Sarah Chew covers Southeast Asia’s technology, fintech, digital policy, and AI adoption landscape for RECATOOLS. Her work focuses on how regulation, platform shifts, and emerging technologies affect businesses, consumers, and digital markets across Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines.

33
Articles
ASEAN Tech
Primary beat
May 2026
Writing since
~246 min
Total reading
All 33 ASEAN Tech 18 Finance 12 AI & ML 3

Articles · ASEAN Tech Showing 1–10 of 18

Rows of insulators and steel busbar frames in an outdoor high-voltage electrical substation.
ASEAN Tech

Thailand Now Makes Data Centres Prove the Power Exists Before Approving Them

Since 30 March, a data-centre developer seeking Thai investment privileges must file a letter from the energy regulator confirming the electricity exists.

3 Aug 2026 · 8 min read
Manila skyline at twilight reflected in the bay, with high-rise towers along the waterfront
ASEAN Tech

ASEAN Tech Summit Convenes in Manila as the Region's Digital Trade Pact Heads for a November Signing

Organisers expected more than 4,000 delegates in Pasay City on 28–29 July, under the Philippine chairship. Negotiations on the ASEAN Digital Economy Framework Agreement closed in May; the signature is due in November, and the unfinished work is domestic.

2 Aug 2026 · 5 min read
Singapore central business district towers seen across the river — illustrating the city that absorbed 94 per cent of the region's half-year technology funding.
ASEAN Tech

Southeast Asia's Tech Funding More Than Doubled. Take Out One Data-Centre Company and It Shrank

The region raised $7.4 billion in the first half, against $3.2 billion a year earlier. One Singapore data-centre operator accounted for $4.5 billion of it, and Singapore for 94 per cent of the whole.

1 Aug 2026 · 5 min read
MAS Is Building an Institute to End the Pilot Era — Singapore's Bet That the Hard Part of Fintech Is Deployment
ASEAN Tech

MAS Is Building an Institute to End the Pilot Era — Singapore's Bet That the Hard Part of Fintech Is Deployment

MAS announced on 25 June it will establish a Future of Finance Institute to move AI and tokenisation from experiments to production. It consolidates a decade of pilots — and stakes Singapore's fintech edge on execution, not novelty.

11 Jul 2026 · 6 min read
Close-up of digital cryptocurrency market graph showing price fluctuations and trading data.
ASEAN Tech

Igloo Buys Eazy Digital in Its Second Thailand Move in a Year — a Bet on Insurtech Consolidation

Singapore insurtech Igloo has acquired Eazy Digital, a Singapore-headquartered insurtech with operations across Thailand and Asia, for an undisclosed sum, the company announced on 30 June 2026. The deal — Igloo's second Thailand transaction in twelve months — folds Eazy's agent-management platform and Thailand team into Igloo, with founder Harprem Doowa becoming Country Head of Igloo Thailand. It is a bet on Thailand's insurance-reform push and its large protection gap, and part of a broader consolidation as Southeast Asia's insurtechs buy capability and local presence to build regional insurance platforms — though Igloo is expanding while still loss-making.

9 Jul 2026 · 7 min read
MAS Opens an AI-Themed 2026 Global FinTech Hackcelerator and SFF Excellence Awards
ASEAN Tech

MAS Opens an AI-Themed 2026 Global FinTech Hackcelerator and SFF Excellence Awards

On 29 June 2026, the Monetary Authority of Singapore opened applications for the 2026 Global FinTech Hackcelerator and the Singapore FinTech Festival FinTech Excellence Awards, both closing 14 August. This year's edition is built around AI, with three AI-in-finance problem statements and a thematic Artificial Intelligence Champion award category.

2 Jul 2026 · 6 min read
Vietnamese flag at a prominent architectural structure in Đà Nẵng.
ASEAN Tech

Vietnam Calls for a Connected ASEAN Fintech Ecosystem at the AFF 2026 — but the Standards Are the Hard Part

At an ASEAN Future Forum 2026 seminar in Hanoi, Vietnam's Deputy PM Nguyen Van Thang urged the region to connect its fintech ecosystems, not just its markets — proposing region-wide real-time payments, Open API standards, anti-fraud coordination and an 'ASEAN Fintech Sandbox.' The ambition is clear; the harder question is whether ten jurisdictions can harmonise the standards underneath it.

11 Jun 2026 · 7 min read
A photographer takes a picture of the Singapore skyline under a clear blue sky.
ASEAN Tech

Singapore Bets on Being AI's Neutral Ground — Just as US Chip Rules Put the Middle Under Scrutiny

As Singapore AI Week and SuperAI 2026 open with a pitch to be 'neutral ground' for a fracturing AI industry, fresh US chip-export guidance has sharpened scrutiny of overseas subsidiaries of China-parented firms — capturing both the promise and the peril of Singapore's position.

8 Jun 2026 · 7 min read
Indonesia’s AI Ready ASEAN Pact Turns AI Literacy Into Regional Infrastructure
ASEAN Tech

Indonesia’s AI Ready ASEAN Pact Turns AI Literacy Into Regional Infrastructure

Indonesia’s new AI Ready ASEAN agreement with the ASEAN Foundation shows how AI adoption in Southeast Asia is becoming a regional capacity-building project, not only a technology race.

6 Jun 2026 · 5 min read
Parcels moving along an e-commerce sorting line, illustrating Shopee's record quarterly order volume.
ASEAN Tech

Sea's three engines fire at once: Shopee, Monee and Garena drive a 47 per cent revenue jump

Singapore's Sea Limited posted first-quarter revenue of US$7.1 billion, up 47 per cent, as its e-commerce, fintech and gaming arms grew together for the first time in years. Shopee booked a record US$37.3 billion in goods sold, Monee's loan book grew 70 per cent, and Garena had its strongest quarter in five years.

1 Jun 2026 · 3 min read
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