The East and Southeast Asia (ESEA) chapter is headquartered in Bangkok, Thailand and covers Australia, Brunei, Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Timor-leste, and Vietnam.
The chapter provides a platform that supports all stakeholders in the SGB ecosystem through training, knowledge sharing, facilitating introductions, and fostering collaboration among ecosystem actors.
Chapter Activities
Networking and fostering connections: Regular chapter events, both formal and informal, provide time for ANDE members to network, learn, and share best practices. They include member meetings, happy hours, webinars, roundtables, and workshops on different themes. We also facilitate tailored introductions and connections among members to foster collaborations and partnerships among practitioners in the SGB ecosystem and strengthen the ecosystem through the region.
Knowledge sharing: The chapter shares regular updates, including upcoming opportunities, events, and publications, with SGB stakeholders active in the region through a public newsletter, chapter updates for members, and regular promotion on our social media and other channels. We are always eager to partner to tell the story of SGBs and our members’ work.
Research: Our research initiatives build the knowledge base for SGB support organizations to improve their effectiveness and create thriving entrepreneurial ecosystems. ANDE conducts both high level and specialized regional research on SGB networks and trends, which provide major value to our members. Some of our recent research work relevant to the region includes ecosystem snapshots for Myanmar and Bangkok and a report on acceleration in the Asia-Pacific region.
Funding: ANDE provides regular funding opportunities to both members and non-members to both drive greater resources to organizations supporting SGBs in developing economies and ensure ANDE member expertise is leveraged efficiently. Funding opportunities are meant to spur more creative and collaborative investments in SGBs and uncover how SGBs contribute to poverty alleviation and economic growth. Recent opportunities in the region include the Advancing Women’s Empowerment Fund (AWEF).
Learning and training: The chapter convenes learning groups on various topics, including Learning Labs on metrics, sustainable agriculture, talent development, and gender equality, and has led trainings on investment management, SGB finance, and more. ANDE has a particular focus on promoting impact measurement and management among the network. We encourage knowledge sharing, support the adoption of a common language to measure performance, and encourage exploration of new methods and tools to enable more efficient and useful measurement practices.
The Thomson Reuters Foundation champions economies that are equitable, participatory, and sustainable, with a focus on environmental respect. Impact investing is crucial for addressing social and environmental inequities but remains underutilized in Southeast Asia. To bridge this gap, the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE) partnered with TrustLaw, the TRF's global pro bono service, to enhance understanding of local impact investing regulations in 7 different countries in Southeast Asia: Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, Indonesia, Myanmar, and the Philippines. Special thanks go to A&O Shearman, DFDL, Mayer Brown, MahWengKwai & Associates, and SyCip Salazar Hernandez & Gatmaitan for their pro-bono support. This guide aims to assist social enterprises, incubators, and investors in navigating local regulations and fostering greater investment in regional startups and their social missions.
Southeast Asia is one of the fastest-growing regions in the world, with a total GDP of over USD 2.7 trillion. However, its progress is threatened by the increasingly adverse impacts of climate change. Entrepreneurship has a leading role in developing solutions to both mitigate and adapt to climate change. This report evaluates the current support ecosystem for climate and environmental entrepreneurs in six developing Southeast Asian countries: Cambodia, Indonesia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. Through ANDE's data collection and analysis, this report offers insights on the set of organizations supporting entrepreneurs that aim to address climate change mitigation, adaptation, and non-climate related environmental protection challenges.
"Bangkok is the vibrant capital city of Thailand, known for being a popular tourist destination. The city’s population, which accounts for 15% of the country’s population, and its significant urban sprawl make it the country’s largest and a critical part of the national economy. ANDE identified and collected data on 267 ecosystem players actively supporting entrepreneurs and small businesses in Bangkok."
India's commitment to net-zero emissions by 2070 and ambitious renewable energy targets underscores its focus on sustainable growth. Despite significant progress, climate adaptation challenges remain. Discover how Global Business Inroads (GBI) drives cleantech and circular economy development by connecting innovators, markets, and investors through initiatives like the UK-India Net-Zero Innovation Program and Circular Fashion Platform. Using platforms like Global Technology Interface®, GBI fosters technology deployment, capacity building, and sustainable entrepreneurship, empowering businesses to scale, address environmental challenges, and create dignified jobs globally.
The ESEA team’s Scale through SCALE Workshop in Vietnam showcased valuable insights from a panel discussion centered on five key pillars: selecting the right enterprises, implementing cost-sharing to enhance performance, addressing critical challenges, leveraging evaluation for growth, and leading by example. These discussions underscore the significance of fostering a dynamic, inclusive ecosystem to empower scalable and impactful entrepreneurship across Southeast Asia.
This learning lab aims to address the gap in data about the effectiveness of accelerators, focusing on the East and Southeast Asia region.
Each chapter's gender equality action lab will ideate and prototype solutions to systemic gender inequities in the SGB sector. They convene regularly and will conclude with a funding challenge to scale promising solutions.
The ESEA and India chapters convene a cross-chapter Funder Learning Lab with the goal to promote greater donor efficiency by cultivating a relatively small group of representatives from donor agencies, private foundations, and family offices.
