Asia After Five — Tech in ASEAN
Description
About the event
The Asia New Zealand Foundation Te Whītau Tūhono and the University of Auckland warmly invite you to join us for an evening of stories and insights from a group of Southeast Asian tech entrepreneurs visiting Aotearoa New Zealand as part of the Foundation’s ASEAN Young Business Leaders Initiative (YBLI) programme.
The delegation of nine entrepreneurs will meet with tech businesses in Auckland and Christchurch before concluding their visit, where they will attend the New Zealand HiTech Awards Gala—one of the country's largest celebrations of innovation and cutting-edge technology.
At the Auckland Asia After Five event, the entrepreneurs will share stories about their companies, offer insights into their tech industries in their home countries and share their impressions of New Zealand so far. The entrepreneurs are from countries including Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam & Timor Leste.
The event will feature an Asia-focused panel discussion, along with time to meet and connect with other attendees.
Event details:
Date/time: Monday, 18 May 2026, 5:30pm - 7:00pm
Venue: Unleash Space, 20 Symonds Street, Auckland, CBD
Tickets are limited, so get in quick! Please RSVP by Sunday, 17 May 2026, for catering purposes.
Lineup
Rothsethamony Seng
Founder & CEO, Bamnang Academy Mony is a social entrepreneur and digital education advocate working at the intersection of student housing, digital inclusion, and youth leadership. As co‑founder and CEO of Bamnang, an international student super app, she helps students access safe and affordable housing, mentorship, guidance on university majors, scholarships, and career opportunities across Southeast Asia and beyond. She holds a second master’s degree in education policy and analysis, with a concentration in global, international, and comparative education, from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, while cross‑registering at MIT Sloan School of Management, Harvard Business School, and Harvard Kennedy School.
Kasper Tanakrit Sermsuksan
Founder, SEA Bridge Kasper is a serial entrepreneur, venture builder, and entrepreneurship educator with a career spanning Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Singapore, and Jakarta. He founded SEA Bridge in 2018 to help entrepreneurs and family business successors build and scale ventures across Southeast Asia and beyond. His professional background includes roles at Deloitte, Sony Pictures, Amazon, and Product Madness, and co-founding Kulina, a food-tech startup in Indonesia. He is a Visiting Lecturer in Global Entrepreneurship at Chulalongkorn University's Faculty of Engineering and serves on the boards of the Thai Startup Association, Bangkok Metropolitan Administration, and Thai Chamber of Commerce. He is also the author of The Startup Mindset. Kasper is an ASEAN-Australia Young Leader (2025, Top 30), Swedish Institute Impact Pioneer (2025), Prestige 40 Under 40 Indonesia, Alibaba/UNCTAD eFounder Fellow (2019), and Google Blackbox Scholar (2018). His life mission is simple: unlocking people's potential.
Shenny Tang
Innov8 Labs is Brunei's first digital capability centre, specialising in cybersecurity, AI, and emerging technologies - offering both advisory services and capability building programs to organizations and talent in Brunei, with ambitions to grow into a regional capability centre for Borneo and Southeast Asia. Through exclusive partnerships with global certification bodies, including ISACA and EXIN, Innov8 Labs is building Brunei's pipeline of future-ready digital talent. As Head of Growth, Shenny leads business development, strategic partnerships, and workforce capability programs. Her background spans over a decade in subsea cable, telecommunications, and technology across the APAC region. Her focus is now closer to home - Brunei's market and its people. Her focus is simple: Brunei's people need to be as future-ready as its ambitions.
Ana Paula Da Costa Xavier
Paula is CEO of Similie. a Timor-Leste–based technology company leading climate resilience through its Early Warning System, a nationally recognised solution designed and maintained by Timorese engineers, providing real-time data for disaster preparedness and flood monitoring across multiple municipalities. As CEO, Paula leads Similie's mission to deliver digital infrastructure and resilience solutions for local communities, businesses, and supply chains. Paula's background spans over 12 years in technology and development, running digital programmes and co-founding The Academy — Timor-Leste's first digital and technology school — before turning her focus to building climate resilience solutions. She has led women's entrepreneurship and SME programmes with partners including GIZ, The Asia Foundation, and Hivos, and holds a Bachelor of Chemical Engineering from the University of Queensland. Her focus is now connecting technology and communities to build a resilient, data-driven Timor-Leste.
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