“Responsible tech” is a hotly debated topic in the US and Europe, but less so in Asia. Our annual survey of Asia headquartered PE Funds reveals that many require their portfolio companies to apply responsible tech, but also that for many respondents “responsible tech” is synonymous with data privacy and cybersecurity. This narrow approach misses one of the key benefits of the concept of responsible tech—the ability to mitigate business risk in novel areas where regulatory approaches have not yet coalesced. In this podcast, we discuss the concept of responsible tech and illustrate this with practical examples already implemented by Asian companies. We discuss how PE funds can factor responsible tech into their investment decisions and the management of their portfolio companies.
To download the full Asia Funds ESG Report 2023 or listen to the Asia sustainability puzzle podcast series, visit the report page.