Nine companies from Singapore and the region bag top honours at 2026 Emerging Enterprise Awards

[SINGAPORE] Nine companies from Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Indonesia took top honours for their innovative and sustainable solutions at the 2026 Emerging Enterprise Awards on Monday (Oct 26) night.

Jointly organised by The Business Times and OCBC, the annual awards recognise young businesses for their entrepreneurial spirit, innovation and resilience. The awards, currently in its 19th edition, are open to businesses that are under 10 years old and have an annual turnover of up to S$20 million.

Close to 600 applications from a broad mix of industries were received this year. Applications from Hong Kong, Indonesia and Malaysia made up almost 40 per cent of the total, underscoring the growing regional appeal of the awards. A total of 28 companies were shortlisted as finalists.

Singapore-based Woosa Sleep and Hong Kong-based MediConCen received the Emerging Enterprise Award.

The category recognises emerging enterprises with enterprising mindsets that drive consistent, significant and sustainable growth. These businesses also display the ability to scale and expand outside their home markets.

Woosa Sleep is a Singapore-based sleep wellness company specialising in the design, manufacturing and direct-to-consumer sale of a range of premium mattresses, smart storage bed frames, adjustable bases and sleep-related lifestyle products tailored to the region’s tropical climate.

Hong Kong-based MediConCen develops and deploys an agentic artificial intelligence that fully automates the entire insurance claims process for insurers. Its solutions cover claims decisioning, real-time fraud detection, workflow automation and secure medical-network connectivity. The firm recently introduced an integrated payment solution with Mastercard that enables seamless claims-to-payment experiences. 

In the Most Promising Start-up Award category, Hong Kong-headquartered Alpha AI Technology and Malaysia-based Hyperscale DCS were named winners.

The award recognises enterprises that demonstrate a strong startup spirit and have a unique and commercially viable idea with long-term potential.

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Headquartered in Hong Kong, Alpha AI provides AI-powered inspection and asset-monitoring services that are sensor and platform-agnostic. Its customers include property and facility managers, developers, government agencies, utilities and operators of major structures. The firm is expanding its presence in South Korea and the Greater Bay Area in China.

Malaysia-based Hyperscale DCS is a specialist in data centre infrastructure focused on power, cooling and modular prefabricated systems. The company also operates across Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam and the United Kingdom.

“Diamonds”

The winners were honoured at an awards ceremony held at the JW Marriott Hotel Singapore South Beach on Monday, which was themed “Diamonds”.

In her speech at the event, guest of honour Senior Minister of State for Energy, Trade and Industry Low Yen Ling said the theme was an apt metaphor for award-winning enterprises, describing how they had “truly emerged as champions after an arduous growth journey” much like diamonds forming under tremendous pressure and polished to shine.

She said: “The path from the seed of bold ideas to scaling the rocks of challenges has brought enterprises to the pinnacle of success tonight.”

She noted that in recent years, companies have had to navigate a more complex and uncertain operating environment, ranging from geopolitical tensions and supply chain disruptions to rising business costs and changing consumer preferences.

“For emerging enterprises, all these pressures can be very daunting, given your relatively limited resources and the demands of scaling your businesses,” said Low, who is also Senior Minister of State for Culture, Community and Youth.

She added that resilient emerging enterprises are “not distinguished simply by the ability to withstand challenges, but also the willingness to adapt and find new ways to create value”.

That willingness to adapt was evident in the sustainability space. Low said she was “encouraged” that promising enterprises continue to vie for the Emerging Enterprise Sustainability Award as their ability to harness technology and innovation to develop clever solutions helps Singapore tackle climate impact and enhance its green sector.

This year, the award went to four companies: Singapore-based Matwerkz Technologies, Malaysia-based Geomax Rubber Innovative Products, Malaysia-based Lafre Global and Indonesia-based Parongpong Raw Lab.

Introduced in 2023, the award recognises emerging enterprises that are capitalising on growth opportunities in the green economy. These businesses embed sustainability in their operations while leveraging technology and new solutions to move towards low-carbon business models and industries.

Matwerkz Technologies develops thermal management, fire protection and functional materials technologies. Its flagship technology, Thermorphous, can improve battery performance and safety at the same time. The company has customers and partners across six key markets: Singapore, China, Japan, Malaysia, India and Europe.

Geomax Rubber Innovative Products uses patented recycling technology to turn rejected nitrile rubber gloves into value-added products. Its circular business model gives discarded materials a second life in products such as safety footwear, coasters and floor tiles.

Lafre Global is Malaysia’s first sanitary pad brand to introduce Braille packaging nationwide. The initiative addresses challenges faced by visually impaired women, who may have difficulty identifying and purchasing intimate care products independently. Lafre saids its sanitary pads also deliver 50 times the absorbency of conventional pads.

In Indonesia, Parongpong Raw Lab specialises in research, development and production focused on sustainability, the circular economy and material innovation. 

Through its patent-pending Prototech technology, the company converts low-value waste – particularly discarded fishing nets – and other hard-to-recycle materials into higher-value products such as structural building materials.

Parongpong Raw Lab works directly with coastal fishing communities and informal waste collectors in Indonesia.

This year, the Most Promising Sustainability Start-up Award went to Singapore’s XEL Lifecare (AIRE). The award recognises enterprises with a commercially viable green or sustainability-related business model that has long-term potential and a strong startup spirit.

AIRE is a startup specialising in adult incontinence care. Its products, co-developed with seniors in Singapore, include adult pull-up pants, diapers and overnight variants.

The winners received their awards from Low at the ceremony. The two winners of the Emerging Enterprise Award, as well as the four winners of the Emerging Enterprise Sustainability Award, each received a two-year, interest-free term loan of up to S$200,000 and a business consulting package from RSM Singapore worth S$15,000.

All nine winners will also be featured across BT’s print, digital, social media, radio and podcast channels in Singapore and the region.

BT editor Chen Huifen said: “The journey from submission to shortlist and finalist has put these young enterprises through close scrutiny of their ideas, execution and potential for growth. While not every finalist will walk away with the top honours, standing among the final selection is an exceptional achievement in itself.”

That recognition matters all the more given the climate in which these businesses operate, said Christie Chu, head of emerging business, international and global commercial banking at OCBC. 

“Young businesses today need more than access to capital to succeed,” she said. “They also require visibility, trusted networks, market access and the right ecosystem of support around them – all of which the EE Awards provide.”

The Emerging Enterprise 2026 Awards is supported by Mastercard, RSM - Singapore, the Agency for Science, Technology and Research, CBRE and Enterprise Singapore.