Tech in Asia has released its selection of Southeast Asia’s top movers and shakers in artificial intelligence (AI), highlighting researchers, innovators, and policymakers shaping the region’s AI landscape.
Among the 42 AI leaders recognized, 26 are founders or co-founders of startups based in Southeast Asia that serve local markets. These companies are pioneering advancements across diverse domains, including video generation, chatbots, and cybersecurity, and are driving innovation and real-world adoption of AI technologies.
They represent organizations such as TopViewAI, Earlybird AI, and Menlo Research, and hail from Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, and other regional hubs. Together, they are propelling Southeast Asia onto the global AI stage.
Albert Chen, Co-founder & CTO, TopViewAI (Singapore)
Albert Chen co-founded TopViewAI in 2022, a company that aims to revolutionize the video creation landscape by leveraging proprietary AI and digital human technology to make the process faster, more affordable, and scalable for businesses worldwide.
Chen boasts nearly two decades of experience in mobile systems. He focuses on optimizing AI-driven video production to make content creation faster, more affordable, and scalable.
Bhavana Ravindran, Co-founder & CEO, Earlybird AI (Singapore)
Bhavana Ravindran, a serial founder and former digital executive at Visa, is the co-founder and CEO of Earlybird AI. Earlybird AI is a Singapore-based fintech startup that aims to make bookkeeping and financial admin tasks of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) painless and stress-free.
Earlybird AI’s mobile app provides real-time financial insights and automation. The platform seeks to act as a “24×7 Fin Ops Agent” for small businesses. The company emerged from stealth in October 2024 with a pre-seed funding round led by Antler, and is now in private beta.
Bryan Pelz, Founder & CEO, Bootloader Studio (Singapore/Vietnam)
Bryan Pelz is the founder and CEO of Bootloader Studio, an “affective AI” company developing emotionally intelligent digital companions.
Based in Singapore and Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), Vietnam, Bootloader Studio integrates AI and immersive technologies to create interactive, empathetic digital experiences that redefine human-machine interaction. It leverages technologies like the Apple Vision Pro and advanced AI to establish a new category of interactive digital experiences that foster genuine connections.
Daniel Ong, Co-founder, Menlo Research (Singapore)
Daniel Ong is the co-founder of Menlo Research, a Singapore open source AI and robotics company. Menlo Research’s flagship product, Jan, locally runs language models, facilitating privacy-focused, offline operations. The company is led by Ong and his wife, Nicole Zhu, both Stanford alums.
David Samuel, Co-Founder and CEO, Peris.ai (Indonesia)
David Samuel is the co-founder and CEO of Peris.ai, an Indonesian cybersecurity company delivering hyperautomated modular services. With offices in Jakarta, Singapore, and Abu Dhabi, Peris.ai works alongside ethical hackers, analysts, and defense teams to build solutions which reduce complexity, cut response time, and strengthen digital resilience, providing organizations from varied industries and of any scale with advanced threat detection and real-time incident response capabilities.
Dennis Yap, Founder, AI Seer (Singapore)
Dennis Yap is the founder of AI Seer, a deep-tech startup dedicated to combating misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation using advanced AI technologies.
AI Seer’s flagship product, Facticity.AI, delivers real-time, explainable fact-checking across multimedia formats, and was recognized by TIME’s Best Inventions for 2024-2025. For even deeper credibility assessment, AI Seer provides the Multi-Spectral Reality Detector (MSRD), the world’s first contactless system capable of discerning truthfulness and deceptiveness using a lab-tested blend of physiological and behavioral signals.
Before founding AI Seer, Yap worked for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Princeton University, JFDI.Asia, and Re.A.Pra in Research.
Duc Tran, Co-founder & CEO, AI Hay (Vietnam)
Duc Tran is the co-founder and CEO of AI Hay, a Vietnamese startup that aims to reshape how Vietnamese people search for and share knowledge. Leveraging generative AI (genAI) and social network interactivity, the platform allows users to ask any question and receive accurate and trustworthy answers with transparent citations, all tailored to Vietnamese culture and language.
AI Hay has experienced remarkable growth since its launch in May 2024, achieving over 15 million downloads and processing more than 100 million questions per month. In July 2025, the startup secured a US$10 million Series A led by Argor Capital, bringing its total funding to over US$18 million. The funding will be used to support expansion into web-based experiences, innovation in educational and entertainment applications, and the development of AI companions to facilitate deeper integration into daily Vietnamese life.
