When people think of Southeast Asian tech, they often picture ride-hailing, fintech or e-commerce apps. But a quieter and arguably more consequential revolution is underway. In Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and beyond, a growing number of “deeptech” companies are tackling fundamental economic and societal challenges with science-driven solutions.
Here are the big tech stories shaping Southeast Asia in 2025
From clean water and green hydrogen to drone-powered infrastructure maintenance and genomic diagnostics, these firms are quietly building the real scaffolding for a more resilient, sustainable region.
Here are five standout deeptech companies leading the way.
How Aerodyne Group is leveraging drone technology, AI and big data to help businesses across industries
Based in Malaysia, Aerodyne Group is a “360DT3” enterprise services provider that combines drone tech, data analytics, and digital transformation. Its flagship platform, named DRONOS, has been built to carry out large-scale inspections of infrastructure like power-line networks, telecom towers, pipelines and even agricultural land using autonomous drones, LiDAR, thermal sensors and AI-driven analytics.
For example, in telecom or power-grid maintenance, Aerodyne’s system can reduce operational inspection costs by ~20%, process data ~70% faster than manual methods, by automating tasks, improving safety and delivering faster insights for better maintenance decisions and delivering better “asset awareness,” which helps avoid downtime or failures.
In agriculture, they use multispectral sensors on drones to monitor crop health, detect variability in soil or pest-related stress and optimise yield, which brings the farms a step toward “precision farming” perhaps more familiar in high-tech economies.
Recently, Aerodyne even expanded into renewables: the company took a 60% stake in a Danish wind-turbine-blade inspection firm (AtSite), aiming to serve the fast-growing global wind-energy sector.
In short, Aerodyne shows how drones powered by AI and data can solve real infrastructure, agriculture and energy problems across Southeast Asia and beyond.
Hydroleap: Reinventing water & wastewater treatment
Water is often overlooked compared to climate and energy, but as Southeast Asia’s cities expand and industries scale up, clean and dependable water is quickly becoming one of the region’s most urgent needs. Hydroleap, a Singapore-based company, is tackling just that.
Hydroleap develops proprietary electrochemical water treatment technologies (electrocoagulation and electrooxidation) to provide modular, plug-and-play systems that treat industrial wastewater, cooling-tower effluent or desalination, with reduced chemical use and energy footprint. And that matters for everything from data centres to semiconductor plants, agrifood processing, manufacturing and even palm-oil facilities, all sectors where water demand and wastewater output are major bottlenecks.
In 2025, Hydroleap closed a funding round raising USD 4.75 million, bringing total funding to nearly USD 12 million, signalling confidence from strategic investors (including EDBI and SG Growth Capital) in the growing demand for sustainable water infrastructure across APAC. Hydroleap was also named an awardee in the NextGen Tech 30 list, a regional platform spotlighting growth-stage companies transforming major sectors. With rising regulatory pressure on water usage, rising industrial demand and increasing environmental awareness, we’re excited to see what Hydroleap’s future looks like.
Biofourmis: AI-powered remote health & digital therapeutics
In healthtech, one of the biggest challenges globally, and especially in Southeast Asia with diverse geographies and gaps in healthcare access, is delivering effective care at scale. Biofourmis, founded in Singapore, tackles exactly that.
Biofourmis has developed Biovitals™, an AI-powered health analytics engine that uses data from wearables/biosensors to build personalised physiological models.
These models help clinicians monitor patients remotely, predict exacerbations or deterioration days in advance and intervene before serious events, offering remote patient management, “hospital-at-home,” timely discharge and post-acute care.
Some of Biofourmis’ reported outcomes: reductions in 30-day hospital readmissions by ~70%, ability to detect deterioration roughly 21 hours earlier and cost-of-care reductions up to ~38%. Their platform covers a range of therapeutic areas from heart failure, coronary disease, COPD, oncology to chronic pain, making it a flexible, scalable solution for chronic disease management and remote care.
