In this episode, Jon from the European VC pod is joined by co-host Ambika from Circle Capital for a special look at the Southeast Asian VC landscape. Their guest, Bhavik Vashi—Managing Director at Carta for APAC and MENA—brings both operator and investor lenses to the table. From the myth of “Southeast Asia as a region” to emerging manager struggles, this conversation pulls no punches. If you’re thinking global, this is your field guide.
Here’s what’s covered:
01:20 Bhavik’s Journey from Anaplan to Carta
03:45 Why “Southeast Asia” Is a Convenience, Not a Region
08:00 The Operator’s Reality: Fragmentation, Regulation, and Talent Arbitrage
11:45 Power Law Doesn’t Work Here: Rethinking Portfolio Construction
16:10 Fund IRRs Are Down, and It’s Worse in Southeast Asia
19:00 The First Wave of Emerging GPs: What Went Wrong
22:30 The Bright Side: Carta’s $1B Bet and Market-by-Market Nuance
27:15 Australia, MENA, Singapore, and What Global LPs Should Understand
32:00 The Case for Emerging Managers (And Why LPs Need to Get Over Their Fears)
36:10 Belief Shift: The East Isn’t Copying the West Anymore
41:00 Hub-and-Spoke Is Dead: Local Ops for Global Scale
44:00 Middle East ≠ Europe: Why Singapore and Dubai Are Mirror Plays
📺 Watch the episode here or stream it on Spotify or Apple Podcasts 🎧
✍️ Show Notes
“Southeast Asia Is Not a Region. It’s a Collection of Countries.”
Bhavik sets the tone early: while Southeast Asia is often grouped for convenience, it lacks shared language, regulatory norms, or even investor frameworks. Building across the region feels more like running four separate companies than scaling one. The EU might struggle with fragmentation—but APAC takes it to another level.
Operators vs. Narratives: What VCs Miss
Too many global VCs (and founders) rely on top-down narratives—massive youth populations, digital growth, etc.—without understanding the operational headaches on the ground. From Islamic banking in Malaysia to talent dispersion in the Philippines, nuance is everything. And that nuance breaks the classic power law VC model.
Carta’s View from the Top: IRRs, Emerging GPs & LP Skepticism
Carta’s data shows a troubling trend: post-2017, VC IRRs globally have dropped, reaching zero by 2021 and negative since. In Southeast Asia, they never reached double digits to begin with. For emerging managers, this reality has been brutal. Most GPs who launched in 2021–22 failed to return Fund I. LPs, facing a rough macro, they fled to big brands—and the result was a wiped-out generation of new managers.
The Case for Staying Optimistic: Carta’s $1B TAM & APAC Bets
Despite the gloom, Bhavik remains bullish: Carta is expanding across the region—Singapore, Australia, Abu Dhabi, and Hong Kong—with tailored bets in each market. Southeast Asia still offers scale, consumer demand, and an opportunity to build natively. Meanwhile, MENA and GCC are fast-tracking ecosystems via policy and capital with a “country as a startup” mindset.
The Rise of Specialized Emerging Managers
Bhavik makes a compelling case: smaller, focused GPs deliver alpha. Carta’s data backs it. Yet LPs—especially family offices in Asia—remain allergic to risk. The solution? More co-investments, SPVs, secondaries... and education. Carta is leaning in with data and tooling to make these new models viable.
What Europe Can Learn: Playbooks and Politics
Jon and Ambika round out the episode with a look at cross-pollination. Bhavik suggests Europe’s regulatory rigor could balance APAC’s speed. Meanwhile, Southeast Asia and the Middle East are proving you can execute national innovation strategies like companies—with “CEOs” (read: monarchs or one-party systems) driving long-term playbooks. That governance ≠ growth trade-off? It’s worth studying.
🏁 Closing Thoughts
This episode is a masterclass in realism. Southeast Asia isn’t a silver bullet for LP returns, nor is it a homogeneous market waiting to be cracked. But it is one of the most dynamic, underappreciated regions in global VC. And with Carta investing in infrastructure, Bhavik Vashi is building not just for growth but for staying power.
Connect with Europe’s leading LPs, Family Offices & Fund of Funds this September at Château de Beloeil.
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