[SINGAPORE] From predictive healthcare and next-generation optics to geospatial mapping and industrial artificial intelligence (AI), these six companies are showing how technology can transform the way we live, work and stay healthy.
They are among the finalists of this year’s Emerging Enterprise Awards. Established in 2008, the awards recognise startups and young businesses across Singapore and Asia, providing resources to boost their growth.
Such high-performing businesses have an enterprising mindset, consistently pursue growth and are always on the lookout for new markets.
This year’s awards are co-presented by The Business Times and OCBC, and supported by Mastercard; Rajah & Tann Asia; RSM Singapore; the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*Star); Enterprise Singapore; and Paia from CBRE.
Making cutting-edge science accessible to all
From early genomic screening to cell therapy and beyond, Alps Global is redefining healthcare by uniting science, compassion and scale under one platform
Alps Global Holding is an integrated biotechnology platform that unites molecular diagnostics, Current Good Manufacturing Practice cell manufacturing, wellness and medical services, and the clinical translation of advanced therapies under one ecosystem.
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Our mission is to build a fair healthcare ecosystem that makes cutting-edge science accessible and affordable to everyday healthcare.
The company was founded from a clinician’s conviction that late diagnosis – especially in oncology – costs lives. With early genomic screening, survival rates can rise dramatically, driving our focus on shifting healthcare from reactive treatment to proactive prevention through early detection and personalised therapeutics.
Alps’ uniqueness lies in its integration and control across verticals. We are not a single lab, but a full ecosystem linking sequencing, manufacturing, clinical capabilities and wellness services.
This structure ensures quality, speed and translational continuity. Our dual track of innovation and sustainability allows us to pursue frontier research and development (R&D) – from mRNA vaccines to CAR-T and Natural Killer cell therapies – while generating steady revenue through our wellness and medical centres.
We are expanding across multiple fronts. Alps is preparing for a Nasdaq listing at a valuation of about US$1.6 billion, marking our evolution from regional to global platform.
In partnership with Johor Land, we are developing BioValley in Johor: a 7,290-acre biotechnology hub with labs, vaccine capacity, incubators and R&D facilities. Through BioValley, we will nurture startups, academic partnerships and talent pipelines, anchoring a sustainable biotech ecosystem.
Early on, we faced funding scarcity and talent gaps, but overcame these by committing company capital to R&D, developing internal training programmes, and forging partnerships with academic and industry experts.
Our long-term vision is to position Alps as Asia’s global biotech platform, driving equitable access to advanced therapies and leaving a legacy where science, compassion and scale converge.
Powering a world of zero downtime
Groundup.ai turns data into real-time intelligence by helping maintenance teams predict, explain and prevent failures before they happen
Groundup.ai equips maintenance teams with real-time intelligence through industrial Internet of Things, proprietary sensors and agentic AI. Our goal is simple yet ambitious: to keep mission-critical equipment running at peak performance with zero downtime, saving clients millions without complex deployments or steep learning curves.
It all started with a problem. When our founder and CEO Leon Lim ran one of Singapore’s largest blockchain mining operations, frequent overheating and hardware failures caused cascading financial losses.
Waiting for things to break before fixing them clearly was not sustainable. As a musician, Lim was always attuned to subtle changes in tone and pitch. Machines do the same; they “speak” when something’s off. That insight sparked Groundup.ai: a way to listen to machines, detect early signs of failure and act before breakdowns happen.
Our uniqueness lies in Cognitive Maintenance. We go beyond predicting failures; our AI explains why a fault will occur, what exactly is wrong and how to fix it.
It functions like a virtual engineer, learning from operational behaviour and advising teams in real time, reducing false alarms and improving decision-making. By extending asset life and reducing waste, we also help clients advance their sustainability goals.
We are expanding across Asia and the Middle East, working with clients such as the Republic of Singapore Navy, Wings Group Indonesia, Coca-Cola Bottling Saudi Arabia, Hamad International Airport, and the Doha Metro.
Guided by the Japanese philosophy of san-gen shugi – solving problems from the ground – we are now bringing Cognitive Maintenance to utilities and critical infrastructure, and exploring new markets in Australia, Europe and North Asia.
Our vision is a world of zero downtime, where machines self-adjust before faults occur and engineers focus on creation, not crisis. Ultimately, we aim to become the operating system layer for industrial uptime across Asia and the Middle East, transforming maintenance from reaction to foresight.
Bringing predictive intelligence to everyday healthcare
Through its digital-twin platform, Mesh Bio enables clinicians to anticipate chronic disease progression and recommend the next best action
Mesh Bio is a deep-tech digital health startup that develops “digital twins” of patients to help doctors predict disease earlier and personalise care. A digital twin is a data-driven model of how a person’s metabolism and physiology function, allowing us to forecast risks and recommend the next best action, not just react when things go wrong.
Our founding team brings together three complementary worlds. Co-founder and CEO Andrew Wu came from diagnostics development, where he saw how earlier insights could drive better clinical decisions.
Arsen Batagov, a former bioinformatics scientist from A*Star, translates biological understanding into clinically actionable algorithms and software, while Dr Melvin Heng, a healthcare leader, understands the realities of care delivery.
Together, we started Mesh Bio to close the gap between “data collected” and “patient outcomes”, beginning with diabetes and kidney disease, which affect millions in Asia.
Most tools look backwards at what has already happened. Our digital-twin platform, HealthVector, looks forward, reconstructing how a patient’s biology is likely to change and highlighting which interventions could alter that path.
HealthVector Diabetes, approved by the Health Sciences Authority as a medical device, predicts chronic kidney disease in diabetes patients. It has been validated with SingHealth and NHG Health, and published in peer-reviewed journals.
