Despite global economic uncertainties, Southeast Asia startups 2025 continue to thrive. With its young population, rapidly improving infrastructure and expanding digital connectivity, the region has become a hotbed of innovation in 2025. From AI‑driven marketing tools in Singapore to gamified healthcare platforms in Indonesia, entrepreneurs are transforming everyday challenges into scalable tech solutions
What makes a startup “promising”? We looked at several key factors: recent funding or prestigious programme milestones, tangible market traction, genuinely innovative product offerings and the potential to scale regionally or even globally. Each of our five picks ticks at least a few of these boxes.
Why second-tier cities are Southeast Asia’s next tech hotspots
Good Bards
Singapore-based Good Bards calls itself an “autonomous marketing department”, using Agentic AI to plan, produce and deploy multi-channel campaigns in minutes. Named one of Echelon 2025’s Top 10 startups through the e27 TOP100 programme, Good Bards also joined the Google for Startups Accelerator: AI First (Singapore).
What sets Good Bards apart is its combination of institutional recognition and practical, scalable AI infrastructure that empowers mid‑sized firms. Its platform allows SMEs to design and launch full-funnel, multilingual campaigns without juggling multiple tools or teams. By pairing generative AI with user-friendly automation, Good Bards is making high-quality marketing accessible to smaller businesses — a huge advantage in a competitive digital economy.
bubbME.AI
Indonesia’s bubbME.AI takes on a pressing but often overlooked challenge: adolescent health and safety. Its gamified AI platform helps tackle bullying and gender-based violence by offering education, guidance and emotional support through a Tamagotchi-style bot.
Recognised as “Most Innovative” in e27’s 2025 roundup of SEA startup wins, bubbME.AI blends edutech, healthtech and social impact in a way that resonates with younger users. By addressing UN Sustainable Development Goals on health and gender equality, it’s proving that technology can be both engaging and life-changing.
Mosaic Solutions
Philippines-based Mosaic Solutions stands out among emerging tech companies in SEA for its bold moves to transform the way businesses manage sales, payments and customer engagement.n early 2025, the company acquired HelixPay, an e-commerce, venue and ticketing enablement platform, and teamed up with payment firm PayMongo to create the country’s first unified commerce platform.
By integrating point-of-sale, digital payments and e-commerce into a single system, Mosaic now processes over PHP 4 billion (around USD 69 million) in annualised transaction value. The platform allows restaurants, retailers and entertainment venues to accept tap-to-pay and QR payments through one POS terminal, track real-time inventory, and consolidate branch-level data for smarter decision-making.
An advisory board packed with fintech and tech veterans—including PayMongo’s Jojo Malolos and Luis Sia, HelixPay’s Andrew Koger, and Dan Marogy (formerly of Foodpanda and 7-Eleven Philippines)—is helping steer the company’s growth. By bridging digital and physical commerce with enterprise-grade analytics, Mosaic is positioning itself as a leader in Southeast Asia’s integrated retail tech space.
QueQ
Thailand’s QueQ app, designed to let users join queues remotely, has surged to 16 million users, with a record 400,000 new sign‑ups in June 2025 alone. In a region where waiting in line remains a daily routine, QueQ’s explosive growth underscores how elegantly simple a user experience can produce widespread adoption.
The app’s popularity spans sectors from restaurants to public services and has even extended to tourism. As of July 2023, Khao Yai National Park introduced QueQ for entrance ticket purchases, allowing visitors to skip traditional queues and buy tickets entirely via the app, enhancing visitor experience.
What sets QueQ apart is its intuitive design: users simply grab a virtual queue number from their phone and carry on with their day until alerted that their turn is approaching. This minimalist yet powerful solution solves a universal pain point across Southeast Asia’s fast-paced urban centres.
Prefer
Singapore’s Prefer is reinventing coffee and cocoa with a bean-free alternative made from upcycled ingredients. Using proprietary fermentation technology, it transforms surplus bread, okara (tofu pulp) and brewers’ spent grain into products that replicate the aroma and flavour of traditional coffee and cocoa — all while cutting carbon emissions by up to 85 per cent.
In 2025, Prefer secured US$4.2 million in pre-Series A funding, launched a soluble coffee “extender” powder, and expanded into bean-free cocoa. Its first FMCG ingredient deal came through a co-branded Coconut Latte ice cream with gourmet retailer Melvados, marking its entry into sustainable consumer goods.
Positioned as a B2B ingredient supplier rather than a direct competitor to coffee producers, Prefer is winning over partners with its ability to lower costs and environmental impact without compromising taste. What sets Prefer apart is its holistic approach: it addresses the twin challenges of climate impact and rising commodity prices
Outlook for Southeast Asia’s startup ecosystem
Venture capital is flowing back into Southeast Asia, with AI and fintech leading the charge. Embedded finance is increasingly woven into regional marketplaces, while sustainability-driven and health-focused startups are gaining ground as both consumer demand and investor priorities align towards purpose and impact. This renewed momentum sets the stage for the next generation of unicorns to emerge in sectors that seamlessly combine technology with social value.
Over the next three to five years, we expect to see AI-powered B2B tools expand their reach, embedded fintech solutions become a standard feature in everyday apps and green-tech and climate-resilient services move into the mainstream. Femtech and healthtech will continue to grow, driven by demographic trends and rising health awareness. The strongest contenders will be those that blend deep tech capabilities with purpose-led innovation and scalable business models, cementing their place among the most influential emerging tech companies in SEA shaping the region’s future economy and global influence.