Forbes Asia – September 2026

Summary

SoftBank-backed Yanolja founder Lee Su-jin bets on AI and proprietary travel data to win over Wall Street — as Forbes Asia September 2026 maps 100 small companies to watch across the Asia-Pacific.

Volume 22 number 6 runs 96 pages with the cover story "Playing To Win" (p.43), where John Kang follows Lee Su-jin's second attempt at a US IPO, this time armed with AI investments and a data pool covering 17 million monthly bookings. The 100 To Watch 2026 list (p.13) spotlights small companies and startups in agriculture, biotech, consumer tech, e-commerce, energy, enterprise tech, finance, manufacturing, robotics, and space. Sam Kennard transforms a modest Australian storage business into a billion-dollar property play in "Stored Value" (p.50). Alex Bouzari becomes a billionaire as the AI boom supercharges his data-storage stalwart (p.56). Dubai's Abbas Sajwani, the world's youngest real estate billionaire, runs his empire from the Amadea superyacht (p.60). The highest-paid podcasters of 2026 list (p.71) tracks Jay Shetty and others as streaming services blur the lines between podcaster and TV host.

Steve Forbes opens with "A Yen For Stability" in Fact & Comment. Regular columns cover innovation, money and investing, and entertainment. Jennifer Garner, cofounder of Once Upon A Farm, shares her first six months leading a public company in the 50 Over 50 US section.

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Content Guide

▸ Cover Story

p.43 · Playing To Win
Lee Su-jin, billionaire founder of South Korea's Yanolja, repositions the travel platform for a second IPO attempt. The article details his AI investment thesis — using 17 million monthly booking data points to optimize hotel pricing and yield. Travel-tech founders can benchmark their own data moat against Yanolja's proprietary pool.

▸ Lists / 100 To Watch

p.13 · 100 To Watch 2026
Forbes Asia's sixth annual list of 100 rising small companies and startups across 10 categories including robotics, space tech, and green energy. The companies are pre-unicorn stage and spread across India, China, Southeast Asia, and Australia. Venture scouts use this list as a deal-sourcing starting point.

▸ Profiles / Entrepreneurs

p.30 · Upper Hand
Alex Zhou, cofounder of Linkerbot, aims to mass-produce affordable robotic hands for household humanoids. The article breaks down his per-unit cost target — under $2,000 per hand — and the manufacturing process he adapted from automotive assembly lines.

p.50 · Stored Value
Sam Kennard turned a family-run Australian storage business into a billion-dollar property portfolio. Mark Whitaker traces the pivot: a staff email exposed organizational gaps, leading Kennard to install professional management systems. Operators scaling family businesses will recognize the growing pains.

p.54 · Smart Care
Havi Nguyen founded Abby Care after navigating Medicaid for her family while working at her parents' nail salon. Her AI platform helps Americans become paid caregivers for loved ones. The article cites a 4x reduction in application processing time.

▸ Technology / Innovation

p.56 · Data Dandy
Alex Bouzari ran a niche data-storage company for 30 years, serving a handful of supercomputer labs globally. The AI buildout pushed his company's valuation past $1 billion. The piece shows how infrastructure moats compound when a secular trend arrives.

p.65 · In The Pipeline
Rome's Angelini family built a $2.5 billion pharmaceutical operation across four generations, focusing on depression and epilepsy drugs. Now they have bought their way into the US market. M&A strategists can study their sequencing of European approvals before US entry.

▸ Money & Investing / Entertainment

p.68 · Show Stopper
William Baldwin breaks down Broadway investment economics. The article cites that only one in five Broadway shows recoups its investment, but hit musicals can return 300 percent. Accredited investors diversifying into alternative assets get a sobering risk table.

p.71 · The Highest-Paid Podcasters of 2026
Matt Craig ranks the top earners as streaming platforms enter the podcast market. Jay Shetty, Joe Rogan, and Alex Cooper top the list. The article includes per-episode ad-revenue estimates for each tier.

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Editor's Take

This is a strong September issue because it balances the splashy Yanolja cover story with genuinely useful small-company scouting in the 100 To Watch list. The Linkerbot piece delivers the rarest kind of reporting — a cost-per-unit number attached to a bold claim. The Kennard storage-business profile is the sleeper hit: it shows how a mundane asset class built billion-dollar returns through operational discipline. The weakest content is the Abbas Sajwani superyacht piece (p.60), which reads as a rich-life puff piece with no real business lesson. The podcasters list is fun but thin on methodology. Overall, this issue works best for venture investors and family-office allocators looking for Asia-Pacific deal flow in one sitting.

Strengths
• 100 To Watch list for venture deal sourcing
• Linkerbot cost-per-unit target anchors the robotics story in reality
• Kennard storage-business profile with operational detail

Weaknesses
• Superyacht feature is pure fluff with zero business insight
• Podcasters ranking lacks disclosed methodology

Verdict: Recommended — The 100 To Watch list and Linkerbot piece alone are worth the cover price for Asia-focused investors.