Felix Tao, Founder & CEO, Mindverse AI (Singapore)
Felix Tao is the founder and CEO of Mindverse AI, a Singapore startup founded in 2022 and backed by Sequoia and Square Peg.
Mindverse AI’s flagship products include MindOS Studio, which helps create AI-native websites with personalized chat experiences and interfaces, and Mebot, a productivity tool that learns and memorizes a user’s thoughts and preferences.
Guan Wang, Founder & CEO, Sapient Intelligence (Singapore)
Guan Wang is the founder and CEO of Sapient Intelligence, an artificial general intelligence (AGI) company. Headquartered in Singapore, with research centers in San Francisco and Beijing, Sapient Intelligence is building the next-generation AI model for complex reasoning. Its mission is to develop a radically new architecture that integrates reinforcement learning, evolutionary algorithms, and neuroscience research to push beyond the limits of today’s large language model (LLMs).
Wang holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from Tsinghua University and is the author of the open-source model OpenChat, a 7B LLM that outperforms the 70B LLaMA2, with over 5,400 GitHub stars and 200,000+ monthly downloads on Hugging Face. He also served as the lead developer of OpenOrca, a prominent open-source LLM project.
A specialist in reinforcement learning, he previously held research and engineering roles at the Tsinghua Laboratory of Brain and Intelligence, Shanghai AI Laboratory, and Pony.ai.
Guy Ron, Founder & CEO, Cynapse (Singapore)
Guy Ron is the founder and CEO of Cynapse, a startup specializing in agentic AI video intelligence for smart cities, transportation, seaports, airports, and correctional facilities.
Headquartered in the US with a regional office in Singapore, Cynapse is a pioneer in third-generation video analytics, leveraging deep expertise in vision AI and genAI to transcend traditional rules-based systems and provide industry-specific context, scene understanding, objects discovery, interactions and events, spatio-temporal analysis, text recognition and more.
Ron is an accomplished business and technology leader with senior executive experience in both startups and Fortune 100 companies. He has proven expertise in building innovative businesses from inception to successful, multi-million dollar operations.
Hanif Azly, Co-Founder, GlocAI (Malaysia)
Hanif Azly is the co-founder of GlocAI, a Malaysian startup revolutionizing construction management through AI. GlocAI aims to enhance on-site collaboration and productivity via AI-powered predictive analytics integrated into mobile messaging apps, offering real-time insights for teams across construction sites.
Azly is an American-trained architect with 15+ years of experience creating thoughtful, high-impact built environments across North America, Europe, and Asia. His background blends architecture, urban planning, construction management, and real estate development, with design and next-generation technology.
Haochuan Guo, Co-founder & CTO, Orion Arm (Singapore)
Haochuan Guo is the co-founder and CTO of Orion Arm, a Singapore-based startup dedicated to building intuitive, innovation-driven solutions that enhance productivity and intelligence.
Orion Arm owns Toki AI, a natural language time management assistant that streamlines personal scheduling through voice, text, and image inputs, and Syft AI, a personalized AI news solution that curates and summarizes real-time content from global and local sources.
Hari V. Krishnan, Co-founder & CEO, Genie Health (Singapore)
Hari V. Krishnan is the co-founder and CEO of Genie Health, a Singapore startup delivering an AI-powered health guide unifying medical records, wearable data, family health history etc., to create personalized health journeys.
By analyzing users’ information, Genie Health delivers tailored insights and connects patients with trusted health screeners and experts through strategic partnerships. For partners, the startup offers a digital platform that enhances consumer engagement and enables more personalized, efficient care.
Prior to Genie Health, Krishnan served as CEO and managing director of PropertyGuru Group, led the company to its initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange, and oversaw its acquisition by EQT for about US$1.1 billion. He also led LinkedIn’s Asia Pacific operations as its first employee in that region.
