Asia’s founders are going global faster, sometimes even before they’re sure what their business is, says Stripe’s SEA MD

With the rise of AI, Asian tech founders are now thinking about global markets even when they’re still conceptualizing their business. Singapore-based AI firms now enter an average of seven new markets just one year after inception, according to a Stripe survey.

“We’re seeing a significant shift in how Asia-based firms are looking at cross-border business,” Sarita Singh, Stripe’s regional head and MD of Southeast Asia, Greater China and South Korea, tells Fortune. “There’s been a big push to find customers and grow outside of the home country.”

This marks a departure from the earlier playbook of most Asian firms, which Singh refers to as a “thoughtful but slower approach” to international expansion. “Businesses would first build for a local market,” she explains. “They would then iterate the product and methodically expand country-by-country, building........

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