APAC Summit 2025: Connecting Innovation Across Borders
- mgan68
- 14 minutes ago
- 6 min read
This year’s APAC Summit 2025 in Singapore successfully brought together over 50 startups, 30+ corporate partners, investors, and government leaders from across Asia, Europe, and the U.S. We convened to explore how innovation, policy, and collaboration are shaping the next phase of growth in the region.
Hosted by Plug and Play, the summit highlighted emerging trends across Maritime, Smart Cities, Financial Services, and Market Access, alongside exclusive startup showcases, fireside chats, and key partnership announcements.
From regenerative investment strategies to agentic AI and sustainable shipping, the event reflected the region’s evolving innovation landscape—one driven by collaboration and purpose.
Let’s revisit the highlights and key moments that defined this year’s APAC Summit.
Announcements and Corporate Panels
The Summit kicked off with the announcement of 17 new corporate partners, with several joining under the EDB Corporate Venture Launchpad 3.0 initiative. This is a significant milestone that underscores the rapid growth of collaboration between corporates and startups in Southeast Asia.
The keynote by May Liew, CEO & Executive Director of OCTAVE Capital, centered on “Investments and Innovation in Asia’s Regenerative Economy.” Liew discussed how innovation must aim for net positive impact, detailing the challenges of scaling ventures in climate, energy, and maritime. She also shared insights on the "collective conviction" required to drive systemic change and announced a unique new fund focused on the blue economy.
The summit featured a series of expert panels and chats, each focused on critical topics shaping industries today:
Charting a New Course: Innovation and Collaborative Ventures in Maritime Singapore
This panel featured key maritime players, from regulators to port and terminal operators. Our panelists explored how digitalization, decarbonization, and cross-sector collaboration are transforming operational efficiency and ensuring Singapore's role as a leading global maritime hub.
Future-Ready Cities: Advancing Security, Connectivity, and Urban Innovation
Bringing together perspectives from government, real estate, and digital innovation, this session discussed the critical importance of secure infrastructure, ethical AI use, and resilient connectivity for sustaining growth and public trust in Southeast Asian cities.
IFCs in the Age of Fintech, AI, and Digital Assets
This fireside chat focused on how global financial centers are adapting to rapid technological disruption. Experts highlighted the challenges and opportunities in ensuring effective governance and remaining competitive amid the rise of Fintech, AI, and Digital Assets.
Gateway ASEAN: Scaling Tech, Talent, and Trade Across Borders
The session brought together diverse perspectives on internationalization, policy design, and market access. The conversation explored how governments, trade agencies, and innovators can collaborate to unlock opportunities in ASEAN's fast-growing digital economy.
Startup Pitches & Trend Reports
The summit’s second half turned the spotlight to emerging startups and industry trend reports across key verticals, revealing the technologies and ideas shaping Asia’s innovation future.
Maritime Showcase
The maritime showcase opened with a dynamic trend report titled "Navigating the Future: Tech Horizons in Maritime Innovation." Drawing on Plug and Play’s proprietary Tech Scan of over 1,600 observations worldwide, this presentation highlights how startups are redefining maritime operations across three horizons, from immediate efficiency gains to long-term disruptive innovation. Key themes included the rise of AI-driven autonomous operations, next-generation manufacturing, and clean energy transitions, underscoring Asia-Pacific’s growing role as a global leader in maritime technology and sustainability.
Following which, startups from our PIER71 program pitched about how AI, IoT, and automation are redefining safety, compliance, and energy efficiency across the maritime industry — from real-time hazard detection to carbon-neutral fuel innovations. These solutions highlighted how technology can propel the maritime sector toward a more efficient and sustainable future.
Startup Showcase: KinetixPro, Perfomax, NexusOcean, MarinaChain, CrecTECH, Seatrick, GreenCop
Smart Cities Showcase
During the Smart Cities Showcase, two key innovation clusters within Plug and Play’s ecosystem were featured: startups from the CyberBoost Build Program, and a cohort of deep-tech startups from Taiwan — each bringing forward technologies that strengthen digital safety, resilience, and urban intelligence across the region.
Startups from the CyberBoost Build Program presented solutions focused on strengthening digital trust and defending modern urban infrastructure. Their technologies spanned agentic AI cybersecurity, real-time deepfake detection, secure access management, threat intelligence automation, and privacy-first enterprise data governance. Together, they showcased how securing future cities begins with securing the digital foundations they rely on.