At a time when hospital capacity, rising chronic-disease burden and resource constraints are pressing many Southeast Asian health systems, Biofourmis’ model shifts care from brick-and-mortar to remote, data-driven, personalised care.
SunGreenH2 is accelerating green hydrogen adoption with advanced electrolysers
The energy transition doesn’t just mean more solar panels. Clean hydrogen, produced using renewable power, is widely seen as a linchpin for decarbonising heavy industry, shipping, storage and more. SunGreenH2, a Singapore-based deep-cleantech startup, is addressing one of hydrogen’s key bottlenecks: expensive, inefficient electrolysers reliant on scarce precious metals.
SunGreenH2’s core innovation lies in nanotechnology-based coatings and advanced materials for electrodes and porous transport layers that dramatically improve electrolyser efficiency. Their claim: roughly 2× higher hydrogen output, 20% lower energy consumption and using 30× less precious metals compared to traditional electrolysers.
This makes green hydrogen more economical and scalable, helping reduce the dependence on scarce materials like iridium or platinum and enabling broader deployment in industries or geographies where cost is a barrier.
SunGreenH2 has gained recognition: placed on the Cleantech Group’s “APAC Cleantech 25” list, won the BNEF Pioneers Award 2023 and attracted grants and support from major energy players and regulators. They are already working with global electrolyser manufacturers and OEMs, positioning themselves as a foundational supplier, helping the world’s green-hydrogen economy scale faster.
Given Southeast Asia’s growing energy demand, industrialisation and need for cleaner alternatives, SunGreenH2’s work could pivotally shape a more sustainable energy future.
How Nusantics is using genomics & microbiome science for better health services and sustainability
Based in Indonesia, Nusantics takes a different but equally deep-tech path: genomics, microbiome science and molecular diagnostics.
What sets Nusantics apart is its ambition to “bio-engineer” solutions, applying Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS), PCR, microbiome profiling and related technologies not just for human health, but also for animals, agriculture, sustainability and “bio-solutions.” The company aims to reduce diagnostic gaps, enable precision medicine and support sustainable lifestyles through biological insights.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, their technology was deployed at scale: Nusantics reportedly processed well over 8 million COVID tests.
By bridging genomics, diagnostics, sustainability and consumer needs, Nusantics embodies the kind of biology-first deeptech that could underpin Southeast Asia’s future in health, food and environmental resilience.
Why this matters
These companies show that Southeast Asia’s deeptech future is not built only on social apps, e-commerce or fintech. It is rooted in science and is already solving heavy-lifting problems in infrastructure, water, energy, health and sustainability. The problems being addressed (ageing infrastructure, wastewater, chronic disease, climate change, energy transition) are global concerns, but they are deeply acute in Asia. Though these solutions are built in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia they may well scale globally.
That said, of course, deeptech is harder than building a mobile app. It often demands heavy R&D, regulatory compliance (especially health, water, energy), capital-intensive hardware or infrastructure and a longer time before returns.
Nevertheless, the fact that these companies are scaling, raising funds and investments, winning awards and forming partnerships suggests they are navigating these challenges and turning them into long-term advantages.
Building Southeast Asia’s future
The five companies above with their very different technologies are hinting at what Southeast Asia’s deep-tech backbone could look like: sustainable water systems, clean energy, smart infrastructure, precision health and biotech-driven sustainability.
They represent a shift in mindset: from building apps to building infrastructure — physical, biological, digital and environmental infrastructure for a future where “grow fast, burn resources” is no longer acceptable.
If Southeast Asia wants a tech future that is resilient, equitable and sustainable, deeptech has to move beyond buzzwords and become real infrastructure. That means sustained funding, regional collaboration, supportive policies and a willingness to back long, difficult builds instead of chasing quick wins. The next 2–5 years will determine whether the region builds those foundations or continues importing the technologies that will ultimately shape its future.