Redington unveils AI Launchpad in Singapore, looks to expand presence in ASEAN
“No one solves customer problems alone. The future belongs to ecosystems that work together," says V.S. Hariharan, Managing Director and Group CEO, Redington Limited.
Redington Limited has expanded its presence in Southeast Asia as the Indian tech distributor unveils an AI Launchpad in its Singapore office. The AI Launchpad, which is the first of three planned globally, will serve as a platform for Redington’s partners and customers to build and run AI proof of concepts.
According to V.S. Hariharan, Managing Director and Group CEO, Redington Limited. the establishment of the AI Launchpad is a commitment the distributor is making in the region as it looks to serve the increasing demands from customers. While the center is in Singapore, Hariharan said that the distributor will be focusing in four countries in the ASEAN region, which includes Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia.
“We've always been talking about in public domain, but we've never showcased them to the resellers and partners. We have a virtual version of an AI center of excellence where customers can navigate and look at what use cases they have, what solutions they need, which ISV to go to, which SaaS provider to go to and how to get help from Redington. They can navigate in the virtual domain and then come to the physical domain that we have now launched in Singapore,” Hariharan said.
Hariharan added that the AI Launchpad will showcase multiple products, including new and existing ones in a physical environment so that customers can truly experience and understand the technology.
For Hariharan, the ASEAN region is going to be a non-hardware player and be more of a software solutions player, focusing on cloud, security, software and AI.
“It is in a way a test bed of doing something fantastic globally. We don’t have an AI Launchpad in the other markets we operate in. We are in the midst of building one in Bangalore, which will be launched in Novemmber and another one in Dubai as well,” he said.
Focus on ASEAN
Interestingly, Hariharan also pointed out that given ASEAN is a new focus region, they invested in the first AI Launchpad here because they want to use it as a flagship and to see if their experiments, including POCs, work.
“We will then take it to the rest of the world. So, we will invest here to learn and to win. We know it is an emerging market. And yet AI adoption is decent, and we also do not have any legacy here. We can make some mistakes and not have to worry about conflicts and such. But we will be aggressive to find a way to do things here, which we will learn and take back to other markets,” he said.
Looking at the plans for the region, Cem Borhan, CEO, ASEAN & South Asia, Redington Limited, shared that given the diversity in the ASEAN market, Redington will be focusing on how they can orchestrate products for the organizations in this region.
“We are going with a software-led model in this region. That means the Redington know-how and the capabilities that we have developed over time and over the years will be in this part of the world so that we can expand our journey in this area. The important part in addition to this is the locality and regional or global approach,” Borhan said.
“As Redington, we are organically growing. This organic growth and the capabilities that we have helped us build that out. The AI Launchpad is launched for partners. It's launched for our vendors and for our customers. So, we can wrap that up and say that this AI Launchpad, which is a regional plus global capability, and which will be replicated to the region, is going to be our core and how we expand our business. So, that is the way we view it,” Borhan added.
A roadmap for success
Hariharan also mentioned that with this new focus in the region, they have set a roadmap as well, to ensure they meet the goals set with the expansion.
“We give it a time period. We don't expect the same level that we have been operating in India and others for a very long time. So, we will give it 6 to 8 quarters to get our break even. And then to get to the right level of profitability it might be 10 to 12 quarters. But we definitely have a game plan around that.” Hari said.
Meanwhile, during Hariharan’s keynote speech at Redington’s Global NEXT Summit 2026, Hariharan shared that the distributor is focused on building what orchestration requires. Specifically, he believes that customers want the best value from their tech investments, which is why Redington, while still being a distributor, will now channel towards being ecosystem orchestrators and work within the ecosystem to deliver outcomes.
“No one solves customer problems alone. The future belongs to ecosystems that work together,” Hariharan said.
The one-day summit brought together over 500 OEMs, vendors, partners, ISVs and Redington’s team from across the globe to network and plan the strategies for growth and success.