Aspire Global

Aspire Global The finance stack for global businesses.

They weren’t born here, but they chose to build here.Together with Lightspeed and Deel, we honored 30 Global Founders To...
27/08/2026

They weren’t born here, but they chose to build here.

Together with Lightspeed and Deel, we honored 30 Global Founders To Watch who crossed borders to build in the US proving that stripping away inherited advantages forces you to adapt faster and lead with resilience.

This week, we're honored to spotlight Dirk Breeuwer, co-founder of Corvera (YC W26). Originally from Guatemala, Dirk understands the immense power of a hard reset.

HKSTP, Plug and Play, Airfoil Studio, and Aspire are teaming up for a startup pitch night with a twist: this one's a roa...
25/08/2026

HKSTP, Plug and Play, Airfoil Studio, and Aspire are teaming up for a startup pitch night with a twist: this one's a roast.

On 25 August, we're bringing founders, investors, and ecosystem leaders together for Ventures After Hours (Get Roasted!). Unfiltered, constructive feedback, sharp insights, and plenty of laughs. Whether you're stepping up to the mic or taking notes from the audience, you'll leave knowing exactly what makes investors tune in.

See you there!

ChatGPT still leads the way in startup client numbers across Asia but with Claude fast catching up, is a major shift und...
25/08/2026

ChatGPT still leads the way in startup client numbers across Asia but with Claude fast catching up, is a major shift underway in how founders actually spend on AI?

It's another key signal from Aspire's Startup Signals report, built from anonymised transaction data across 10,000+ businesses in Singapore and Hong Kong over 2 full fiscal years.

In this breakdown, you'll learn:

📌 How the rise of "AI stacking" is shifting startups from single-tool experiments to layered operational workflows
📌 Which platforms are capturing the highest spending power from technical founders and API-first builders
📌 Why specialized developer tools are exploding in popularity across key regional markets

Read the full story on Substack:

https://aspirefoundersxchange.substack.com/p/the-ai-race-in-asian-startups-is

Building across borders is one of the hardest journeys a founder can take. The banking, the visas, the incorporation, ev...
24/08/2026

Building across borders is one of the hardest journeys a founder can take. The banking, the visas, the incorporation, every step comes with new obstacles and rarely enough people who've done it to ask.

On 3 September, we're teaming up with Lighthouse HQ for Cross-Border Brunch in San Francisco, an invite-only afternoon for a small, curated group of founders navigating exactly these inflection points.

Seats are limited. Register here: https://luma.com/m8bjdj4w

Last week we hosted a CFOxchange session in Singapore on what adopting AI in the finance function actually takes, in hou...
24/08/2026

Last week we hosted a CFOxchange session in Singapore on what adopting AI in the finance function actually takes, in hours, in dollars, and in the things that break along the way.

Kieran Richards opened with how Aspire's own finance team uses AI in production today to cut manual close work.

Frederik Krass, Co-founder and COO of Zenyum, built on that with a candid view of where AI genuinely earns its place as a company scales, and where it turns into noise.

Sahil Sukhija, ASA (Aust.), CFO of Syfe, rounded it out with an honest account of what the automation work in his finance function actually cost his team, including the parts that didn't work.

The through-line: the room is well past "should we use AI" and firmly onto "how do we actually do this."

Blitzscaling is taking a back seat. Out of 80 profiles who took our Founder DNA Quiz over the past 2 weeks, one archetyp...
24/08/2026

Blitzscaling is taking a back seat.

Out of 80 profiles who took our Founder DNA Quiz over the past 2 weeks, one archetype emerged as the clear leader: the product purist (38.8%).

Meanwhile, traditional move-fast-and-break-things archetypes accounted for less than 10% of total submissions.

We analyzed what this data reveals about the modern day founder mindset.

Read the full breakdown on Substack: https://aspirefoundersxchange.substack.com/p/the-quiet-death-of-blitzscaling-understanding

They weren’t born here, but they chose to build here.Together with Lightspeed and Deel we honored 30 Global Founders To ...
20/08/2026

They weren’t born here, but they chose to build here.

Together with Lightspeed and Deel we honored 30 Global Founders To Watch who crossed borders to build in the US proving that stripping away inherited advantages forces you to adapt faster and lead with resilience.

This week, we're honored to spotlight Akshaya Srivatsa, founder of Maxima. Originally from India, Akshaya’s journey is a masterclass in grit.

See the full list here: https://aspireapp.com/us/30-global-founders-to-watch?utm_medium=social&utm_source=linkedin

The average startup's AI bill looks nothing like it did a year ago.LLM subscriptions, research tools, coding copilots, t...
19/08/2026

The average startup's AI bill looks nothing like it did a year ago.

LLM subscriptions, research tools, coding copilots, they've quietly become one of the biggest line items on the software budget. The tools that make your team faster shouldn't be the ones eating into your runway.

Aspire customers get 10% cashback on up to SG$10,000 in AI spend across their first 3 months, plus up to $500 on eligible vendors like OpenAI and Anthropic. Whether you're researching with Perplexity and Claude or shipping with Cursor and GitHub Copilot, more of that spend comes back to you.

Not every business has an AI expert sitting a few desks away.We do, so we sat down with Rachiket Arya, our Head of AI, t...
18/08/2026

Not every business has an AI expert sitting a few desks away.

We do, so we sat down with Rachiket Arya, our Head of AI, to answer some of the questions we get asked most about AI in finance: trust, accuracy, and whether it's actually doing anything beyond generating text.

Got a question on any topic, tech, AI, automation, or something else? Drop it in the comments. We've got experts across the team who can give you a real answer.

We're proud to have Singapore Global Network (SGN) as a Platinum sponsor of Founders Night 2026, coming up on 3 Septembe...
17/08/2026

We're proud to have Singapore Global Network (SGN) as a Platinum sponsor of Founders Night 2026, coming up on 3 September in Singapore.

Singapore Global Network brings together global talent, founders and changemakers around the world, a community that shares the spirit of a night celebrating those who dare to break orbit.

Register here: https://luma.com/y2lubnu1?utm_source=SGNPlat

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