Southeast Asia Startup Scene

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BeeX

Singapore

BeeX is a Singapore-based deep-tech company that designs, builds, and operates AI-powered hovering autonomous underwater vehicles (HAUVs) for subsea inspection and monitoring. Its autonomous drones inspect underwater infrastructure across offshore renewables, defense, and oil & gas, cutting reliance on divers, ROVs, and large support vessels while delivering higher-coverage, objective inspection data at lower cost. Spun out of the National University of Singapore, its flagship HAUV "BETTA" targets the fast-growing subsea inspection market across Asia-Pacific and Europe.

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Coast 4C

Philippines

Coast 4C is an impact-driven business that builds an inclusive, traceable seaweed supply chain connecting smallholder farmers in the Philippines to global processors. Southeast Asia produces most of the world's carrageenan -- a red-seaweed-derived ingredient used in food, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals -- but supply is fragmented across informal networks; Coast 4C addresses this at the source by giving farmers technical support, inputs and market access to produce high-quality red seaweed. Its regenerative model also supports marine ecosystem health through community-managed protected areas.

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Neural Drive

Singapore

Neural Drive is a Singapore-based startup, spun out of the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD), building a non-invasive brain-computer interface that restores communication for stroke and paralysis patients. Its blink-to-speech system lets users trigger pre-set spoken needs with two deliberate blinks, with a roughly 10-second forehead setup and no surgery or gel electrodes. The company runs clinical collaborations with Singapore hospitals including Tan Tock Seng Hospital and is pursuing an HSA regulatory pathway.

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GoVeda

Singapore

GoVeda is an AI-native intellectual property platform based in Singapore that makes patent search, analysis, and portfolio intelligence accessible across business functions, from R&D and product to sales and finance. Its flagship Open Patent product offers semantic search over 220 million-plus patent publications across more than 100 jurisdictions, alongside a Pro tier and an AI/MCP API. The company co-develops patent search and examination tooling with the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore.

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ChemT

Singapore

ChemT Biotechnology is a Singapore-based startup applying AI to biologics manufacturing. Its core platform, CelMo, is an AI-driven virtual cell engine trained on proprietary biological sequencing data that predicts and modulates cell behaviour, generating cell-modulating molecules to lift productivity, yield and product quality while cutting production costs. The company targets persistent biomanufacturing pain points such as long development timelines, unpredictable yields and high costs across cell types including CHO, T, stem, NK and HEK cells.

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H3 Zoom

Singapore

H3 Zoom is a Singapore-based deep tech company providing AI-powered inspection and asset intelligence for buildings and critical infrastructure. Its platform turns drone, robotics and 360-degree camera data into regulator-defensible condition reports and prioritised remediation actions, automating facade and interior inspections at portfolio scale. The technology has been deployed across major regional asset owners including CapitaLand, JTC Corporation and City Developments.

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Wapi Pay

Singapore

Wapi Pay is a Kenyan fintech founded in 2019 by brothers Paul and Eddie Ndichu that operates a cross-border payments and remittance gateway connecting Africa and Asia. It lets African individuals, merchants and businesses send and receive money to and from Asian markets via mobile money and bank rails, processing transactions within about a day at fees near 3 percent. The company is headquartered in Nairobi with offices in Singapore and China and operates across markets including Japan, China, India and Southeast Asia.

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Synvo AI

Singapore

Synvo AI is a Singapore-based deep-tech startup spun out of the MMLab at Nanyang Technological University. It builds an Enterprise Memory Layer that lets AI systems and agents retain, retrieve and reason across an organisation's documents, emails, video, audio and business data. Its proprietary Lightweight Multimodal Memory (LiteMMem) architecture runs on-premises or on-device so enterprises can apply institutional knowledge while keeping data private and secure.

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fileAI

Singapore

fileAI is a Singapore-based enterprise intelligence platform that turns unstructured files and legacy documents into structured, validated data with full decision traceability, letting AI agents automate complex business workflows. Its fileForge product is used across finance, insurance, supply chain, healthcare and operations, with enterprise customers including MS&AD, Toshiba, PwC, KPMG, Nippon Paint and Keppel. Founded in 2021, the company has processed over a billion files globally and serves customers across Singapore, Australia, Thailand, Hong Kong, Japan and the US.