Most companies that win at home stumble the moment they cross a border. The systems crack, the culture does not translate, and the early trust evaporates.
Kashif Ansari has spent years avoiding that trap. As Co-Founder and Group CEO of Juwai IQI, he helped grow a six-person idea into a technology-enabled real estate group operating across Southeast Asia, the Middle East and beyond.
In a recent interview, he shared how that happened, what AI is doing to the business now, and where he believes smart money is heading.
Key Takeaway
- Kashif Ansari built Juwai IQI to be global from day one.
- His scaling playbook rests on three ideas: design for scale before growth arrives, stay agile enough to absorb local culture, and treat AI as core infrastructure rather than a search box.
- He sees Southeast Asia, led by Malaysia, Vietnam and Indonesia, as the defining growth story of the next decade.
Table of contents
- Who is Kashif Ansari, and what is Juwai IQI?
- Why do companies fail when they expand internationally?
- How is AI changing the way businesses scale?
- The bigger picture beyond IQI
- Why does Kashif Ansari say “Asia is more than China”?
- What are the top three Asian markets to watch?
- What does this mean for real estate and property investors?
- Lessons for founders and professionals scaling globally
- FAQS
Who is Kashif Ansari, and what is Juwai IQI?
Kashif Ansari is the Co-Founder and Group CEO of Juwai IQI, a property technology and real estate group that connects buyers, sellers, developers and agents across multiple countries. The company name comes from IQI, short for International Quality Investment. The “international” was deliberate.
As Ansari explains, six founders set out to change how the real estate industry works, with a clear plan to go global from the very beginning. That ambition sounds obvious in hindsight. At the time, it meant a handful of people declaring global intent while still being unknown in their own market. Kashif points to two foundations.
The first is background. The founding team came from corporate roles with international exposure, so the mechanics of operating across markets were familiar.
The second is the platform itself. He argues that most property platforms serve a single party, either the agent or the buyer. IQI was built to connect the full chain: developer, investor, buyer and agent.
But the part he emphasises most is culture. The company invested heavily in building a strong local culture first, then carried that DNA into each new market.
To be global, we built quite hard on our local culture, which is the DNA of IQI, and then transformed this into the global setup.
How do you build a company that is global from day one?
Why do companies fail when they expand internationally?
This is where Kashif is most direct. He has watched many strong local businesses break the moment they try to scale across borders. His first warning is about readiness. Build a scalable product before you need it, not after.
Imagine growth suddenly jumps. If your servers buckle and you fail customers during that first surge, the trust is gone, and you are out. In his words, if you want to go big, be ready. His second warning is about flexibility. Founders often guard a single, rigid vision. He argues that the opposite wins abroad.
Being agile means understanding local culture, local ethics and the local way of doing business, then merging that with your system. That blend, he says, is what creates a durable platform.
How is AI changing the way businesses scale?
Kashif is unambiguous here. He believes AI is not a five-year story, but a two to three-year one, with something new arriving almost daily. For IQI, the impact shows up first in language and research.
Entering a new market once meant heavy manual analysis of areas, products and demand. Much of that now happens at the click of a button. The sharper example is outbound work. He describes AI handling calls and booking appointments at a volume no single person could match, so agents wake up to qualified meetings and focus on closing.
He puts a number on it, attributing a roughly 60 percent increase in sales to AI. He frames that as a headline figure from inside the business rather than an audited statistic, so treat it as directional. His warning for everyone else is blunt.
Still, people see AI as a Google search engine.
The advantage, he argues, goes to those who learn how AI actually works and build it into their workflow, not those who use it like a search bar.
The bigger picture beyond IQI
That view lines up with the macro trend. One 2025 analysis cited by regional press estimated that AI adoption could contribute between 13 and 18 percent of Southeast Asia’s GDP by the end of the decade, reshaping how businesses operate and how households access services.
In other words, IQI’s bet on AI is an early version of a shift the whole region is moving toward.
Want to build a real estate career in a company that scales with AI? IQI agents work across borders with technology that does the heavy lifting, so they can focus on people and deals.
Why does Kashif Ansari say “Asia is more than China”?
Ask most people about Asia and they think of China. Kashif’s core message is that the region is far bigger than that single story.
He points to Southeast Asia, the ASEAN bloc, where IQI is most active. The grouping is home to more than 680 million people, with high mobile and internet penetration and a young, fast-urbanising middle class.
The economic momentum backs him up. The region’s digital economy is widely projected to grow from roughly US$300 billion today towards about US$1 trillion by 2030, with some forecasts pointing higher if a regional digital trade pact is implemented.
The World Economic Forum has gone further, projecting that ASEAN could become the world’s fourth-largest economy by 2030. That is the canvas Kashif is pointing at.
What are the top three Asian markets to watch?
Kashif names three countries where IQI is most confident. Each represents a different entry point into the region’s growth.
1. Malaysia: the quiet semiconductor and data centre hub
Malaysia is his first pick, and the data explains why. The country handles around 13 percent of the world’s chip assembly, testing and packaging, according to the Malaysian Investment Development Authority.