Hiep Nguyen, Co-founder & CTO, Filum AI (Vietnam)
Hiep Nguyen is the co-founder and CTO of Filum AI, a startup founded in 2020 in Hanoi, Vietnam. Filum AI provides solutions to optimize customer experience, including personalized interactions, customer journey analytics and optimization, and AI tools for automated operations. Currently, its products are widely adopted by major enterprises in retail, finance, and services, including Hoàng Hà Mobile, Audi Vietnam, GS25, Hafele, Beauty Box, The Face Shop, Google, PLC, and Zalo.
In March 2025, Filum AI raised US$1 million from Nextrans, VinVentures, and TheVentures to expand its research and development (R&D) team, drive product innovation, enhance customer service, and strategically enter the Southeast Asian market.
Hokiman Kurniawan, Co-founder & CEO, Meeting.ai (Indonesia)
Hokiman Kurniawan is the co-founder and CEO of Meeting.ai, an assistant AI tool that automates meeting notes and transcriptions from platforms like Zoom and Google Meet, as well as in-person recordings. The platform is designed to help organizations capture crucial knowledge from meetings automatically, and save employees the hassle of manual note-taking.
Irzan Raditya, Co-founder & CEO, Kata.ai (Indonesia)
Irzan Raditya is the co-founder and CEO of Kata.ai, leading a cross-functional team across product, engineering, sales, marketing, AI research, and client success to drive innovation and business impact.
Kata.ai is a conversational AI company that connect brands and businesses with millions of their audiences through commonly used messaging apps. The startup develops multilingual natural language processing (NLP) and generative AI tools to enable enterprises to engage customers via chat and voice, across sectors like banking, telco, and government. It claims 14.2 million active users annually, and more than 3 billion conversations processed through its AI chatbot solutions.
Established in 2015, Kata.ai has become a trusted partner for major corporations including Microsoft, Accenture, and Line, and is backed by the Trans-Pacific Technology Fund, AC Ventures, and MDI Ventures, among others.
James Ong, Founder & Managing Director, Artificial Intelligence International Institute (Singapore)
James Ong is the founder and managing director of the Artificial Intelligence International Institute (AIII), a think tank established in 2014 to advocate the vision of “Sustainable AI for Humanity.” AIII focuses on three pillars of sustainable development of AI, namely governance, technology and commercialization. Its goal is to deliver on the impact of meeting humanity needs of balancing economic needs, autonomy, governance, and ethics as AI advances.
Ong has more than 38 years of experience in enterprise technology, digital transformation, and venture building across Asia, the US, and Europe. He began his career as an AI scientist in 1986 with the Fifth Generation Computer initiative at MCC Research Lab, in Austin, USA, and later joined Trilogy, a pioneering Symbolic AI enterprise software startup.
Besides his work at AIII, Ong is also an active investor, mentor, and speaker across major universities and conferences in Southeast Asia and China.
Jennifer Zhang, Co-founder & President, WIZ.AI (Singapore)
Jennifer Zhang is the co-founder and president of WIZ.AI, a leading conversational AI company specializing in voice-based genAI and “talkbot” technologies. WIZ.AI’s proprietary platform integrates LLMs to power human-like virtual agents, enabling localized, omni-channel customer engagement and enhanced employee experiences in multiple Southeast Asian languages and accents. These virtual agents facilitate over several million automated customer interactions hourly, ensuring superior customer service and improved operational efficiency, as well as robust business return on investment (ROI).
WIZ.AI holds over 11 AI and voice patents, and operates across 17 countries. The company claims to serve 300 enterprise clients in healthcare, e-commerce, finance, and telecommunications.
Jensen Wu, Co-founder & CEO, Topview (Singapore)
Jensen Wu is the co-founder and CEO of Topview, a startup which uses proprietary AI and digital human technology to revolutionize the video creation landscape.
Topview’s user-friendly platform combines cutting-edge AI technology with intuitive design, enabling anyone to produce professional, engaging videos with just a click. Whether for marketing, training, or entertainment, Topview delivers high-quality results without the traditional overhead, making video creation accessible to businesses of all sizes.
Since its founding in 2022, Topview has grown to serve over 2,000 users across 120+ countries. The company claims its solutions can increase production efficiency by up to five times through streamlined workflows.
Jeremy Ang, Co-founder & CEO, Axium Industries Group (Singapore)
Jeremy Ang is the co-founder and CEO of Axium Industries Group, which develops enterprise-grade, agentic AI systems for industries such as energy, manufacturing, and logistics. The company focuses on multi-agent AI systems that accelerate digital transformation and optimize industrial performance.
