MDI Ventures has revised its Southeast Asia investment thesis to focus on enterprise artificial intelligence, AI infrastructure, blockchain and regulated digital asset services, identifying Singapore as the starting point for sourcing regional companies. As the corporate venture capital arm of Indonesia’s TelkomGroup, the firm plans to connect selected companies with commercial opportunities in Indonesia through the telecommunications group’s infrastructure, enterprise relationships, strategic partners and market channels. A regional startup pipeline is already under development, with multiple companies in the works.
Singapore becomes the starting point for regional sourcing
The updated strategy covers companies developing enterprise AI applications, AI infrastructure services, governance software, real-world asset tokenisation, institutional custody and regulated digital asset infrastructure. Across Southeast Asia, starting with Singapore, MDI Ventures is looking for businesses that could use TelkomGroup’s ecosystem to scale into Indonesia’s enterprise and consumer markets.
Singapore is described by the firm as a priority sourcing market, alongside its concentration of AI companies and funding activity. Figures cited by MDI Ventures show that Singapore accounted for around 57% of Southeast Asia’s AI funding over the 12 months to June 2025, with 495 AI startups raising US$1.31 billion. The firm is focusing on companies with regional ambitions that need deeper access to Indonesia’s market scale, regulated sectors, enterprise customers and local operating environment.
Across Southeast Asia, more than US$2.3 billion went to roughly 680 to 700 active AI startups over the 12 months to June 2025, equivalent to approximately 32% of private funding in the region, according to figures cited by MDI Ventures. The firm also said AI companies accounted for 61% of global venture capital investment in 2025, or US$258.7 billion. Overall Southeast Asian private funding, meanwhile, fell to a six-year low of US$1.85 billion across 229 deals in the first half of 2025.
Shannon Lee Chaluangco, Investment Director at MDI Ventures Singapore, said, “Southeast Asia’s next wave of technology growth will be led by companies that solve real infrastructure and enterprise problems. Our role is to provide the strongest regional founders with Indonesia’s market scale, Telkom Group’s network, and the strategic resources needed to build durable companies across AI, blockchain, and digital assets.”
Enterprise AI and infrastructure form a major part of the thesis
Indonesia forms another major part of the strategy. MDI Ventures cited estimates of roughly 2,400 AI and deep tech startups in the country, alongside figures showing that 92% of knowledge workers are already using AI, compared with a global average of 75%. Of 336 Indonesian AI companies tracked in the firm’s thesis work, 66 had raised institutional funding.
MDI Ventures sees opportunities in Bahasa-first AI applications, workflow automation, data governance, compliance, customer engagement and sector-specific AI deployment. Its investment focus also covers the infrastructure and services needed to move AI systems into production, including AI-ready computing capacity, deployment support, cybersecurity, model governance and integration with enterprise systems.
The firm cited projections that Indonesia’s data centre pipeline could reach approximately 1,519MW by 2028, while cloud adoption across Southeast Asia is growing at around 20% annually. It expects demand for supporting infrastructure and services to increase as more companies move AI projects from experimentation into production. According to MDI Ventures, companies it backs can gain access to TelkomGroup’s national infrastructure footprint, enterprise relationships, strategic partners and market channels, giving regional businesses a route to validate, commercialise and scale their products in Indonesia.
Digital assets focus centres on regulated infrastructure
Blockchain and digital assets form the second pillar of the revised thesis, with MDI Ventures targeting institutional infrastructure including custody, tokenisation, payments, settlement, compliance and regulated digital asset services. The firm views demand as concentrating on trusted and compliant infrastructure instead of short-term speculative products.
MDI Ventures cited a projected market of US$30.1 trillion for tokenised real-world assets within the next decade. The firm also pointed to digital financial services usage among more than 70% of Southeast Asia’s internet users, alongside an expectation that regional digital payment gross transaction value would reach US$359 billion by 2025.
The firm also cited adoption figures from individual Asian markets, noting that Asia accounts for six of the world’s top 10 countries in crypto adoption. Within the region, Indonesia recorded IDR49.82 trillion in crypto transaction volume in May 2024, up 506% year on year, while Vietnam’s annual digital asset transaction volumes exceeded US$220 billion. Singapore, meanwhile, was described as having an ecosystem of more than 300 blockchain companies.
MDI Ventures participated as an institutional partner at Indonesia Blockchain Week 2026 in Jakarta and co-hosted Tokenize Indonesia – Brunch by the Beach at Coinfest Asia 2026 in Bali, where regulators, financial institutions and industry leaders discussed institutional readiness for tokenisation. The firm also plans to meet founders and ecosystem partners working on tokenisation, custody and digital asset infrastructure at TOKEN2049 Singapore.
Alvin Evander, VP of Strategy at MDI Ventures, said, “Alongside AI, Web3 in Southeast Asia is moving from speculation to infrastructure. As tokenisation, institutional custody and regulated digital asset rails move from pilots into real-world use, the winners will be founders who build for trust and compliance from day one. We want to partner with those builders and help them connect regional ambition with Indonesia’s market scale through TelkomGroup’s ecosystem.”
