Over the past few months, eleven Korean startups have been doing exactly that through the 2025 Korea IT Cooperation Center (KICC) ICT Growth Program—a government-backed initiative designed to help promising innovators enter the fast-growing ASEAN and Oceania region. Supported by the Ministry of Science and ICT, NIPA, and managed by KICC in Singapore together with Plug and Play, the cohort has been deep in workshops, investor discussions, market readiness sessions, and real-world immersion. It all built toward a Demo Day hosted alongside Singapore’s SWITCH 2025, in partnership with the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), giving the teams a chance to finally showcase what they’ve been polishing behind the scenes.
The group is a striking mix of emerging fields—AI, cybersecurity, digital education, quantum computing, synthetic data, autonomous robotics, and medical intelligence—reflecting both Korea’s strong technological roots and its ambition to lead in next-generation deep tech. The participating startups include BRYTN, CUBIG, Enhans, Hudson AI, Infofla, MTS Company, Sierra BASE, Glorang, Nation A, Norma, and Bigwave Robotics. Each brings a different flavor of innovation, but they all share a common goal: scale beyond Korea and plug into one of the world’s most dynamic digital growth corridors.
During the program’s Singapore market immersion from October 23 to 31, the teams took part in Plug and Play’s APAC Summit, met regional VCs, engaged with corporate partners, and tested their market assumptions with buyers and ecosystem players. The learning curve was steep, but the energy surrounding the conversations—especially around commercialization, regulatory alignment, and partnerships—felt meaningful. For several teams, initial talks have already progressed into PoC discussions or planned roadmap integration. That’s usually a good sign.
Each of the featured companies tells a slightly different story of where technology is heading. Hudson AI is pushing the boundaries of expressive, real-time multilingual dubbing—imagine live sports or gaming with instant localization that preserves tone and character performance. Bigwave Robotics is leaning into Robotics-as-a-Service, connecting data-driven robot recommendations with seamless deployment and control—a practical automation layer for industries hesitant about complicated robotics adoption. Enhans is quietly building domain-specific AI agents that think and act across workflows, while Norma is positioning itself as Asia’s fast-growing quantum technology leader, blending quantum cloud services, computing hardware, and quantum AI. Others are targeting creative tooling, smart education, synthetic data, infrastructure inspection, or advanced IT automation—all tapping into sectors that ASEAN governments and regional enterprises are actively investing in.
The Demo Day opened with remarks from Mr. Kim Jun Gyum, representing the Embassy of the Republic of Korea, and a keynote from IMDA’s Ms. Joanne Teh, who unpacked how Singapore’s digital innovation framework and Open Innovation Platform can accelerate ecosystem integration for global startups. It set an optimistic tone: if technology is truly borderless, then platforms and policy need to make scalability borderless too.
Beyond the pitch stage, the program continues with additional immersion tracks in Jakarta and Sydney—a thoughtful decision considering Indonesia’s booming digitalization push and Australia’s demand for enterprise AI and robotics solutions. For companies entering the region, these stepping-stone market tests are often what determine whether a product simply exists—or really lands.
Reflecting on the momentum, Mr. Yum Changyeol, Head of KICC Singapore, noted that all eleven startups underwent a rigorous selection process and now have a real opportunity to evolve into regional market leaders. His comment didn’t sound like a slogan—it felt more like a challenge the teams seemed ready to accept.
As the 2025 KICC ICT Growth Program moves forward, it signals more than a one-off acceleration effort. It marks a strengthening bridge between Korea’s deep tech ecosystem and Southeast Asia’s rapidly digitizing economy—where governments, corporates, and investors are increasingly hungry for solutions that move beyond buzzwords and toward execution. Somewhere between the networking rooms, pitch refinements, and late-night product tweaks, that bigger idea becomes visible: open innovation isn’t just collaboration—it’s economic alignment.
And if these eleven companies continue on the trajectory they’ve started, the next time we hear from them, some may no longer be referred to as “emerging.” They may be the ones helping define what digital transformation in the region looks like.
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