October Tech Round-Up: Asia’s Fintech Phoenix
Dear reader,
Once the “Sick Man of Asia,” the Philippines has reinvented itself as an emerging Fintech powerhouse - where remittances, regulation, and a generation of young, mobile-first consumers now fuel a billion-dollar digital boom.
Enjoy, from the team at North Ridge Partners.
Original Thinking From North Ridge Partners
For decades, the Philippines was Asia’s invalid, laid low by cronyism, blackouts and borrowed money, while its neighbours sprinted into prosperity. Today, the patient has not only recovered but is running laps around the region’s Fintech field. Once propped up by rice and remittances, the archipelago now hums on digital rails: 65 million wallet users, burgeoning payments businesses, and a clutch of start-ups turning profits while their Indonesian and Singaporean peers limp along. From dodging jeepneys to trading tokens in Bonifacio Global City, the Philippines is emerging as a Fintech phoenix. Click here to read our analysis.
Short of Time? Listen to the Podcast
Bill Bitcoin and Penny Payment, our two AI podcasters, discuss how the Philippines Fintech industry is capturing attention across Asia.
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Big Tech
In the world’s biggest buyout, Electronic Arts is being taken private for US$55bn by Silver Lake, Affinity, and Saudi Arabia’s PIF.
Meta’s Insta platform hits 3 billion users a month, while its Twitter-clone Threads overtakes X on mobile.
Open AI’s secondary equity sale values ChatGPT’s owner at US$500bn – the largest unlisted start-up ever? And then…
…follows up with a chips-for-scrip deal to deploy 6GW of AMD chips in return for up to 10% of AMD. The AI race just went vertical.
The IPO market is well and truly open. Travel Tech stalwart Navan's IPO follows up recent IPOs from Klarna ($1.37bn), Netskope ($908m), StubHub ($800m) and Fermi ($682m).
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The AI Boom - How Does This End?
Straight to the source: here’s a tidy summary of the mega‑contracts shaping the boom in compute.
IMF and Bank of England weigh in on the AI bubble.
Does Nvidia’s $110bn circular financing bet echo the 90s Telecom bubble, or just rhyme?
The World Economic Forum weighs in.
Asia Pacific Tech News
Aussie Aerospace & Defence sector booms as DroneShield shares surge and Helsing acquires Blue Ocean.
Southeast Asian automotive tech platform Carro announces $60m funding round, led by Cool Japan Fund.
More trouble in paradise as Indonesian regulator fines TikTok over late Tokopedia disclosure.
Singapore Fintech investments rebound to ~$1bn in H1 2025: KPMG Pulse of Fintech shows a sharp YoY rebound across 90 deals.
Grab grabs profit increase: what the company’s SGX filing tells us about profitability at scale, mobility, and the outlook for deliveries.
Stuff We Found Interesting
What goes up: Starlink’s satellites encounter a foe they can’t compete with — gravity. One or two per day are “deorbiting”.
Anthropic launches Claude 4.5 / Sonnet 4.5 for enterprise, a business-first model update with stronger coding and reasoning chops.
AI unleashed (again): OpenAI launches Sora, Google launches Mixboard, and ChatGPT adds a ‘Buy’ button (and an open-source protocol for e-commerce).
Are AR/VR headsets crashing and burning? Apple halts lighter Vision Pro to prioritize AI smart glasses.
Waymo for Business debuts for corporate travel as Alphabet introduces Robotaxis to expense accounts.
Tech Investment Banking Across Asia Pacific
North Ridge Partners advises tech companies across the Asia Pacific on strategy, capital raising and M&A. We’re experienced dealmakers who have built and sold many tech companies. In partnership with GP Bullhound, we have 200 bankers in 17 global offices.
Contact us here.
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