Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei Darussalam – February 11- 12, 2026 – The inaugural Brunei Startup Summit 2026 brought local and international startups, aspiring entrepreneurs, industry experts, and investors to catalyze growth, drive regional collaboration, and strengthen the innovation framework within Brunei Darussalam’s evolving ecosystem.
The summit brought together regional experts: Managing Director of KUMPUL, Oranuch “Mimee” Lerdsuwankij, CEO and Co-Founder of Techsauce, Cong Thang Huynh, CEO and Co-Founder of InnoLab Asia, Mega Prawita, Managing Director of KUMPUL, and Janessa Carlos, Director of Ecosystems and Innovation Programs of TechShake. Representing the ATLAS alliance, these leaders convened for a high-impact panel discussion titled “Expanding Beyond Borders: ASEAN Insights on Market Entry & Partnerships”
Mega Prawita, Managing Director of KUMPUL, highlighted that successful cross-border scaling is anchored in four dimensions of operational readiness: regulatory preparedness in navigating new markets, structured risk management and governance, operational discipline for cross-border execution, and the internal capacity to navigate multi-country complexities.
She detailed Indonesia’s strategic influence within the ASEAN innovation landscape, while emphasizing the startup ecosystem’s evolution and its potential to drive regional growth. Furthermore, Prawita emphasized that sustainable expansion lies on the foundation of long term trust-based partnerships, and building a strategic network across the ASEAN market that bridges founders to access regional platforms.
Oranuch (Mimee) Lerdsuwankij, CEO and Co-Founder of TechSauce, noted that Thailand’s Board of Investment (BOI) highlighted the aggressive efforts of Thailand’s Board of Investment (BOI) to draw in foreign capital through 100% ownership stakes and significant tax breaks for S-curve sectors like AgTech and BioTech However, she cautioned against direct-to-consumer plays, citing exorbitant customer acquisition costs urge incoming founders to pivot toward B2B2C models, as it leverages on the established retail networks’ infrastructure as opposed to building audience from scratch.
Cong Thang Huynh, Co-Founder and CEO of InnoLab Asia, outlined his approaches to cross-border expansion, including navigating the regulatory landscape within ASEAN, including market adaptation strategies and localization, talent development to strengthen regional growth, enabling sustainable scaling through partnership models, and ecosystem collaboration backed up by incentive frameworks. Huynh offered his insight on regional expansion, highlighting that it shifted its focus from “going global” to developing interdependent ecosystems that synchronize the flow of capital, talent, policy, and market access.
Janessa Carlos, Director of Ecosystems and Innovation Programs of TechShake, noted that while the Philippines is an easy market to enter because of its high English proficiency, along with its established $38 billion IT-BPM sector, the business model must be carefully adapted. She emphasized that success depends on restructuring the unit economics, as pricing models brought over from Singapore or Malaysia will fail unless they are adjusted to match the local market’s purchasing power
Navigating the diverse landscape of ASEAN requires a shift away from a universal playbook toward meticulous, hyper-local strategies. Successful expansion is fundamentally rooted in strategic local partnerships over one single approach. Ultimately, because the region is not a monolithic bloc, long-term growth depends on highly calibrated entry models tailored to each specific market.
