26. Disrupting a mature industry with a digital solution: A conversation with Mlion’s Eric Leong

The CEO of a cutting-edge fintech explain how his start-up offers investment services once reserved for the ultra-wealthy to successful professionals. As the eight cofounders of Singapore-based Arta Finance got to know one other during their years together at Google, they recognized a massive market gap for investment services aimed people like themselves: successful professionals who were doing well, but not well enough to access top-tier financial services. With a total addressable market in the trillions, they decided to launch a fintech start-up offering these elite services at scale, using a digital platform powered by AI. The venture quickly attracted prominent investors and VC funding in excess of $92 million, is already doing business in the US, and will begin operating in Singapore by early 2024. Caesar Sengupta, CEO of Arta Finance, sat down with McKinsey’s Tomas Laboutka to discuss Arta’s mission to automate public market investing and provide access to alternative assets by offering clients the services of a digital private bank and family office.See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

The global coleader of Leap by McKinsey discusses the firm’s latest global survey, which finds that business leaders and investors are bullish on building new businesses. Despite ongoing economic uncertainty, businesses are increasingly enthusiastic about creating new ventures, according to McKinsey’s latest global survey on new-business building. More than 50 percent of surveyed CEOs cited new-business building as one of their top three priorities—unlike in the previous two years. And a majority of CFOs see business building as the single most likely strategic action on the corporate agenda. Investors are equally excited, valuing each dollar created in adjacent businesses at two times the rate of each one generated by the core business. In this episode of The Venture, Paul Jenkins, senior partner and global coleader of Leap by McKinsey, sat down with McKinsey’s Tomas Laboutka to discuss the survey’s findings, which include a priority on creating green and gen AI−related businesses, why the current climate favors incumbents, and the need to adopt a portfolio approach to corporate business building. See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

The CEO of a leading Southeast Asian steel distributor explains why he decided to launch a venture designed to reuse steel, reduce carbon emissions, and disrupt his core business. If the many infrastructure projects across Southeast Asia have a common denominator, it’s steel. And in just 12 years, Singapore-based Mlion has become the region’s largest supplier of steel material for the construction of roads, bridges, ports, waterways, and underground tunnels, with offices in Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Taiwan, and China. In 2021, Mlion launched GoListid, an online B2B steel marketplace designed to solve an industry-wide problem by allowing contractors to buy and sell used steel, saving money by eliminating the need to scrap it prematurely and reducing carbon emissions by prolonging its lifespan. Mlion chairman and CEO Eric Leong sat down with McKinsey’s Tomas Laboutka to discuss the creation of GoListid, why he thought it made sense to disrupt his core business, the importance of culture and talent, and his plans to eventually spin it off.See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

The founding partner of a Southeast Asian VC fund explains his company’s global ambitions to create economic opportunity, promote sustainability, and reduce carbon emissions. Human activity began altering the climate in the mid-19th century, when the industrial revolution began unleashing unprecedented amounts of carbon into the atmosphere. But an innovative new VC climate tech venture builder is trying to mitigate some of the ensuing catastrophic climate change with a laudable and lofty goal: reducing 10 percent of global carbon emissions by 2035. Wavemaker Impact plans to reach this goal by funding what it calls 100x100 companies, sustainability start-ups able to mitigate 100 megatons of emissions in 10 years while generating $100 million in revenue. Wavemaker Impact founding partner Steve Melhuish sat down with McKinsey’s Tomas Laboutka to discuss the genesis of the venture, why it chose Southeast Asia as the first of 15 global hubs, and why business model innovation is sometimes more important than technological innovation.See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

Cardiovascular disease remains the number one killer in every developed country, but only one in ten US patients with severe heart ailments received treatment in 2022. Egnite, a healthcare start-up, has ambitious plans to dramatically improve treatment of heart disease by harnessing the power of AI and big data to identify patients who fell through the cracks after being diagnosed. Egnite was spun out from Edwards Lifesciences, a California-based medical technology company, in early 2021. Egnite’s digital platform, CardioCare, steadily gained acceptance among clinicians, physicians, and hospitals, as the industry rapidly adopted new technology during the pandemic. Don Bobo, corporate vice president at Edwards, and Joel Portice, president and CEO of egnite, sat down with McKinsey’s Andrew Roth to discuss the CardioCare platform, the relationship between egnite and Edwards, and the lifesaving capabilities of AI and big data.See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

In this episode of The Venture, we share a conversation with Thomas Gros, CEO and cofounder of circulee, a Berlin-based distributor of pre-owned digital hardware. The German start-up provides smaller businesses with a green and cost-effective alternative to new IT devices, offering them professionally tested and warrantied hardware previously leased by large corporates. Gros sat down with McKinsey’s Tomas Laboutka to discuss the central importance of the circular business model, the challenges of pioneering a new business category, and the advantages of being backed by a corporate investor with a ready supply of high-quality, pre-owned devices.See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

In this episode of The Venture, we share a conversation with Brian Clark, chief product officer of Ascend Bit, a Bangkok start-up recently spun off from the Ascend Group, itself a part of Thailand’s C.P. Group.  Ascend Bit’s mandate is to leverage blockchain solutions on behalf of the group, focusing on applications for businesses and tokenization for consumers. Current efforts focus on productizing, loyalty, and gamification, with an emphasis on tokenizing non-traditional assets for consumers. Clark sat down with McKinsey’s Andrew Roth to discuss the challenges and promise of blockchain, smart contracts and Web3. At the close of the interview, McKinsey’s Dilip Mistry weighs in.See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

In this episode of The Venture, we share a conversation with Tirayu Songvetkasem, also known as Mac. He is the head of Maknet and chief digital officer of Siam Makro, the Thai branch of a multinational serving the hotel, restaurant, café and catering sector (HoReCa). Makro recently leveraged the mothership's market experience and network of partners to launch Maknet, an online marketplace that’s already Thailand’s leading B2B for food products and services. Songvetkasem sat down with McKinsey’s Tomas Laboutka to discuss Maknet’s mission to bridge the divide between start-ups and incumbents, its funnel-based approach to attracting talent, and the importance of always remaining agile and open to disruption. See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

In this episode of The Venture, we share a conversation with Oi-Yee Choo, CEO of ADDX, a full-service capital markets platform based in Singapore. The fintech start-up uses blockchain and smart contract technology to provide access to a range of securities previously unavailable to mass affluent investors. And in less than three years, ADDX’s innovative approach has managed to attract funding from some high-profile regional financial institutions. Oi-Yee sat down with McKinsey’s Andrew Roth to discuss ADDX’s mission to democratize investing, create a performance-based culture, and recent efforts to expand their customer base to financial enterprises as well. At the close of the interview, McKinsey Partner, Anutosh Banerjee weighs in.See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

In this episode of The Venture, we share a conversation with Moritz Hartmann, global head of Roche Information Solutions for Roche Diagnostics, one of the Swiss multinational’s two divisions. Adapting to constant technological change and disrupting via science has fueled the 125-year-old company’s longevity, which now uses digital tools and data science to provide insights, drive outcomes, and deliver personalized healthcare. Hartmann sat down with McKinsey’s Anand Swaminathan to explain his mission to innovate the company’s diagnostic solutions through the adoption of new technology, giving product teams the freedom to operate without interference from above, and never forgetting to let patient needs guide the business.See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information