors, mostly within tech.
Lee is not the only South-east Asian founder who's making the US their home base, though.
With funding in South-east Asia declining for three straight years, it's no surprise that more founders in the region are chasing other markets.
Regional investors have also tended to stick to tried-and-tested sectors such as e-commerce and fintech, compared to their US counterparts who have large risk appetites. This makes the latter more attractive to emerging and deep tech companies.
Tech in Asia has compiled a list of 78 South-east Asian founders of 66 companies that are now based in the US. Among these founders, 19 relocated after building firms in the region, while the rest have been based in the country from the start.
While not exhaustive, the list paints a picture of an increase in founders choosing to grow their businesses in a market that they think gives them the best shot at becoming a global company.
If you are a founder considering moving to the US, our list can be a starting point for you.
Go big, go stateside
Nearly two-thirds or 52 of the founders on our list are based in California, which tops our list of US states. Most are AI startups, and of these, a majority, or 14 of 15, are located there.
It's no surprise, AI founders want to be where Big Tech lives.
New York ranks second with 14 South-east Asian founders. Half of them are building firms in the healthtech and fintech sectors in the state, the world's top financial centre and a rising healthtech hub.
That said, not every founder heads to the hubs of the West or East Coast.
Cuong Pham, co-founder and CEO of Eureka Robotics, recently relocated his family from Singapore to Atlanta, Georgia. In June, his company, a supplier of robotics solutions to manufacturers, opened its fourth office in the US state, following Singapore, Vietnam, and Japan.
Atlanta is a major transportation hub that helps the company reach customers across the US, according to Pham.
Eureka Robotics co-founders Hung Pham (left) and Cuong Pham. PHOTO: EUREKA ROBOTICS
'From day one, I knew I'd have to come to America,' he recalls.
That moment came after Eureka Robotics raised US$10.5 million in a series A round in December 2024.
The US offers a massive opportunity in manufacturing. The market is 5x to 6x larger than Japan's and hundreds of times bigger than Singapore's, Pham shares.
But it's not just about market size.
In the US, it takes six months to go from initial conversation to a confirmed order. That's 2x to 3x faster than in Singapore or Japan. US buyers are also more willing to sign larger contracts with new vendors.
'Generating revenue quickly is paramount for a startup,' Pham explained. 'That's why, as CEO, I have to be in the US to drive sales myself.'
He expects revenue from the US to surpass the total from all other markets starting in 2026.
Like Pham, ADPList's Lee has observed that US users make up a sizable share of his customer base. Currently, 38 per cent of the platform's users and 80 per cent of its revenue come from the country.
To test if the product truly resonated in the US, Lee spent three months in the country in mid-2022 and organised ADPList's first meetup. The turnout exceeded his expectations.
Since then, he has been spending increasing amounts of time in San Francisco. He's also preparing to move there full-time later this year.
This planned move signals his commitment to the market, especially to investors, because it shows he's serious, said Lee.
Big league, bigger costs
Every rose has its thorn, and the US market is no exception.
For Kenneth Lou, co-founder and CEO of healthtech firm Mito Health, moving to New York in 2024 meant entering an intensely competitive arena.
His team, spread across the US and Singapore, is 'up against some huge monsters', he said.
These include US-based Superpower and a16z-backed Function, which has raised US$53 million to date. In contrast, Mito Health has raised only US$3.5 million so far.
Still, the country offers a much larger market than South-east Asia, considering its huge population and deeper pockets.
From left: Mito Health founders Dr Ryan Ware, Kenneth Lou, Joel Kek, and Tee-Ming Chew. PHOTO: MITO HEALTH
Another key hurdle for South-east Asian founders in the US is labour cost. There are also the challenges that come with managing a team across 12- to 14-hour time differences.
For the same role, each headcount in the US can cost twice as much as in Singapore, as per Eureka Robotics' Pham.
As such, less than 10 per cent of the company's 60 employees are based in the US. They handle crucial on-site roles such as sales and engineering support. Meanwhile, the core R&D engineers remain in Singapore and Vietnam.
For small startups such as ADPList and Mito Health, US-based hires are focused on functions that require deep local insight, like growth or marketing. Its engineering or design teams, meanwhile, are still in South-east Asia.
Relocating staff to the US remains a tall order, even for well-funded companies. Not every employee volunteers for the move, and those who do face unpredictable visa hurdles under Donald Trump's administration.
Ambition's price tag
Not everyone is cut out for a big move across the world, however.
Melvin Yuan, who first moved to the US in 2013 in search of a larger market for his real-time location analytics startup, YFind Technologies, knows this first-hand.
Today, he lives in San Francisco, running Stellar – a company that handles back-office operations for firms in both Singapore and the US.
Stellar founder and CEO Melvin Yuan. PHOTO: STELLAR
Relocating to the country, for him, meant restarting life in a pricier, unfamiliar place. For those with families, uprooting and helping kids adjust to a new school system is doubly challenging.
'You have to work extra hard to set up life all over again, build a whole new network to get into the market,' Yuan shares. 'If you are not ambitious, you probably don't want to be here.'
Mito Health's Lou echoes this sentiment. He said that it was 'not easy' for him and his wife to leave their families, especially his mother, who lives alone in Singapore.
But Lou thinks the sacrifice is worth it.