Rachel Lau of RHL Ventures on the kind of thinking that allows innovation

(L-R) RHL Ventures Partners Lionel Leong, Rachel Lau, and Raja-Hamzah

Rachel Lau has been actively contributing in our e27 contributor channel platform since the beginning of COVID-19’s physical distancing back in March 2020. Her first contribution shone a light on the edutech startups in the time of what would be a global pandemic.

Her recent one, just published on Thursday, posed a question on why the Philippines’ economy couldn’t rely solely on technology despite being one of the biggest markets in Southeast Asia.

Lau is the Managing Partner at RHL Ventures, a Southeast Asia-based private investment firm that focusses on growth capital investments in Southeast Asia and the US region.

Previously, Lau was the Vice President at Heitman Investment Management in Hong Kong and Australia. Lau helped manage US$4 billion of global long-only and absolute return equity strategies, focussed on the APAC region. Prior to this, Lai worked as an investment analyst with Dutch investment manager NN Investment Management, which manages US$225 billion

How tech has changed during her time

Lau shares her time in the tech industry with e27, since her comeback three years ago.

“I think it has changed tremendously over the last three years. At that time, it was more focussed around marketing, and now, even pre-COVID-19, there’s a lot of emphasis on the company’s sustainability and margins, which is a good thing and I really like it,” she shares.

“And also, I think, there’s a lot of maturity coming from investors, them being more involved in the ecosystem and building it, instead of just being invested in a company,” she adds, on her overall view of how the tech industry has changed so far.

Also Read: How the Coronavirus is teaching edutech startups a much-needed lesson

On writing

With nine contribution articles on e27 and counting over the course of five months, we’re curious of what inspired Lau to write and actively share her thoughts.

“I like to keep it topical. Like during COVID-19 time, it’s mostly about how COVID-19 affects the industry or a certain sector that I’m inspired to write about,” she explains.

She then shared further examples, stating how we now have to work from home instead of from the office as one of the interesting topics to explore, and the polar opposite of the more relaxed topic, like supply chain stuff, where the industry saw a lot of issues in production and how it is delivered to the consumer.

She also shared that she’s especially intrigued to explore on how the world now is in shifts thanks to the US-China trade war. “Southeast Asia is literally in the middle. Like, I’m Chinese but I work with the US, so that’s also an interesting topic that I like to talk about,” Lau adds.

“At the end, I think it’s necessary to think about what happens in our surrounding dictates how we react, which is also true in how we treat our investment at RHL Ventures as well,” Lau concludes.

Thought leadership

With e27 striving to become the platform for thought leaders to contribute and become the voice of the tech ecosystem in Southeast Asia, Lau also shares about her take on the whole thought leadership thing.

“I think thought leadership is someone who’s not afraid of welcoming new ideas and is willing to try the alternative to the norms, which is good for us (as an investor), right?” she says.

Also Read: RHL Ventures launches accelerator programme for startups in emerging technologies in Malaysia

“I don’t feel the need to write about what’s widely accepted and I kinda like the fact that people don’t like what is widely accepted, and therefore become extremely different from what we normally have and seek. I think that’s what thought leaders are,” she adds.

Lau emphasises on the need to set yourself apart as a thought leader, or otherwise, there will be no innovation. “You need to be dared to be different to change the status quo,” she says.

Lau thinks that writing can be a tool to become a thought leader, but not necessarily limited to that. Choosing e27 as one of the platforms where she regularly shares her views surrounding the tech ecosystem, however, has been a great experience, she admits.

“The visibility has been great. Like, someone from LinkedIn would occasionally say to me ‘Hey I read your article on the Vietnam stuff and I think it’s great”, and it’s nice to get that kind of message. I think the contributor channel has the right exposure from the right target audiences, which also becomes a challenge to me to write to the right target audiences,” she shares.

“If you’ve been wanting to contribute, you know, just start writing, you never know where it may take you,” she said.

Eyes on Indonesian logistics and micro landscape

As an active investor in Southeast Asia’s startup, Lau shares that RHL Ventures is now heavily focussed on building the infrastructure for the e-commerce space in Indonesia. “Which put us in perspective to really take a look at the logistics sector of the country. Because e-commerce is great, but it’s even more important to keep it going, and so we’re looking at that now,” she says

Besides that, Lau also shared that the sector and in this case -topics- that has been capturing her attention has a lot to do with understanding the micro landscape.

Also Read: Why technology alone will not save the Filipino economy

“Things like the individual impact between US and China war, and how China is really coming up with its huge edge in terms of hardware, and in the dawn of 5G network, there might be a Chinese company that comes to take over the whole thing, you know?” she says.

Down at RHL Ventures, the VC also does a little more digging on that. “We also take an interest in the education sector. It’s interesting to watch what will happen in this sector next,” she adds.

Final thoughts

Her latest contribution post on how the Philippines’s tech advancement isn’t enough to save its economy may best summarise what it’s like on her mind, and where it may take her next: the impact the global issues may bring to Southeast Asia’s tech scene and society as a whole.

“I think, to some extent, COVID-19 forces a reverse mobilisation, whereas you know the US is trying to force foreign students out of the country, which means well-versed people coming back to where they’re originally from with skills they gained having lived in the US, I wonder would that mean we’ll have better talents and well-equipped people where they’re supposed to. These questions are what intrigued me,” she says.

Taking an example from how Malaysia has less diversity in terms of its governance of management, Lau is convinced that this shows how people are not so accepting of diversity after all. “There are issues like Black Lives Matter and the US-China war. It might not be so much of a technological and innovation issue, but it’s necessary because to have a look into in navigating the tech industry as well, simply because it’s tricky times,” she closes.

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Image Credit: RHL Ventures

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