India cracked home services. Can SEA?

Southeast Asia’s home services firms face a trust test, and OpenAI doubles down on the region with the Sea deal.

Read from your browser Daily Newsletter Welcome to Tech in Asia's daily newsletter, your essential dose of Asia's tech and startup buzz. Subscribe to this newsletter or send story tips to editors@techinasia.com. Ensure our articles appear in your Google searches: IN FOCUS Why home services took off in India but not in SEA OpenAI doubling down on Southeast Asia with Sea partnership The Indian ecommerce playbook home services firms are seeking to follow Hello Betamax, I order groceries from quick commerce platforms in Bengaluru almost every day. But so far, I have never called for help via an at-home services platform. Firms like Urban Company and Snabbit promise instant access to trained workers ready to clean, cook, do laundry, or help with other household chores. In theory, it is the next logical step in the convenience economy. Yet, I cannot convince myself to use these services. The idea of a stranger entering my home and cleaning my living space still feels very different from having groceries dropped at my doorstep. Unlike me, though, many of my friends use such services every week. For them, outsourcing chores has become as normal as ordering dinner online. Our top story today explores why India has produced home services giants, while Southeast Asia has yet to see a comparable breakout success. Unlike food delivery or ride-hailing, home services are built on trust. The worker is not delivering a product - they are the product. And since every interaction happens inside a customer's home, mistakes seem far more personal and costlier. Can the at-home services category from India be replicated in Southeast Asia? Samreen Ahmad, journalist TOP STORY Help wanted: Can India's home services playbook work in SEA? India's large, fragmented, and largely unorganized home services market created an opportunity for platforms to train workers, standardize quality, and build trust at scale. In Southeast Asia, however, consumers often rely on referrals from family and friends to find service providers. That informal trust network has made it harder for venture-backed platforms to establish themselves in the region. Even companies like Gojek have struggled to make the category work. Some firms are betting that a specialized approach for verticals such as air conditioning or electric vehicle charger installations may work in Southeast Asia. THANK YOU FOR MAKING ASIA ECONOMIC SUMMIT 2026 POSSIBLE! One summit. Hundreds of connections. Countless contributions. On June 17, Asia Economic Summit 2026 brought together policymakers, investors, founders, corporate leaders, and innovators from across Southeast Asia at Fairmont Jakarta for a day of candid discussions on the forces shaping the region's future. These high-caliber conversations were made possible by the leaders who shared their perspectives, challenged assumptions, and contributed their expertise. To every delegate, speaker, moderator, and participant who joined us, thank you for helping create an environment where meaningful dialogue could take place. We would also like to extend our sincere appreciation to the organizations whose partnership helped bring Asia Economic Summit 2026 to life: AskLumia AWS FIS Global HCL Tech IDRX Lianhe Zaobao The Business Times The summit may have concluded, but the challenges and opportunities discussed on stage remain highly relevant for leaders across Southeast Asia. We hope the conversations started in Jakarta continue well beyond a single day and contribute to the decisions, partnerships, and actions that define the region's next chapter. From all of us at Tech in Asia, thank you for being part of Asia Economic Summit 2026. SPOTLIGHT OpenAI deepens its Southeast Asia play via Sea OpenAI's newly announced partnership with Sea offers another glimpse into how the AI company is expanding beyond chatbots and positioning itself as a core infrastructure provider for businesses across Asia. The collaboration will bring OpenAI's tech deeper into Sea's ecosystem. Shopee is now available on ChatGPT in Southeast Asian markets and Brazil. This means users can discover products through conversational prompts in ChatGPT before completing purchases on Shopee. OpenAI will also work with Sea to expand access to its products and engage developers through Codex, its AI coding agent. All in all, it's hard to see OpenAI as anything other than all-in on Southeast Asia. The move comes as the AI firm ramps up its presence in Singapore. As Tech in Asia reported earlier, OpenAI plans to grow its Singapore office headcount and sees the city-state as one of its largest regional bases. The Sea partnership also reflects a broader trend highlighted in our recent interview with Codex head Thibault Sottiaux. While startups were among the first adopters of AI coding agents, enterprises are increasingly becoming a major growth driver. A VISUAL STORY YOU SHOULDN'T MISS Follow the leader Funding for India's ecommerce sector has fallen steadily since the heady days of 2021, but food and groceries platforms still pulled in over US$537 million over the past 12 months. It appears investors are still backing platforms built around recurring home deliveries. That's the model home services wants to copy: Get consumers comfortable enough with a category that it becomes habitual. India's ecommerce players spent a decade building that habit, and home services may not be far behind. UNLOCK THE ROAD TO HYPERGROWTH WITH AI In collaboration with As organizations grow and build new products, so does their demand for computing power. 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CBTW - CBTW officially joins the Claude Partner Network, advancing AI-assisted software delivery in APAC: 650+ engineers targeted on Claude Code, creating a substantial cohort of Anthropic- certified engineers across APAC and Europe WHO'S HIRING You can post a job here or search for jobs here. Business Analyst at Gefami Services Indonesia | Jakarta, Indonesia Business Associate at Deliveree On-Demand Logistics (Southeast Asia) | Jakarta, Indonesia Junior Admin Helpdesk - Can Join Immediately at SIGMATECH | Jakarta, Indonesia ADVERTISE | SUBSCRIBE | HIRE | FIND JOBS P.S. Don't miss out on the biggest tech news and analysis. Add newsletter@techinasia.com to your address book, contacts, or safe sender list. Or simply move us into your inbox. Tech in Asia thanks our partners for supporting our newsletters. Sponsorship has no influence on editorial content. Too many emails? Switch to a different frequency or get new content through our preference center, or unsubscribe. 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