Aaron Sarma · Operator, Investor & Keynote Speaker

About

I started Touristly, a regional travel-experiences platform, in 2015. AirAsia acquired it in 2017, and I stayed to help build what came next: the AirAsia Superapp (now AirAsia Move), where I was founding COO and a founding board member.

Since then I’ve backed founders and co-built with corporates. ScaleUp Malaysia, which I co-founded in 2019, has invested in 36 Southeast Asian companies, with two exits so far. Remote Ventures, co-founded a year later, co-creates new businesses with corporate partners.

In 2023 I went inside again, this time at Gentari, Petronas’s clean energy arm, where I’ve been part of developing digital strategy in the clean energy industry and building Gentari Go: an EV charging platform launched from zero that now connects drivers to more than 18,000 charge points across Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and India.

Today I split my time between operating, investing, and speaking. Based in Kuala Lumpur, usually somewhere else in the region.

Aaron Sarma seated by a window overlooking Kuala Lumpur

How to work with me

Speaking

I speak at conferences, corporate offsites, and university programs across Southeast Asia. Three talks I’m currently giving:

The Inside Game. Some of the best innovations aren’t built in garages. They’re built inside boardrooms, airlines, and energy companies. This talk is for people who want to change their organisations from within and need a playbook to do it.
Entrepreneurial Mindsets. Entrepreneurship isn’t a job title. It’s a way of seeing the world. Drawing on experience as a founder, investor, and venture builder, this talk gives audiences three principles for thinking and acting like an entrepreneur wherever they sit.
Disruption and the Future of Work. Every profession has survived disruption before. The question is whether you’re the one adapting or the one being replaced. This talk maps what AI and digital adoption mean for the way we work and what to do about it.

Recently spoken at

Axiata Khazanah Founders Wild Digital AACSB Asia Pacific Worldline QuickBooks Arival Techsauce e27 Tech in Asia TEDx

Start a conversation about speaking

Build with us

Remote Ventures co-creates new businesses with corporate partners. Five ventures launched so far, each with a corporate co-founder.

Invest in the portfolio

ScaleUp Malaysia is an accelerator and early-stage fund I co-founded in 2019, with close to forty portfolio companies. We help them raise and exit; if you’re looking for dealflow in Southeast Asia, start here.

Enter Malaysia

Tech Malaysia Advocates is the Malaysia chapter of Global Tech Advocates. We help international tech companies land in market and plug into the local ecosystem.

Partnerships

Forty-odd portfolio companies, two venture studios, one ecosystem. Where there’s a clear fit, I’ll make the introduction.

Start a conversation about partnerships