Prior to Axium Industries Group, Ang launched ByteDance’s global large language model (LLM) and HPC GPU initiatives. He also worked in tech private equity and growth investing, contributing to four unicorn exits.
Jerry Ye, Founder & Global CEO, Whale (Singapore)
Jerry Ye is the founder and global CEO of Whale, a Singapore-based enterprise AI company building AI-native solutions that transform how businesses operate, make decisions, and engage with customers. Whale’s product suite, which spans spatial analytics, voice intelligence, generative content, and AI agents, is designed to help organizations automate complex workflows and turn real-time data into action.
Whale serves over 600 enterprise customers across over 20 countries, and is backed by major investors including Temasek, Linear Capital, BOSCH Ventures, MTR Lab, Singtel Innov8, MDI Ventures, and Gentree Fund. The company is headquartered in Singapore and has a presence in the USA, China, and Japan.
Jingjing Zhong, Co-founder, Superbench (Singapore)
Jingjing Zhong is the co-founder of Superbench, an AI-powered sales assistant platform based in Singapore. Superbench automates lead qualification, customer engagement, and appointment scheduling across channels such as WhatsApp, Messenger, and Telegram. The solution integrates directly into sales processes, learning each company’s workflows to deliver hyper-customized, conversational automation.
Karl Chan, Founder & CEO, Sourcy (Singapore)
Karl Chan is the founder and CEO of Sourcy, a Singapore-based startup providing an agentic product sourcing AI platform that lets brands to discover and source products smarter, faster, and at lower cost. The platform supports over 390 customers across 30 countries, representing more than US$33 million in total sourcing value, and has raised US$6.3 million in venture capital (VC) funding.
Prior to Sourcy, Chan was an investment professional at the International Finance Corporation (IFC) specialized in VC and growth equity investments in Southeast Asia. Before the IFC, he worked in various investment firms with transaction experience in fintech, cleantech, and agtech. He started his career as a fast-track management consultant with strategic and operational experience in Asia.
Keefe Wayne Teo, Co-founder, COO & CFO, Fabrica AI (Singapore)
Keefe Wayne Teo is the co-founder, COO and CFO of Fabrica AI, a Singapore-based startup that aims to shorten robot development cycles from years to days through simulation-based reinforcement learning and automated hardware design.
Fabrica AI’s first commercial product, an automatic tile grouting robot, boosts productivity by up to five times and is now deployed in Singapore and Australia. The startup has raised over US$3 million from the likes of Hoxton Ventures, and Credo Ventures.
Teo is a University of Cambridge engineering graduate. Prior to Fabrica AI, he served as president of Hackbridge.io, promoting entrepreneurship in tech. With 100+ citations in research journals and four papers, he won multiple awards at Singapore Science and Engineering Fairs and Chemistry Olympiads. Previously an analyst at Entrepreneur First, Teo also worked in business development at Bright Kids and Gain City.
Khalil Nooh, Co-founder & CEO, Mesolitica (Malaysia)
Khalil Nooh is the co-founder and CEO of Mesolitica, a Malaysian AI company developing multimodal and NLP models for Bahasa Melayu and regional languages. Mesolitica focuses on localized large language models, enabling Southeast Asian organizations to build AI systems that understand local contexts and dialects.
Prior to Mesolitica, Nooh founded a startup building a dropship e-commerce platform for local SMEs in Malaysia called Dropshipking.co. His background also includes payments, data engineering, and national-scale systems.
Kobkrit Viriyayudhakorn, Founder & CEO, iApp Technology (Thailand)
Kobkrit Viriyayudhakorn is the founder and CEO of iApp Technology, a Thai startup specializing in speech recognition, text-to-speech, face recognition, and LLM-based chatbot systems (ChindaLLM).
Besides iApp Technology, he also serves as president of the Artificial Intelligence Entrepreneurs Association of Thailand (AIEAT) and is the creator of OpenThaiGPT.
Viriyayudhakorn has more than 20 academic papers in AI and computer science under his belt, and is a thought leader in advancing local-language AI models and ecosystems across Thailand and Asia.
Featured image: Edited by Fintech News Singapore, based on image by rawpixel.com via Freepik
