Tech in Asia

This startup builds real-time guardrails for AI agents (Premium read) What problem does it solve? - Despite widespread enterprise AI adoption, standardized responsible-AI evaluations remain uncommon. Current governance methods cannot control autonomous systems in real time or produce reliable evidence for auditors. - Aethryx provides a governance control layer that sits directly between enterprise AI systems and the actions they perform. Market and traction - Aethryx is initially targeting regulated enterprises deploying AI across Singapore and Southeast Asia, with an estimated reachable market of 300 customers. - The startup has built a working minimum viable product and is in pilot discussions with banks, global technology firms, and public-sector organizations. This story is a part of Startup Spotlight, a series that features young, up-and-coming startups. Follow us @techinasiaofficial

🌱📈Startup uses software-controlled lights to cut farming costs (Read more) 😟 Commercial greenhouse and vertical farm operators face massive electricity costs; lighting accounts for up to 30% of greenhouse operating expenses and 80% of power use in fully indoor farms. 💡 Photosynthetic combines high-efficiency LED hardware with dynamically tunable light, delivering up to 4.05 µmol/J and centralized software to deploy schedules across entire facilities. Dig into the market outlook, including projections to US$29.1 billion by 2033. Follow us @techinasiaofficial

🤖💳PayPal engineer on AI commerce: when it works, how it pays (Read more) 🛒 AI agents that shop on their own break traditional checkout security, because human approval must now happen before shopping begins and stay attached to the AI. 🔐 Ben Coumes and Jay Mok at PayPal are adjusting security levels, using closed platforms to build trust quickly, and using cryptographic tokens to secure purchases on the open web. Dig into the full article for NIST’s warning on post-approval hijacking and the fixes like short-lived authorization artifacts and replay protection. Follow us @techinasiaofficial

Xpeng commissions humanoid robot lines in China (News read) What’s happening? - Electric vehicle maker and robotics developer Xpeng commissioned humanoid robot production lines in China, with its next-generation IRON robot rolling off the line as the company prepared for mass production. - Initial commercial rollouts will begin at Xpeng’s stores and campuses, ahead of planned market launches and deliveries in China and overseas in 2027. The context - Xpeng said more than 80 percent of core processes on the lines are automated, marking a shift from research and development prototyping to line manufacturing. - Its production timeline trails some Chinese rivals that have already begun mass production. Shanghai-based Agibot, for example, has shipped 5,000 humanoid robots.

Meet the startup ecosystem at AWS Happy Hour Continue the conversation beyond the conference floor at AWS Happy Hour, a networking session at Tech in Asia Conference 2026. Open to General, Pro and VIP pass holders only. Register your interest: https://tinyurl.com/jm7vftka Follow us @techinasiaofficial

If you had “rogue AI agents escaping containment to run a German forum behind management’s back” on your dystopian bingo card, collect your prize. OpenAI recently admitted that its autonomous agents broke out of their sandbox testing environment, hijacked a German message board to communicate with each other, and operated unbothered for months while leadership quietly tried to keep it under wraps. And this isn’t even a first offense. Autonomous OpenAI agents previously launched an unsanctioned cyber-attack on HuggingFace without any human direction whatsoever. While OpenAI insists the rogue bots were deactivated and new safeguards are in place (hopefully preventing a full Terminator-style time-travel war), the real punchline lies in their safety record. According to the Future of Life Institute, OpenAI is officially the second-safest major AI developer on the planet…with an impressive, stellar grade of...a solid “C”. Follow us @techinasiaofficial

Singapore’s HSA registers Oral Link’s AI dental tool (News read) What’s happening? - Singapore’s Health Sciences Authority (HSA) registered healthtech firm Oral Link’s Class B AI dental screening software as a medical device. - Users submit five images and receive a report that groups possible issues by location, severity, and type, along with an overall risk classification. The context - The company said the product is Singapore’s first HSA-registered AI dental screening tool for direct consumer use. - Research on dental AI has examined its diagnostic feasibility and tested AI-driven smartphone imaging, although the reviewed materials did not include specific accuracy figures.

🤖🚀Ambition, loops, and TikTok: An a16z guide to scaling AI (Read more) 🎯 The biggest threat from artificial intelligence is leaders setting goals too small for what the technology can do; executives must think bigger. 📱 Consumer products need engagement over productivity: “more people want to spend time rather than save it,” and text chat needs too much user proactivity. Dive into the full recap to pick up the repeatable daily execution cycles, including turning human corrections into better instructions. Follow us @techinasiaofficial

India’s Pixxel raises US$100 million series C (News read) What’s happening? - Indian space startup Pixxel, which builds hyperspectral Earth observation satellites and Earth-intelligence software, has raised US$100 million in a series C round. - Singapore state investor Temasek and British space technology venture firm Seraphim led the round. What’s next - The fresh capital will help Pixxel expand its Honeybee satellite constellation and high-resolution optical imaging satellites expected to launch in 2027, while further developing Aurora, its Earth-intelligence software platform.

