One Client, Two Countries with Two Different Playbooks: What KidsMoov's Expansion Can Teach Businesses
- 10 hours ago
- 3 min read
In our work with Kidsmoov in 2025, we helped them secure a joint venture partner in Ho Chi Minh City, and a licensee in Jakarta.
It's a question we hear from almost every scaling founder: can you run market entry into multiple Southeast Asian countries at the same time, or is it safer to go one market at a time?
KidsMoov, a Singapore-based children's physical education company with programmes spanning kindergarten through Grade 12, faced exactly this decision when it set its sights on Vietnam and Indonesia. Curt & Co was engaged not to run one expansion plan three times, but to build three distinct strategies — each shaped by that market's own sensitivities, financial realities, and long-term feasibility — and execute them in parallel.
The short answer: yes - but only if you resist the urge to use one template for all three.
Why the Playbook Changed Market by Market
ASEAN might be a group of countries with a common goal but is largely fragmented in terms of culture, politics and geography.
The first move was strategic, not tactical: before any outreach began, Curt & Co worked with KidsMoov to map out market entry strategies for each country individually, weighing sensitivities, financial sustainability, and long-term feasibility on a market-by-market basis.
In Vietnam, the priority was face to face business matching activities paired with a direct presentation to potential investors in Ho Chi Minh City — building both funding conversations and a wider network of contacts in the education sector. And yes, they don’t respond as well to social media but would rather meet face to face. So the general strategy is introductions from warm leads – namely referrals.
In Indonesia, the market called for a heavier footprint: full PR and marketing activity — social media campaigns, free workshops and webinars, stakeholder outreach, and network-driven introductions across the education and fitness sectors — run alongside business matching. That combination is what ultimately delivered a licensed partner.
The webinars in Indonesia were well received with curious business owners wanting to understand the business from a “softer” approach where the benefits of gym for children were presented..and once they were interested, a face to face meeting was conducted to facilitate further discussions.
Formalising partnerships
Whether licensing or partnership, Curt & Co also took on the responsibility of drafting the documentation for the joint venture, franchise, and licensing agreements needed to formalise that partnership. It's a reminder that market entry doesn't end at the handshake — the legal architecture behind a franchise versus a licensing deal shapes how much control, risk, and upside a company actually retains in a new market. (We'll unpack that franchise-vs-licensing decision in more depth in an upcoming article.)
Essentially documentation is a good way to protect both parties should there be conflicts and it is ALWAYS a good thing to think about worse case scenarios.
The Outcomes, Market by Market
Vietnam: Joint Venture
Indonesia: Licensing Partner
The Takeaway
Parallel expansion across Southeast Asia works when the level of investment and the tactics deployed are calibrated to each market — not copy-pasted from the last one.
If you're weighing whether to expand into one Southeast Asian market at a time or take on several at once, we'd be glad to talk through what that could look like for your business.
About Us
Curt & Co Pte Ltd is a consulting company started amongst a group of business owners who were looking for a consulting company themselves for advice !
Our offices and our focus markets are in Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam and Malaysia. With clients ranging from 1 man operating SMEs to listed companies, we are proud to have helped our clients across different industries gain market entry into the South East Asian region.
Contact us at marcus@curtconsult.com if you want to talk!
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