Three things set us apart: a mechanistic foundation that makes predictions transparent; clinical-grade, regulator-approved software; and seamless integration into existing hospital and screening systems.
We are scaling across South-east Asia and Hong Kong with hospital groups and screening providers, while partnering with life-science companies on kidney-protective and cardio-metabolic therapies.
Our vision is a future where every person has a digital twin guiding care from prevention to chronic management, where healthcare shifts from reactive to proactive, and Mesh Bio becomes the trusted operating layer enabling that transformation.
Reinventing optics for the semiconductor age
MetaOptics bridges electronics and optics with scalable glass-based metalenses designed for the world’s most advanced technologies
MetaOptics is a vertically integrated semiconductor-optics company pioneering glass-based metalens solutions enhanced by AI-driven image processing.
Using advanced optical design and a scalable 300 mm deep-ultraviolet lithography process, it powers next-generation applications in co-packaged optics, mobile, augmented reality/virtual reality (AR/VR), automotive and other emerging markets.
Headquartered in Singapore, MetaOptics delivers high-performance optics with the reliability and scalability demanded by today’s most innovative technology brands.
Founded on the conviction that optics should be manufactured with the same precision, scalability, and reliability as semiconductors, MetaOptics draws on founder Mark Thng’s two decades of experience in advanced equipment manufacturing and high-volume consumer optics.
Earlier, he helped build sputtering and chemical-polishing systems for a leading US semiconductor equipment company, and later led engineering programmes for optical-sensing modules used in flagship consumer devices.
These experiences revealed a clear gap: While electronics advanced rapidly, optics remained constrained by legacy glass-grinding and plastic-moulding methods. Thng saw the opportunity to merge semiconductor-grade processes with AI-driven optical design, creating optics that could scale with modern electronics.
That vision led to MetaOptics, built to pioneer the next generation of wafer-level metalens solutions.
MetaOptics develops glass-based metalenses that are thinner, lighter and more heat-resistant than conventional lenses. Using semiconductor fabrication, we produce lenses on both 100 mm and 300 mm wafer formats to support high-mix prototyping and mass production.
Our AI imaging algorithms further enhance optical performance over time.
We are expanding into AR/VR, automotive sensing and data-centre optics, partnering with system integrators, foundries and research institutes.
Our long-term vision is to establish MetaOptics as a global leader in glass-based metalens technology, and anchor a next-generation optics ecosystem in Singapore serving markets worldwide.
Mapping the future of real estate with geospatial intelligence
Mogul turns location data into smart property tools that enhance transparency and efficiency across real estate
Mogul is a geospatial company that collects data associated with specific locations and builds them into maps.
We apply this data to property-industry solutions, from multiple-keyword searches that help users find properties with greater ease and speed, to automated valuation models that factor in geographical attributes such as proximity to parks, floor level or nearby major roads. We also offer 3D visualisations of properties that simulate sun-shadow patterns at different times of the day, giving users a fuller understanding of a property’s surroundings.
The idea came when co-founder and CEO Gerald Sim was searching for properties and realised that most platforms were like Yellow Pages: basic listings with limited insight.
Missing or inaccurate geographical information often surfaced only after visiting the site. Sim thought: Why not provide richer data so users can make better decisions before viewing?
After launching the multiple-keyword search, we extended our solutions to improve productivity across the property-transaction value chain.
Our automated valuation model incorporates geographical attributes for more accurate assessments than traditional comparisons of past transactions. This has helped banks achieve faster, more cost-effective property valuations, marking our pivot into the B2B sector.
Our goal is to enhance productivity in real estate by providing data-driven tools that make searches and valuations more efficient, reduce bias, and pave the way for fully automated transactions, supporting Singapore’s Smart Nation vision.
Our 3D map also allows developers to integrate unbuilt projects into existing environments, potentially replacing physical showroom models and promoting sustainability.
Having begun in the B2C space, we are now expanding B2B operations in Thailand and Vietnam, with subscription-based models for banks and regional partnerships.
Our long-term vision is to pioneer a fully digital, automated and regionally scalable real-estate ecosystem.
Helping Singaporeans live well, without pain
The Health Collective integrates chiropractic, osteopathy, physiotherapy and dental care to relieve pain and promote lasting well-being
The Health Collective is a group of healthcare clinics in Singapore offering chiropractic, osteopathy, physiotherapy and dental care under one umbrella.
Our journey began in 2018, when our co-owner, Amelia Lee, returned from Harvard Business School, where she was introduced to entrepreneurship through acquisition: taking over small and medium-sized enterprises with no succession plans.
Together, Lee and co-founder Aileen Seah began searching full-time for a business to buy. During this search, we came across Chiropractic Singapore, a small chain whose founder was looking to exit.
At the time, Seah was in the late stages of pregnancy and experiencing aches and pains. After trying chiropractic care and feeling real improvement, we became convinced of its value and potential.
We acquired Chiropractic Singapore in 2019. A year later, our friend Goh Xin Ying, who had lived with scoliosis, joined us, and in 2021 we expanded further with City Osteopathy & Physiotherapy and WeSmile Dental Care. We wanted to build businesses that last and serve a greater good. Coming from corporate and government backgrounds, we believed traditional businesses could be run better, with more heart, purpose and alignment between people and performance.
We also saw how many Singaporeans quietly live with chronic pain that’s often dismissed amid daily life. We wanted to create awareness that pain is not “normal”, and that with the right care, people can truly live well.
What sets The Health Collective apart is our integrated, patient-first approach. We run all core functions – marketing, operations, partnerships and technology – in-house, allowing clinicians to focus fully on care.
Across our network, chiropractors, osteopaths, physiotherapists and dentists collaborate seamlessly, emphasising posture, spinal health, movement and preventive care to help patients build long-term well-being.
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