Introducing Mandalay’s first Venture Partner appointment, Amarit Charoenphan (Venture Partner SE Asia)
As Australia’s newest agrifood tech venture fund, Mandalay Ventures is doing things a little differently. While we know Australia has some of the most exciting agrifood tech startups in the world, we also know that it is essential for these startups to develop international channels to market, international networks to support commercialisation, all the while driving national business growth. We also know that developing and nurturing international channels to market can be the riskiest and most costly exercise many startups undertake. To support this activity, Mandalay is switching it up a little.
With a focus on Seed to syndicated Series-A investments, Mandalay has brought on a team of national and international experts as both investment committee members and venture partners (more exciting news on those appointments to come) to support our portfolio’s growth strategies. From North America to Europe and into Asia we are embedding some of the most respected and active community, innovation and startup executives in our Australian activities.
With this in mind, we are delighted to introduce Amarit (Aim) Charoenphan to Mandalay. Aim will be acting as a Venture Partner into the fast-growing SE Asian region. As a founder, angel investor and innovation adviser, Aim has worked across the whole spectrum of startup industries across Asia, Australia and New Zealand.
Aim launched one of Thailand’s first ever startup coworking spaces in 2012 (Hubba) while co-founding and growing one of the region’s largest tech conferences (Techsauce Global Summit) attracting over 20,000 participants in 2019. While being a Forbes Asia 30 under 30 innovator, Aim is an Obama Foundation Leader, has received an Edmund Hillary Fellowship, is a Founding Member of the Innovation X Sustainability Alliance (IxSA) and is an ASEAN Director for the Impact Collective. Aim has been an active member of the Australian startup community, mentoring a number of Australian companies and accelerators and has provided advice to government agencies on bilateral and multilateral policy.
We recently asked Aim a few questions on his journey into falling in love with startups and the innovation ecosystem:
Q. Where did you find your love for supporting and investing in startups?
Since starting my entrepreneurial journey a decade ago, my love for supporting early stage founders stems from my ethos I developed in career and life: I want to do well by doing good. More specifically, that means helping others achieve their dreams the same way many great angel investors, mentors and business partners have helped me in achieving my own dreams of starting the coworking movement and launching the most globally renowned startup conference in Asia. While those past achievements have put Thailand on the global tech map, I feel that my mission is incomplete; only until 2021 did we mint our first 3 unicorns, many of which have been heavily backed by large conglomerates. While there is much cause for celebration, I have always believed in the power of entrepreneurship and the underdogs sitting in the garages or scraping free coworking spaces seats, trying to build their dream companies to change their consumers as well as their own lives for the better. Working with founders whose energy and passion to build something and meaningfully “change the world” is addictive and I believe that building enduring companies, especially in food and agriculture, is one way for me to make a difference.
Q. What is your view on the future of agrifood tech for the region?
The future of agrifood tech in the region is extremely promising. The compounding factors of more people to feed, less people working in the food and ag sector due to an aging population and a gross under investment in preparations for COVID-19 and the climate crisis. According to the Google e-Conomy Report 2021, the region is now poised to surpass previous estimates and reach $360B GMV by 2025 (https://economysea.withgoogle.com/). However, much of that concentration is still in e-commerce and enablers like fintech and logistics. I believe that as the digital infrastructure rolls out and more consumers especially in the rural areas are forced to make their first purchases and sales online, even old-school industries that are resistant to change like the agricultural sector have pushed to accelerate their digital transformation.
Q. As a VP based in SE Asia, what bonds do you want to see formed across Australia and Thailand?
Having worked extensively with Mark, Phil and Tim in bringing some of the most promising tech companies and founders from Australia to Thailand over the past four years, I see a strong synergy between the two countries. Firstly, an increasing number of Australian founders see the opportunities in the Southeast Asian market and are looking to tap into a vast market for deep technologies that have been developed from the leading Australian universities and startups. This is especially true where many conglomerates from across the world, including Thailand, have made significant investments in Australia.
Secondly, in Southeast Asia, we can get a lot more done faster if you have the right backing, especially from our conglomerates and biggest families that have the size and scale to deploy innovations faster across Thailand and the region, and noting that many of the biggest families in Thailand have their origins in the food and agriculture business.
Lastly, Australians and Thais are social creatures and love to have a good meal and a good time.
Q. In your experience across SE Asia, why do you think most startups fail and how can they overcome that?
While much has been written about why most startups fail in Southeast Asia, I think it boils down to Markets, Money and Mentorship.
Firstly, Southeast Asian founders fail to grasp early the need to be global from day one and the teams that have made the most headway internationally have been teams that have one foot planted locally in the Thai market, and an international cofounder who knows that the Thai market is too small and in order to be competitive, you need to have scale that comes from quality traction. However, the lack of early stage capital and the challenging landscape of scaling a consumer internet startup (and burning a lot of cash) means that companies often pursue SaaS and B2B/B2G strategies to keep the lights on. This leads to my final pitfall of the lack of experience in terms of sales & business development, dealing with enterprise and government decision making processes and running an investment ready, professional venture that can win the trust and the contact from these much larger conglomerates and government agencies. This final gap can be solved with great advisors, mentors and the ability to recruit the best talent. Access to money, markets and great mentors remains a vicious cycle that slows teams down and keeps them small. I have been working to break this loop for the past decade as an ecosystem builder, angel investor and now I’m really excited to do this as a Venture Partner at Mandalay.
Q. The pandemic has been challenging for almost all businesses globally, in what ways has it actually brought us closer together?
During Covid, my previous businesses with non-Covid resilient businesses like coworking and events have been severely challenged and we’re only beginning to think about a modest recovery in 2022. However, despite all the doom and gloom, what I saw from the Thai and international startup community was that founders got together to advise, invest and support one another through the darkest of times. From my worst failures, I got a chance to take my own experiences and shared that with many founders who went on to turn around their businesses. While our ventures may struggle and fade, the spirit to create and grow incredible companies and ideas live on, even if we no longer work in the same room and country. An example of this is when I launched my impact accelerator, Impact Collective with friends from across the world whom we hadn’t met with in person for over 3 years. This project has accelerated close to 150 ventures and managed a community of over 2,300 people through the pandemic.
Q. When you aren’t advising, investing in or supporting startups and global ecosystems, what do you like to do in your spare time?
Besides spending most of my weekend at coffee shops mentoring founders (especially the 20+ I have invested in), I’ve picked up running, binge watching Marvel and Star Wars, volunteering at hackathons and teaching entrepreneurship as the Innovation Advisor at VERSO International School (www.verso.ac.th). While I’m not on the road and looking for the best cafes and restaurants in each city, you can find me as a human anthropologist hanging out in coworking spaces, tech conferences and meetups whenever I travel!
If you would like to hear more about Mandalay, our investment thesis and investment opportunities, please visit www.mandalay.vc
