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rewrite this title in other words: Asia’s founders are spending more money on AI tools, with use of some coding tools increasing more than fourfold – in Etokom
Summarize this content to 100 words: Asia-Pacific’s latest generation of entrepreneurs is increasingly turning to artificial intelligence, with founders launching new AI startups and spending more on AI tools.
Spending on AI tools by founders rose 20% last year, according to an in-house study of over 37,000 regional SMEs by Singapore-based fintech firm Aspire.
“This signals a reallocation of capital toward efficiency,” explains Andrea Baronchelli, co-founder and CEO of Aspire. Luck. Usage of Anthropic’s cloud model tripled; Use of the AI-coding tool Cursor increased 4.2 times. “This shows that startups are now using AI not just for administrative tasks, but also to code and build their core products.”
Aspire’s study also reports growth in AI startups. According to Aspire data, thirty percent of new startups in Singapore were involved in AI. In the Chinese city of Hong Kong, the figure is even higher: two-thirds of new businesses by the end of 2025 came from the AI sector.
“There is a high level of institutional readiness in both economies, as well as a new breed of founders who are leaning into an environment of intense global competition and disruption,” he says. “It’s great to see so many APAC businesses embracing disruption rather than resisting it.”
Andrea Baronchelli began his career as an investment banker in London. But he soon became uneasy about working in systems “where the rules were fixed, inherited, and largely unquestioned”.
In 2012, Baronchelli took his first leap into entrepreneurship, moving to Hong Kong in 2012 to join the founding team of Asian e-commerce unicorn Lazada. He served as the platform’s Vietnam CEO from 2014 to 2015, before taking on the role of chief marketing officer until 2018, when Lazada was acquired by China’s Alibaba Group.
In 2018, with fellow entrepreneur Giovanni Cassinelli, Baronchelli founded Aspire, an “all-in-one” B2B fintech app that helps small business owners automate various financial processes like expense tracking and making cross-border payments to both employees and vendors. Today, from its base in Singapore, Aspire serves more than 50,000 SMEs in 16 countries, including eSIM provider Airlo, e-commerce firm Carousel and news website Tech in Asia.
The platform is also backed by top-tier investors globally, including US-based Y Combinator and PayPal, Chinese tech firm Tencent and the Southeast Asian consortium of VC firm Sequoia Capital.
“Fintech is fascinating. A new industry is being created right under our eyes and it’s very exciting to be able to capture that growth,” Baronchelli quipped.
Although he declined to divulge exact numbers, Baronchelli says the platform has achieved an average of 50% growth year-over-year – a figure he hopes to maintain.
Growing confidence in fintech apps, including personal finance and investment apps like Sify, StashAway, and Endovus, has also fueled the growth of enterprise-focused apps like Aspire. “We’re definitely seeing confidence building in the industry,” Baronchelli says.
While its core markets are “tier one” cities in the Asia-Pacific region, Aspire announced its intention to move westward last December after obtaining licenses to operate in the US, Australia and Europe.
“We want to be right where new businesses are created,” Baronchelli quipped. “This represents the biggest opportunity for us – businesses that want to try new things, that are early adopters of technology – we want to be close to them.”
Asia-Pacific’s latest generation of entrepreneurs is increasingly turning to artificial intelligence, with founders launching new AI startups and spending more on AI tools.
Spending on AI tools by founders rose 20% last year, according to an in-house study of over 37,000 regional SMEs by Singapore-based fintech firm Aspire.
“This signals a reallocation of capital toward efficiency,” explains Andrea Baronchelli, co-founder and CEO of Aspire. Luck. Usage of Anthropic’s cloud model tripled; Use of the AI-coding tool Cursor increased 4.2 times. “This shows that startups are now using AI not just for administrative tasks, but also to code and build their core products.”
Aspire’s study also reports growth in AI startups. According to Aspire data, thirty percent of new startups in Singapore were involved in AI. In the Chinese city of Hong Kong, the figure is even higher: two-thirds of new businesses by the end of 2025 came from the AI sector.
“There is a high level of institutional readiness in both economies, as well as a new breed of founders who are leaning into an environment of intense global competition and disruption,” he says. “It’s great to see so many APAC businesses embracing disruption rather than resisting it.”
Andrea Baronchelli began his career as an investment banker in London. But he soon became uneasy about working in systems “where the rules were fixed, inherited, and largely unquestioned”.
In 2012, Baronchelli took his first leap into entrepreneurship, moving to Hong Kong in 2012 to join the founding team of Asian e-commerce unicorn Lazada. He served as the platform’s Vietnam CEO from 2014 to 2015, before taking on the role of chief marketing officer until 2018, when Lazada was acquired by China’s Alibaba Group.
In 2018, with fellow entrepreneur Giovanni Cassinelli, Baronchelli founded Aspire, an “all-in-one” B2B fintech app that helps small business owners automate various financial processes like expense tracking and making cross-border payments to both employees and vendors. Today, from its base in Singapore, Aspire serves more than 50,000 SMEs in 16 countries, including eSIM provider Airlo, e-commerce firm Carousel and news website Tech in Asia.
The platform is also backed by top-tier investors globally, including US-based Y Combinator and PayPal, Chinese tech firm Tencent and the Southeast Asian consortium of VC firm Sequoia Capital.
“Fintech is fascinating. A new industry is being created right under our eyes and it’s very exciting to be able to capture that growth,” Baronchelli quipped.
Although he declined to divulge exact numbers, Baronchelli says the platform has achieved an average of 50% growth year-over-year – a figure he hopes to maintain.
Growing confidence in fintech apps, including personal finance and investment apps like Sify, StashAway, and Endovus, has also fueled the growth of enterprise-focused apps like Aspire. “We’re definitely seeing confidence building in the industry,” Baronchelli says.
While its core markets are “tier one” cities in the Asia-Pacific region, Aspire announced its intention to move westward last December after obtaining licenses to operate in the US, Australia and Europe.
“We want to be right where new businesses are created,” Baronchelli quipped. “This represents the biggest opportunity for us – businesses that want to try new things, that are early adopters of technology – we want to be close to them.”
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