That backbone is attracting fresh capital. Intel is investing more than US$7 billion in a Penang facility, while global names including Microsoft, Google and Nvidia have committed to data centres and chip-related expansion.
The scale of digital investment is striking. Between 2021 and the end of 2024, Malaysia secured around RM278 billion in digital investments, with a large share directed at data centre projects, much of it concentrated in Johor next to Singapore.
The new Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone deepens that link. When Singapore needs room to grow, Malaysia is the natural neighbour, which is part of why investment keeps flowing across the causeway.
2. Vietnam: the manufacturing powerhouse
Vietnam is the second bet, and its numbers are hard to ignore. The country posted around 8 percent GDP growth in 2025, one of the strongest rates among major emerging markets, according to Vietnam’s General Statistics Office.
Foreign direct investment remains resilient and manufacturing-led. Global electronics giants such as Samsung, LG, Foxconn and Intel have built deep production bases there, with Samsung alone accounting for a large slice of national exports.
For founders and investors, Vietnam offers proximity to Chinese suppliers without the same political exposure, plus a dense network of free trade agreements. That combination keeps it near the centre of global supply chain shifts.
3. Indonesia: scale, youth and the EV battery play
Indonesia rounds out the list. With a population of around 280 million, a young demographic and rapid urbanisation, the consumer base alone is enormous.
Its standout industrial story is nickel. Indonesia is the world’s largest nickel producer, a critical input for electric vehicle batteries, and it banned raw ore exports to force value-added processing at home.
That strategy has pulled in major investment across the EV supply chain, from nickel processing to battery cell plants involving global automakers and battery makers. Indonesia wants to own the chain from mineral to finished battery.
Malaysia, Vietnam and Indonesia at a glance
| Market | Core strength | Why it matters |
| Malaysia | Semiconductors and data centres | Around 13 percent of global chip assembly, testing and packaging, with major AI infrastructure investment near Singapore. |
| Vietnam | Export manufacturing | Around 8 percent GDP growth in 2025, with a deep electronics production base and strong FDI. |
| Indonesia | Scale and EV batteries | Around 280 million people, with the world’s largest nickel producer building an integrated battery supply chain. |
What does this mean for real estate and property investors?
The thread connecting all of this is people and capital moving into the region. Semiconductor fabs, data centres and battery plants do not exist in isolation.
They create jobs, draw skilled workers, and reshape demand for housing, offices and industrial space around new growth corridors. Penang, Johor, and the industrial belts of Vietnam and Indonesia are clear examples.
For property professionals, the lesson mirrors Kashif’s own. Follow where the future industries are building, because that is where the next wave of real estate demand tends to form.
Lessons for founders and professionals scaling globally
Strip the interview down and a simple playbook emerges, useful well beyond real estate.
- Build for the surge. Make your product and systems scalable before demand spikes, not during the crisis.
- Adapt locally. Respect local culture and business norms, then merge them with your core model.
- Make AI core. Move past treating AI as a search tool and embed it into how work actually gets done.
- Look past the obvious market. The next decade’s growth is spread across Southeast Asia, not concentrated in one country.
- Position near the future. Place yourself where future industries and young talent are concentrated.
As Kashif puts it, the future is AI and technology, and the youth and talent that power it are increasingly found in Asia.
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FAQS
Kashif Ansari is the Co-Founder and Group CEO of Juwai IQI, a technology-enabled real estate group operating across Southeast Asia and other international markets.
The company uses AI for market research, language and localisation, and outbound tasks such as calls and appointment setting, allowing agents to focus on closing deals. Ansari attributes a significant sales increase to AI adoption.
He argues that Asia is far larger than China. Southeast Asia has more than 680 million people, a fast-growing digital economy and a young, urbanising population, making it a major long-term growth region.
Malaysia for semiconductors and data centres, Vietnam for export manufacturing, and Indonesia for its scale and electric vehicle battery supply chain.
According to Ansari, the biggest mistakes are scaling faster than their systems can handle, which breaks customer trust, and failing to stay agile enough to adapt to local culture and business practices.
Sources
- Malaysian Investment Development Authority, on Malaysia’s share of global semiconductor assembly, testing and packaging.
- ASEAN Briefing, “How Foreign Investors Can Capture Value in Malaysia’s Semiconductor Ecosystem,” 2026.
- Asia Society Policy Institute, “Malaysia’s Gamble: Turning Data Centres Into Industrial Power,” 2026.
- Market Research Malaysia, “Malaysia Data Center Investments Surge,” 2025.
- World Economic Forum, “ASEAN Will Drive Global Growth,” and ASEAN DEFA digital economy coverage, 2025.
- The Global Economics / HSBC “Digital Frontiers 2030,” on the Southeast Asia digital economy, 2026.
- Context.ph, on AI’s projected contribution to Southeast Asia’s GDP, 2025.
- General Statistics Office of Vietnam via Vietnam Briefing, “Vietnam’s Economy in 2025,” 2026.
- OECD Economic Surveys: Viet Nam 2025, on Samsung and manufacturing FDI.
- ORF, Lowy Institute and Nickel Institute, on Indonesia’s nickel and EV battery strategy
