Singapore tech firm survives China to return to Asean

DOING business in China's ultra-competitive tech sector for over three decades has cultivated an "eat or be-eaten" mindset in Singapore-based tech firm ADERA.

With ambitions for an initial public offering down the road, ADERA has now trained its attention on the potential in South-east Asia, as financial institutions and government agencies here ramp up digital services to bring more into the financial system, said a senior executive.

As it is, ADERA's survival instinct has been honed from quickly shifting from its cushy card manufacturing business into secured data handling and digital automation.