The View From APAC

As the only data platform with the power to transact, analyze and search in real time, our product and our people are truly expanding the limits of what’s possible to achieve with data.

I love every chance I get to see that in action. Last month, I made a whirlwind trip through Singapore and India — two countries that are committed to driving tech innovation.

As you may know, Singapore has positioned itself as a Smart Nation, pledging to invest more than 1 billion Singapore dollars ($771 million) over the next five years to further boost its AI capabilities. Likewise in March 2024, the Indian government approved a 103 billion rupee ($1.25 billion) investment in AI projects — including funding AI startups and developing public-sector AI applications.

SingleStore shares that bullishness. During my trip, we unveiled some investments of our own, including an accelerator program for AI startups in the Asia Pacific region and a new AI Center of Excellence in Hyderabad. Steps like these are our way of ensuring AI lives up to its much-vaunted potential and benefits people in every part of the world.

This trip was a homecoming of sorts for me. Though I was born and raised in India, it’s been many years since I've been back. I found it inspiring to get an up-close view of all the ways technology is transforming the lives of millions — and gratifying to see how SingleStore is speeding the pace of progress.

After all, this trip was about more than announcements and openings; we also wanted to make connections and spark ideas. To foster such conversations, we hosted gatherings with regional thought leaders, including events for founders and for Chief Experience Officers at top SaaS businesses.

In Singapore, our theme was achieving real-time AI over frozen data. Anurag Srivastava, founding partner of Jungle Ventures, was our guest of honor as we discussed how to unlock the $20 trillion market opportunity that AI represents.

In India, founders focused on how Indian startups can leverage the power of real-time AI. We heard from leaders at companies like Factors.Ai, Sify Digital Services Limited, 6Sense,6D Technologies, HPCL and Freshworks. A personal highlight was my fireside chat with Shradha Sharma, the CEO of YourStory.

I’ve included some photos from these and other events.

With so much activity, it’s easy to forget that SingleStore only entered the APAC region in 2017.  The world has changed immensely in the past seven years, and now, with generative AI, the opportunities are endless. I love to see this progress playing out in the place where my own story began: Asia. And I’m proud that SingleStore is helping this region reach its goal of becoming a major center of AI development.