We pride ourselves on having created some of the most popular apps in the Nordics. But our vision is even bigger: we believe that technology can help us all live better lives and contribute to a more sustainable society. And today we are taking a great leap on our journey of having a global impact by entering our first market outside Europe.

Since we started Shortcut in Oslo in 2007, we have built the most robust app development company in the Nordics. With offices located in Oslo, Bergen, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Bucharest, and Tetovo in North Macedonia, we are uniquely positioned to offer local expertise and support to our clients. And we are excited to continue expanding our reach.

It’s quite fascinating that Southeast Asia is home to almost 700 million people, making it the fourth most populous region in the world. Currently, 71% of the region’s population owns smartphones, indicating the significant role that technology plays in their daily lives. With the introduction of numerous apps focused on communication, entertainment, education, commerce, and financial services, among others, the region is experiencing tremendous growth.  

To learn how apps improve people’s lives in South East Asia, we started looking into the opportunity to set up a local office in the region last year. Fortunately, we had the opportunity of meeting Suria Labs, with a team of around 25 developers and designers. The Suria team has made apps both for local clients in the region and well-known global brands such as Heineken. During our meeting with the Suria founders, we quickly realized that we shared so much in common, such as our passion for building a solid culture and a strong team.

The Suria Labs team

Many Western companies have had extensive partnerships with tech companies in South East Asia for a while. However, it’s less thrilling for us to have Asian tech experts working remotely on global projects than working closely with local clients, as we do in Europe. While there are countless companies in Asia offering their services to clients in the West, Suria Labs believes in close collaboration with clients in the same time zone.

While getting to know Suria Labs we had the pleasure of meeting several employees at Suria Labs. The beauty of technology is that there is always a common ground to start the discussions. We talked about technology stacks, ways of working, office culture and user experience, and found that despite the geographical distance between Europe and Malaysia we have a lot in common. These discussions strengthened our belief that we have a lot in common, and that there is a lot to be learned both ways.

When we announced the merger to the employees at Suria Labs last week, we also introduced Tanguy Thiran, who will be CEO of the company going forward. Tanguy is Belgian, and has lived in Kuala Lumpur for years after coming there on an assignment with his previous employer. His background is from recruitment, and he knows Suria Labs well from his work in the industry:

Suria Labs is one of very few companies I have never succeeded in recruiting from. To me this is a sign of a company which values its people highly, and I am both thrilled and humbled by the challenge of leading the company as part of the Shortcut group.

Marius Mårnes Mathiesen, Group CEO of Shortcut, visited Malaysia for the first time this summer, and is excited to welcome Suria Labs into Shortcut:

In the West, we tend to think of ourselves as highly digitized countries. But coming to Malaysia is like travelling to the future. From shopping, digital wallets to insurance and banking, almost everything is available through an app. We still have a long way to go in Europe when it comes to mobile, and I can’t wait to share what we have learned in Asia with our Western clients. And our new colleagues in Malaysia are really curious to learn more about what kind of apps we make back home.

We are excited to welcome our new colleagues to Shortcut, and thrilled to start learning from our clients and partners in Malaysia. Let’s create some amazing products together!

Read more about Shortcut Asia and get in touch with us through our local website.