In the sixth annual edition of the list, Singapore ranked behind India with 19 companies, while China came third with 10 businesses, followed by Japan and South Korea, each with nine firms.
Most Singaporean businesses included on the list adopt technology to solve customers’ issues.
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‘100 To Watch’ companies by the numbers in Asia-Pacific, 2026. Graphic by Forbes |
Pollo AI, for instance, is a Singapore company helping brands generate marketing videos using scripts, templates and multimodal AI-generation models.
ChemT Biotechnology’s AI-enabled software speeds up the process of making biologics, drugs derived from a living source, that target diseases such as cancer and autoimmune disorders.
Gero develops anti-aging treatments as well as those for age-related diseases. Its software generates drug candidates directly from a protein’s basic sequence, a process that takes weeks rather than years.
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Gero’s logo is seen on a billboard in New York. Photo courtesy of Gero |
Level3AI’s AI agents can handle customer inquiries across the phone, web chat, and email. Unlike standard chatbots that only answer questions, these agents can take action, such as processing refunds and checking customer eligibility for discounts.
Modular water treatment systems built by MediSun Planet turn seawater or industrial wastewater into clean water. The company says each unit costs around $5 million and takes five weeks on average to set up, compared with traditional water treatment plants which can take up to 10 years and cost over $1 billion.
The companies across the entire list have raised a combined US$2.4 billion to date, including nearly $1 billion so far in 2026.
All companies on the list are Asia-Pacific-headquartered, privately owned, for-profit ventures with no more than $50 million in annual revenue and $100 million in total funding as of Aug. 15.
Nearly a quarter of the companies on the list are in enterprise technology, offering artificial intelligence-related services.