This book is one of the first to analyze the development of private equity, to include venture capital and business angel investing in emerging Southeast Asian economies of Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, and China. The author analyzes the investment strategies of both types of private equity investors who face significant challenges when investing in emerging economies lacking the legal and financial institutions needed to support effective private equity investing. With the author’s detailed field research in Southeast Asia, as well as recent private equity research in China, you’ll learn about investment strategies (whether you’re a venture capitalist or business angel) in emerging markets. This investment strategy is based on significant networking that is used to build social capital, in-depth due diligence, and hands-on post-investment monitoring.

Backing the Bold is a primer on the venture capital industry, business, and profession in Southeast Asia. The goal of the book's thirteen chapters has initially been to guide students of the Insignia Ventures Academy — Asia's first experiential venture capital accelerator — in their exploration of the venture capital industry and profession, specifically in the context of Southeast Asia's startup ecosystem and from the perspective of Insignia Ventures and its portfolio founders.Rather than being a book in the traditional sense of the word, such an origin and context for Backing the Bold has inevitably made this book a dynamic piece of literature, continuously growing and improving thanks to every new group of people who become part of the VC accelerator — as organizers, mentors, or participants.Now in print and in distribution, this first edition is available for all as a snapshot of Backing the Bold's progress as a continuously evolving repository of insights, best practices, and frameworks. It is for readers of any background or motivation to gain a better understanding of the venture capital investment process, portfolio management, and profession in the context of Southeast Asia's fast-growing technology markets.

Silicon Valley has become shorthand for a globally acclaimed way to unleash the creative potential of venture capital, supporting innovation and creating jobs. In The Venture Capital State Robyn Klingler-Vidra traces how and why different states have adopted distinct versions of the Silicon Valley model. Venture capital seeks high rewards but is enveloped in high risk. The author’s deep investigations of venture capital policymaking in East Asian states (Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore) show that success does not reflect policymakers’ ability to replicate the Silicon Valley model. Instead, she argues, performance reflects their skill in adapting a highly lauded model to their local context. Policymakers are "contextually rational" in their learning; their context-rooted norms shape their preferences. The normative context for learning about policy—how elites see themselves and what they deem as locally appropriate—informs how they design their efforts. The Venture Capital State offers a novel conceptualization of rationality, bridging diametrically opposed versions of bounded and conventional rationality. This new understanding of rationality is simultaneously fully informed and context based, and it provides a framework by which analysts can bring domestic factors to the very heart of international diffusion of policy. Klingler-Vidra concludes that states have a visible hand in constituting even quintessentially neoliberal markets.