In 2018, Ong Tze Boon drove his electric vehicle from Singapore to Phuket. His goal: to find out what it felt like to be an EV driver navigating Southeast Asia without a charging network designed for the journey.

What he discovered was, in his own words, “a business opportunity hiding inside a mess”.

In Malaysia, to sidestep energy retail licensing requirements, charging operators were selling a charging service packaged as parking. In Thailand, many charging apps required a Thai mobile number to register, which meant foreign drivers simply could not use it.

"I got all the way to Thailand and was stuck," Ong recalls. "That was the business opportunity."

Today, Charge+ is Singapore's largest electric vehicle charging operator, with about 6,000 charging points globally, including more than 4,000 charging points across the island. The company was founded by Ong—the current chairman—and is led by CEO Goh Chee Kiong, who spent