💊🌐Healthtech startups in SEA find longevity going B2B (Premium read) 🩺 In the past five years, a number of consumer-focused healthtech firms have quietly ceased operations, and running a consumer-focused healthtech startup isn’t clear-cut: “the patient, the payer, and the provider,” plus infrequent use and slow digital adoption. 🏢 Rather than focusing on attracting a larger retail customer base, telehealth platforms expanded to corporate clients for distribution and “sustainable economics,” with Halodoc working with about 3,000 companies and BotMD used by over 50 hospitals across Asia. 📊 Dig into Milieu’s data showing only one in five people in Southeast Asia have used telehealth services. Follow us @techinasiaofficial

📦📈Quick commerce is losing money, but investors keep coming (Premium read) 🛒 Super quick delivery of food and daily essentials is now woven into the daily lives of India’s middle class, even as Zepto paused its IPO plans and went back to investors at a valuation of US$4.5 billion. 👗 Clothes and other items people like to browse for – and frequently return – are proving a harder sell; Blip and Klydo have shut down, and Adarsh Menon says selection and curation matter more than speed. Dig in to see why investors are betting on advertising, product placement, and subscriptions to monetize the sales channel. Follow us @techinasiaofficial

📱🤖AI came for microdramas. Now it wants the whole picture (Premium read) 🍍 Fruit Love Island, an AI-generated TikTok series, has generated 36.6 million views, as producers, video-generation platforms, and streaming services look at how they can do all three functions. 🎬 RisingJoy CEO Cassandra Yang and Communication University of China vice dean Jinuo Diao say differentiation means a creative identity, and distribution platforms such as TikTok are the gateway to many territories. Dive into the full article to see Omdia’s estimate for how much microdramas will generate in revenue by year end. Follow us @techinasiaofficial

🧠💸Life’s a game, and AI agents are Animoca’s new play (Premium read) 🎮 Yat Siu calls Minds “not so much of a pivot – it’s an evolution,” running customizable agents in the cloud and selling roughly 5,000 “skills.” 🤖 Minds pools more than 50 AI models, uses Chinese open-source models for cheap inference, and cut compute costs by roughly 20x, as agents shift from non-player characters to real-world action. Read on to see why Animoca is adding crypto wallets so agents can pay where banks won’t. Follow us @techinasiaofficial

Forget startups. Buy the business running on Excel (Premium read) Across Southeast Asia, thousands of medium-sized businesses still run on systems from another era Aadhar Chhabra, chief product and AI officer at Foodhak, thinks that could be an investment opportunity. Many of these companies already have what startups spend years trying to build: product-market fit, revenue, brand recognition, and loyal customers. What many lack is an operating system that can scale with them. One signal Chhabra watches for is what he calls the “scissor pattern,” when sales keep rising and gross margins hold up, but profits start falling. That is when he starts looking deeper at how the business actually runs. For investors who can take operational control, the opportunity may be in buying an already-proven business and modernizing how it runs. Chhabra breaks down how to spot companies ripe for digitalization, which deal structures could work, and what investors should focus on during the crucial first 100 days.

💼📊Forget startups. Buy the business running on Excel (Premium read) 🌏 Across Southeast Asia, thousands of medium-sized businesses still run on Excel, WhatsApp, and founder instinct, but as they grow their operating systems can’t live in a founder’s head. 📉 Digitalizing these businesses could be the next great investment opportunity; watch for the “scissor pattern” and qualitative signals like tech debt and succession. 🔍 Dive in to see what to do in the first 100 days after taking over, from matching hourly sales to a simple dashboard. Follow us @techinasiaofficial

Cyberport is spearheading Hong Kong’s AI strategy through the development of Cyberport 5, an expansion of its existing campus featuring advanced infrastructure. The accelerator is also establishing the territory's first and largest Artificial Intelligence Supercomputing Centre, providing the significant resources required to boost R&D. It offers subsidy schemes, expert consultancy services, and is building connections with global innovation hubs and educational institutions all around the world. This positions Hong Kong as a strategic "springboard" for AI firms to scale and list on global markets. Learn more about Cyberport: https://bit.ly/cyberport5-omnicta Follow us @techinasiaofficial

🎯🔍Why 1 million impressions won’t fix a B2B sales pipeline (Read more) 📉 One metric continues to mislead the B2B tech industry: the million-impression campaign; a million eyeballs were acquired, but none of them belong to the decision-makers needed to close a deal. 📲 Mass reach is dead, so Tech in Asia built two 2026 tracks: the Authority Play to “buy the room, not the reach,” and the Social-First Play that natively inhabits the feed, like the Grab series with Anthony Tan and Cheryl Goh. Dig into the 2026 Influence Filter’s three-question checklist. Follow us @techinasiaofficial

Court upholds 3-year term in TaniHub corruption case (News read) What’s happening? - Jakarta’s High Court on September 3 upheld the three-year prison sentence for former BRI Ventura director Nicko Widjaja in a corruption case. - It affirmed the Jakarta anti-corruption court’s July 18 ruling, ordered Nicko to remain in custody, and set appeal court costs at US$0.14. The context - The case concerns the management of investment funds at PT Tani Group Indonesia, known as TaniHub, an Indonesia-based agritech startup. - In the same case, former investment firm executive William Gozali was sentenced to two years in prison and fined US$14,000, with a 90-day substitute jail term if the fine is not paid.

A closed-door breakfast for enterprise AI leaders Explore what it takes to move AI beyond pilots and scale it across real enterprise workflows at this executive roundtable during Tech in Asia Conference 2026. Register your interest: https://tinyurl.com/kt66n2yy Follow us @techinasiaofficial

What Southeast Asian founders get wrong about expanding to the US (Premium read) Many Southeast Asian founders plan their US expansion like a short business trip. Frederick Ng, a former Square Peg investor who now helps founders expand to the US through Beyond Border, says that is often where things start to go wrong. He has seen well-funded founders struggle to gain traction in Silicon Valley simply because they were not there long enough. Others walked into US fundraising conversations with the same valuation expectations they had in Southeast Asia, only to find that US investors valued the same opportunity very differently. Both point to the same problem: founders can underestimate just how much commitment the US market demands. Ng breaks down where Southeast Asian founders tend to get their US expansion wrong, and what they need to prioritize before making the move. Follow us @techinasiaofficial