The author, Thomas G. Tsao, is co-founder and chair, Gobi Partners
One of the biggest trends Gobi Partners saw in 2025 was not exactly a trend, but a fundamental realignment of how the world works. The hub-and-spoke model that placed the United States at the centre of all countries is declining. Instead, Asian countries are now connecting directly with one another.
Gobi spotted this model early with our ‘crouching tiger, hidden tapir’ thesis that connects Northeast Asia (China, South Korea, Japan) with Southeast Asia. We were excited to see it gain traction over the past 12 months as startups demonstrated the power of regional interconnectivity.
‘Crouching tiger, hidden tapir’ goes back more than a decade. I was so certain of it that in 2015, I moved my entire family from Shanghai to Kuala Lumpur to set up Gobi’s second headquarters. I believed in Malaysia’s enormous potential because it is what I call a ‘penta-hub’. The country’s diversity is a doorway to five of the world’s most significant markets: Indonesia, India, China, the Anglophone countries and the global digital Muslim economy.
Over the past decade, we’ve seen more international investors latch onto Southeast Asia’s promise. For example, Malaysia secured over 63 billion ringgit ($15.54 billion) worth of semiconductor investments from both domestic and foreign investors under the National Semiconductor Strategy (NSS) by March 2025, less than a year after its launch. In total, foreign direct investment accounted for 52.9%, or 150.8 billion ringgit ($37.2 billion), of approved investments into Malaysia during the first nine months of 2025.
Cross-border execution in practice
In Malaysia, we started making cross-border investments early with Gobi Fund III. Its exited companies include Hermo, WaveOptics and Cloudwise, and it has active investments in Airwallex, Carsome and Deliveree. We recently sold Airwallex shares in a secondary sale, generating over 150x returns for our investors.
Malaysian unicorn Carsome is another example of a successful cross-border investment, both in terms of its cap table and the markets it serves. The IPO-bound company has raised capital from Malaysian, Singaporean and Middle Eastern investors and has expanded to Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore and the Philippines so far.
Carsome recently attracted the attention of a prominent investor from China’s Greater Bay Area, which will be announced soon, and its platform is an important channel for Chinese EVs to further penetrate the Southeast Asian market. Large Chinese OEMs are starting to see Carsome’s regional scale for distribution, underscoring the importance of cementing alliances that bring together major Asian markets.
Another example of a cross-border play is Singapore-headquartered Synagistics, which de-SPAC’ed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. One reason the company chose to list in Hong Kong was more access to brands in Greater China that want to expand into Southeast Asia.
Semiconductors are among the sectors most profoundly shaped by today’s geopolitical shifts as supply chains reposition themselves. We recently sold down our position in Brite Semiconductor, which specialises in ASIC design. Key to Brite’s success was its decision to expand into Southeast Asia, demonstrating how supply chains are transforming as Chinese companies focus on Asian markets.
What comes next?
Over the next year, we expect technology from universities to play a growing role in cross-border partnerships.
Academia is a hotbed for sectors like deeptech, AI, robotics and biotech, which have the potential to impact multiple markets at once. For example, our portfolio company Tiiny specialises in edge AI, which resonates in emerging markets where access to the cloud is often limited. By embedding ourselves in universities, Gobi is able to get closer to technology that will transcend international boundaries.
We also foresee more connections being made between different regions. Gobi recently launched offices in Tokyo and Seoul to connect those ecosystems with Southeast Asia, enabling mutual market expansion and investment opportunities.
In August, we participated in the Hong Kong Investment Corporation’s delegation to Brunei and Malaysia, with the goal of creating enduring relationships between China and ASEAN markets. Gobi is also about to close its Gobi Meranti ASEAN Growth (MAG) Fund II and Gobi United Fund, both focused on bringing Asian markets closer together.
As Gobi continues to connect Northeast and Southeast Asia, we are focused on other regions, too. For example, we are building bridges between East and Southeast Asia to West Asia through our offices in Pakistan. In October, I met with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to talk about cross-border collaboration between Pakistan and Malaysia. We’re also actively exploring the Middle East and Central Asia.
Asian markets no longer revolve around a single global centre. Instead, it’s evolving into a multi-point network that will be driven by cross-border collaborations.
At Gobi, our work centres around identifying these connections early and enabling the seamless flow of innovation, capital and knowledge. As startups expand across borders on an even wider scale than before, we believe the best value creation will come from building and connecting ecosystems.