Startup Showcase: Cyberse, AxisNow, Deepfaic, Protective IQ, digiDations, Shieldbase
Taiwan’s startups brought a strong foundation of deep tech, AI, medtech, and advanced manufacturing into the Smart Cities track. Their innovations covered meta-optics, semiconductor systems, medical diagnostics, AI-powered manufacturing, and biotech-enabled healthcare tools — illustrating how smart city development extends far beyond IoT and into next-generation hardware, precision engineering, and life-enhancing technologies.
Startup Showcase: LIGHT MOMENTUM TECHNOLOGY CORP., Phasetrum Inc., MetaRosetta, Morale AI, Anivance AI, ST Medical, Tenfold AI, EndoSemio Co., Ltd.
Financial Services Showcase
This year marked a major milestone for Plug and Play with the launch of GIFT International Fintech Innovation Hub (IFIH) in partnership with GIFT City, India’s International Financial Services Centre. Through GIFT IFIH, we’ve introduced two programs — one supporting established fintech startups scaling into global markets, and another nurturing early-stage founders as they move from idea to MVP to product-market-fit.
At APAC Summit 2025, three startups from our GIFT IFIH batches took the stage to showcase their innovative solutions transforming the future of finance. Their technologies span digital equity management, real-world asset tokenisation, and deep-tier supply chain financing — all designed to make financial systems more transparent, efficient, and accessible across borders.
Startup Showcase: Xaults, Spydra, Qapita
Italian Trade Agency (ITA) Demo Day
As part of this year’s APAC Summit, we also hosted the Italian Trade Agency (ITA) Demo Day, featuring startups from the Global Startup Program 2025 — an initiative supporting Italian founders as they expand into Singapore and the broader Asia-Pacific region through cross-border innovation and collaboration. The session celebrated Italy’s growing role in the regional tech ecosystem, offering a glimpse into how design, AI, and sustainability continue to drive its global competitiveness.
The Demo Day opened with remarks from Dr. Giorgio Calveri, Italian Trade Commissioner, and H.E. Dante Brandi, Ambassador of Italy to Singapore and Brunei, before moving into pitches from nine Italian startups. Each presented solutions spanning food-tech, AI, tourism, and digital transformation — showcasing how Italian innovation and creativity are scaling into new markets through Plug and Play’s ecosystem.
Startup Showcase: Station Deus, Travel Verse srl, Connetia, Healthyfood srl, Beep, dbridge srl, PugliAI, BILLD, BCC Studio
Market Access Showcase
This year’s Market Access Showcase brought together founders from Korea, Cambodia, and Japan through Plug and Play’s cross-border programs. From AI and robotics to fintech, proptech, edtech, and next-generation digital tools, these startups reflected the region’s momentum in scaling technology across borders and into global markets.
Representing Korea’s early-stage and growth-focused founders, the Global Startup Academy (GSA) cohort showcased innovations across lifestyle, consumer tech, AI-driven digital platforms, and ecommerce enablement. Their pitches highlighted Korea’s creative, user-centric approach to product building — and the strong potential for these solutions to expand internationally.
Startup Showcase: TR, Klenair, DEV.D, K-STYLE HUB, The Captain, Inc., 276 Holdings Inc.
Startups from the Korea IT Cooperation Center (KICC) presented deep-tech and enterprise-ready solutions ranging from AI agents and AIoT security to immersive 3D motion intelligence and personalized learning technologies. These founders demonstrated Korea’s strength in engineering-driven innovation and globally scalable digital infrastructure.
Startup Showcase: Norma, Glorang, Nation A, Enhans
The Innovate Cambodia Accelerator Program featured founders building solutions across mobility, fintech inclusion, digital health, education, agriculture supply chains, and proptech. Their pitches highlighted the rapid digital transformation happening in Cambodia — and the ecosystem’s growing readiness for regional market entry.
Startup Showcase: Bamnang Academy, BookMeBus, CheckinMe, FinLuy, Jobify, KonektAgri, Pilltech, Pointer Property
Startups from Japan showcased strong technical depth in cybersecurity, data intelligence, and applied AI. Their pitches reflected Japan’s continued leadership in precision engineering and high-trust digital systems, designed for global adoption across enterprise and public-sector use cases.
Startup Showcase: OSINTech Inc., PITTAN Inc.
From the announcement of new partners to groundbreaking startups across four verticals, this year’s summit showcased the region’s relentless drive toward a smarter, more sustainable future.
A heartfelt thank you to all our participants — startups, speakers, investors, partners, and attendees — for contributing to another successful edition of the APAC Summit. We look forward to continuing these conversations and collaborations in the months ahead.
