Small Businesses in Southeast Asia ‘Powering 50% of Employment’: YPO Engagement Officer Posted on October 13, 2025December 15, 2025 By Sierra Campbell, Managing Editor for small.news (small.news) — On Oct. 9, 2025, our small.talk series continued with Mouna Aouri, Engagement Officer at YPO. Silver Lining Founder and CEO Carissa Reiniger spoke with Mouna about the current state of small businesses. Q: What is your connection to small business? What’s the reason you care about small business? A: Well, first of all, small businesses are not small. That’s why I care deeply about them. You know, as we were talking before, we were saying small businesses are the soul of communities, and they’re also the backbone of the economy. So, I saw firsthand how hard it is to build a business, how hard it is to raise capital and start your company with a heart and with courage as your capital. I saw a massive gap in access to funding, in access to digital tools, to information, to networks. And the capital flow goes mostly to high startups or to large corporates. Top Stories We Asked Small Business Leaders: ‘If You Had A Magic Silver Wand, What’s 1 Thing You Would Do For All Small Businesses?’ “If you had a Magic Silver Wand, and you could wave it, and you could make one thing true for every single small business owner in the world, what would you use your Magic Silver Wand for?” What Small Business Leaders Have Been Building on This Past Year For the small.news Anniversary, we caught up with some of the small business leaders across the globe who have been changing the small business industry. So, really SMEs who are especially in Southeast Asia where I am, they are powering 50% of employment. It’s like the system is not designed for them to support them, and so we’re missing out on so much innovation and also, so much on empowering our communities because when small businesses succeed, you know, kids go to school, they have health care, and communities thrive. Q: Would you mind sharing a little bit about what your own journey was to start Woomentum? A: So, you know, one thing I didn’t say is that Woomentum is like a bridge between… we work with financial institutions, work with foundations that speak one language, and then we work with entrepreneurs who speak another language. So, we’re like the bridge in between. We translate that language so that we can really create impact and change. And it so happens my background is bridge engineering. Woomentum’s story kind of started because I had given birth just three days before the revolution, and we moved, really, in a very touch circumstance. And so we settled in Singapore, and me being the engineer, the empowered entrepreneur, you know, I can do anything. I spoke to many women around me and I realized that we needed support… I felt a calling to support women in Southeast Asia, you know, in other countries who are less developed than Singapore… Sometimes, I don’t even realize the work that we’ve done, but… we were no longer focused on startups. It was more focused on SMEs because we understood that they really did not have enough support. They didn’t have enough access to capital. Small business owners, they’re really struggling even to access the information and the knowledge of digital technologies that are available to them to innovate and optimize their costs and grow. Q: When you look at the geopolitical trends in politics, economy, AI… What are you most worried about for small businesses? A: I think the biggest risk is that… small businesses will be left behind again. Think about it, with all the advances in AI, digital payments, supply chain… everything is accelerating. Small businesses are already struggling to keep up… they will struggle even more. What will happen… corporates are having teams, they have the technology, they have the capital to adapt. And SMEs will just hassle more… I also feel there is an opportunity. Q: What opportunity do you think there is? A: I think, with the right actions and the help of organizations like Silver Lining… who believe in the importance of supporting SMEs, I think SMEs have opportunity to leap frog. If they know what they don’t know. If they know what is available to them. If we democratize access in so many ways, I think SMEs can really go to the next level because… these technologies are incredible. We need systemic change, we need to rally collaborations and partnerships, and that’s why it’s important to have platforms like Silver Lining coming in to support. Q: If you had a Magic Silver Wand, and you could make one change right now that you think would help small businesses globally, what would it be? A: I think, we’ve had these conversations so many times. It’s really about… I would change the financial system. It’s so hard to change… It’s unthinkable. I mean, so many changes have happened in the world that were unthinkable. We just have to have this collective will to believe that it can actually change. You know, who would’ve thought we’d have… crowdfunding platforms and peer-to-peer lending. I think we can, but to answer your question, financial systems first. The rest will follow. You’ve heard their story—now write your own. silv=r™ is where it begins. Start here! Latest Stories
We Asked Small Business Leaders: ‘If You Had A Magic Silver Wand, What’s 1 Thing You Would Do For All Small Businesses?’ “If you had a Magic Silver Wand, and you could wave it, and you could make one thing true for every single small business owner in the world, what would you use your Magic Silver Wand for?”
What Small Business Leaders Have Been Building on This Past Year For the small.news Anniversary, we caught up with some of the small business leaders across the globe who have been changing the small business industry.