The Daily Brief - 13/9

Dubai-based ARCB Investment launched the Kanzun-ARCB Growth Fund to back Malaysian healthcare companies and help them expand into regional and international markets. Read more here.

Malaysian-based lender Firstborn Top Capital is going public via a $1.1 billion SPAC merger with Nasdaq-listed ARC Group Acquisition, with the combined entity trading as "BCIN" once the deal closes in Q1 2027.

Singapore's femtech startup ecosystem is expanding, with the number of startups in the sector reportedly doubling as companies target areas including fertility, menopause and women's health. Read more here.

Indonesia's Sanggabiz was selected as the technology provider for Dthree Sukses Mulia under Indonesia's 2026 Startup for Industry programme, implementing AI solutions to address manual operational processes at the industrial company. Read more here.

Southeast Asia's venture ecosystem is increasingly shifting from growth-at-all-costs towards capital efficiency, with the region's startup failures offering a reminder that the companies surviving the current funding environment will likely be those with stronger underlying economics. Read more here.

Vietnam's National Technology Innovation Fund announced grants of up to VND3 billion, about US$117,500 per AI innovation project in 2026. The funding is available to businesses and organisations using AI to develop new products, services, processes or business models. Read more here.

Eight of Southeast Asia's 11 countries now have at least one homegrown AI language model, indicating a growing push to build AI systems around local languages, data and cultural contexts. Read more here.

The Philippines' technology ecosystem is attracting fresh expansion plans from Indian companies across agriculture, healthcare, digital payments, aviation, AI and telecommunications. Read more here.

Thailand approved 17 strategic industrial projects worth US$3.66 billion under its latest FastPass batch, bringing the total pipeline to US$10.39 billion. Electronics and electrical components accounted for almost 70% of the latest investment. Read more here.

Malaysia appointed former AirAsia CEO Aireen Omar as the inaugural chairperson of AI Malaysia Berhad, the government's newly established agency responsible for coordinating the country's national AI agenda and driving the National AI Action Plan 2026–2030. The inaugural board also includes leaders from the Ministry of Digital, EPF and the private sector. Read more here.

Spending more on ads isn't the only way to grow. Some of the strongest campaigns come from borrowing someone else's audience instead. Think of Tealive's anime tie-ins or Watsons' Sanrio drops. Why do they work? Scarcity creates demand - people queue up for these drops.

A good collaboration lets two brands share distribution, credibility and cultural relevance, without either having to build that audience from scratch. Killing two birds with a stone they say 😉

It also reframes the pitch. Instead of another brand trying to sell me something, it becomes two brands I already know made something together. Pokemon is the best example I think all of us can relate to. Pokémon x UNIQLO, PokéXciting, and other things Pokémon.

Scarcity basically does the job for you. It gets people talking and queuing.

HeyGen is an AI avatar video platform that lets founders create polished, multilingual marketing content without cameras, crews or reshoots. Check it out here.