At BEYOND Expo 2026 in Macao this past May, two venture capital leaders offered a clear view of where robotics, artificial intelligence, and global startup culture were heading. Akio Tanaka, partner at Headline, and Magnus Grimeland, founder and CEO of Antler, spoke about the forces reshaping Asia’s innovation landscape.
Tanaka came from Japan’s industrial and software lineage, having started his career as a developer before moving into venture capital. His perspective was shaped by Japan’s manufacturing legacy and long history of exporting technology to global markets. Grimeland, by contrast, built Antler after a career that spanned McKinsey, global company‑building, and years spent inside Asia’s most aggressive startup environments.
Their insights revealed a region moving faster than its global peers, driven by industrial urgency, intense founder culture, and a new wave of cross‑border ambition. Both investors agreed on one point: Asia is setting the pace.
Robotics and AI Shift From Spectacle to Utility
Tanaka said robotics and AI had overtaken earlier waves of hype. He noted that the most valuable work was not happening in humanoid demonstrations or viral videos. It was happening in factories, warehouses, and hospitals. Japan’s aging population made the need obvious. “We needed robots to do boring things,” said Tanaka. “Factory operations. Warehouse sorting. Repetitive tasks. These were easier to achieve and far more urgent.”
He added that Japan’s advantage came from necessity. Labor shortages were severe. Industrial processes were aging. Companies needed automation that worked today, not a decade from now.
Regulation shaped the landscape as well. Tanaka said the world no longer operated as a free market for advanced robotics. Full humanoid systems faced export restrictions. Components did not. “The U.S. might not be able to buy complete humanoid robots anymore,” Tanaka noted. “But no one said we could not buy robot arms.”
He argued that component‑level innovation would define the next phase of global collaboration. It allowed companies to work across borders without violating sanctions or data‑sovereignty rules. The future of robotics would be modular, practical, and deeply industrial.
Japan’s Startup Mindset Turns Global Again
For years, Japan’s startup ecosystem focused inward, but that mindset finally shifted. Tanaka pointed to Japan’s historic giants like Sony, Nintendo, Toyota, and Honda. All earned most of their revenue overseas. “It was never in Japan’s DNA to build a domestic business,” said Tanaka. “Founders only recently rediscovered the global path.”
Post‑pandemic, he saw more international founders setting up in Tokyo and more Japanese founders building for global markets. He cited one portfolio company led by a Japanese and non‑Japanese co‑CEO team. That mix, he said, doubled cultural value and improved success odds.
Tanaka also emphasized the importance of cofounder teams. Complementary skills mattered, but shared resilience mattered more. “Companies with two or three cofounders with equal stakes always beat solo founders,” he said.
Japan’s liquidity environment helped. Compared with Southeast Asia, Japan offered deeper public markets and more predictable exits. Tanaka said this attracted international investors and gave founders more confidence to scale.
Also Read: BEYOND Expo Is Bridging Asia’s Tech Borders
Asia’s Work Culture Becomes a Competitive Weapon
While Tanaka focused on structure and strategy, Grimeland focused on speed. He said Asia’s work culture, especially in China, created an advantage the rest of the world struggled to match. He described early visits to ByteDance with “a thousand AI engineers partially sleeping in the office.”
He argued that early‑stage companies needed this level of commitment. It was almost required. He pointed to Google, Facebook, Tesla, and SpaceX. All had founders and teams living in their offices during their formative years. “You needed to optimize the number of efficient hours you put into building your business,” said Grimeland.
He acknowledged the culture was not sustainable forever. Once a company reached scale, founders had options. They could step back or they could slow down, once they had earned that freedom. Grimeland said the reason most startups failed was simple. People underestimated the work.
“Unless you got there, you did not have a choice,” Grimeland insisted.
Mobility and Healthcare Stand at the Edge of Reinvention
When asked which sectors looked stable but were ready for disruption, Grimeland pointed to mobility and logistics. He said the world still relied almost entirely on human drivers. “Every product in the world had been in a truck or on a boat,” said Grimeland. “All of that is going to change.”
He cited a Chinese company operating 25,000 driverless vans. The scale was larger than the rest of the world combined. China’s regulatory environment made it possible while its supply chain made it affordable.
Healthcare came next. Grimeland said regulatory changes during the pandemic accelerated drug development and broadened access. He believed nearly all diseases considered untreatable today would be manageable within a decade. He also pointed to the lower end of the healthcare spectrum. Millions still lacked access to basic treatment. “Technology could close that gap,” said Grimeland
Tanaka agreed that mobility and logistics were entering a period of rapid change, but he framed the shift through Japan’s industrial lens. He said the most transformative technologies were not the ones grabbing headlines. Tanaka said Japan’s aging workforce required disrupting the boring parts of society. “We did not need robots to do amazing things,” said Tanaka. “We needed them to do the things no one else wanted to do.”
Backing People, Not Ideas
Both investors agreed that founder quality mattered more than business models. Grimeland described his framework as spike, drive, and grit. A spike was an exceptional ability. Drive was ambition. Grit was resilience. “If the founders were incredible and the business model was stupid, we still backed the team,” said Grimeland. “If the idea was great but the team was wrong, we never backed them.”
He said early‑stage investing was about identifying people who could outlearn, outwork and out‑pivot their competitors.
He pointed to companies that pivoted into success. Twitch, Slack, YouTube and even ChatGPT all began as something else entirely. To Grimeland, that was the point. The right founders would find the right business, even if they had to reinvent themselves along the way.
Tanaka echoed the sentiment from a different angle. He said he looked for teams with complementary strengths, shared ownership and international experience. Solo founders, he said, faced a harder path in moments of pressure. “I preferred a team,” said Tanaka. “It was a lot easier if you had a capable team to take on challenges than a single person.”
He added that the strongest founding groups were those that blended backgrounds and perspectives, especially when building for global markets. He looked for teams with complementary strengths and international experience. Solo founders faced a harder path. “It was a lot easier if you had a capable team to take on challenges than a single person.” warned Tanaka.
Asia’s Next Decade Will Be Built by Technologists
Tanaka began his career as a developer, long before he entered venture capital. That background shaped his view of where power in the global economy was shifting. He believed the century belonged to technologists, citing the rise of NVIDIA, Microsoft and Google as proof. “This already became the century for geeks,” said Tanaka. “You never thought companies like that would be the top market‑cap companies, but here we are.”
Both investors said Asia was positioned to lead that transformation. Japan brought decades of industrial engineering and manufacturing discipline. China brought speed, scale and a work culture that pushed products out at a pace the rest of the world struggled to match. Southeast Asia brought demographic momentum and expanding consumer markets. Together, they formed a region capable of building global companies faster than any previous generation.
Tanaka said Japan’s strengths aligned naturally with the next wave of industrial AI. Grimeland said China’s regulatory environment and supply chain advantages allowed entire sectors to leapfrog Western incumbents. Both agreed that the founders who would define the next decade were the ones who built across borders, embraced automation and worked with the intensity required to reach scale. The world will follow the momentum coming out of Asia.
