SINGAPORE, 9 June 2026 — AppWorks Accelerator has officially introduced its latest batch, AW#32, a cohort that has marked the leading startup incubation program’s deliberate shift toward deep tech through its specialized Requests for Startups (RFS) recruiting process – Manufacturing AI, Defense Tech, and On-Chain Banking specifically for this batch. Operating an equity-and-fee-free program, AppWorks continues to grow Asia’s largest startup network, which now encompasses 663 active companies and over 2,189 founders collectively generating USD 18.6 billion in annual revenues.
This cohort reflects a powerful evolution within the regional tech landscape: the convergence of critical hardware infrastructure with advanced software, alongside a highly mature wave of South Korean startups utilizing regional networks to execute cross-border expansion strategies..
As a long-term investor and strategic partner of AppWorks funds, K.S. Pua, Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Phison, joined the event to mentor and exchange insights with the next generation of founders.
Reflecting on his own journey, he shared: “As an engineer by training, I co-founded Phison with just a $1M seed fund – nothing more. We bootstrapped our way to profitability within our first year, turning Phison into the publicly traded memory solutions powerhouse it is today. As a founder, your survival depends on agility. In this AI era, Phison has pivoted to deliver energy-efficient, high-performance, and secure computing storage solutions, capturing strong market demand. For today’s founders, this is a golden age for AI entrepreneurship, but this window of opportunity will only last for the next 3 to 5 years – act now before it’s too late.”
To further accelerate this momentum, Phison is currently planning to launch a Corporate Venture Capital (CVC) arm to back startups and drive future growth.
Revolutionizing the Factory Floor: The Rise of Manufacturing AI
By tying into Taiwan’s global hardware manufacturing and supply chain ecosystem, AppWorks has positioned itself as the premier launchpad for builders deploying production-ready AI within complex industrial environments.
Leading this charge is Innowave Tech, an enterprise autonomous factory platform spearheaded by founder Jinsong, who brings over 25 years of semiconductor fab leadership experience from GlobalFoundries. Innowave Tech addresses critical industrial labor shortages and operational bottlenecks by replacing slow human defect inspection with a proprietary foundation model capable of millisecond-level, closed-loop autonomous decision-making. Deployed globally across semiconductor fabs, the system has successfully automated defect processes while driving measurable enhancements of over 10% in Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE).
Complementing this industrial revolution is LIPS, which delivers a comprehensive “Digital Eye” spatial compute infrastructure tailored for smart factories and smart cities, deploying high-precision 3D vision systems that have already secured tier-one validation from global automotive manufacturing giants such as BMW.
The New Cross-Border Pipeline: South Korean Startups Scaling Internationally
A standout paradigm shift in Batch #32 is the high concentration of mature South Korean ventures scaling across Greater Southeast Asia and Taiwan.
Leading this narrative is NOTAG KOREA, a commerce and logistics automation AI engine founded by Aiden, an entrepreneur with over a decade of experience in e-commerce-based trade and distribution. The platform automates logistics and distribution, overcoming the high entry barriers that prevent 99.7% of Korean brands from expanding into SEA. Through real-time data analysis and sales forecasting, their engine cuts inventory costs and expansion friction. To date, NOTAG KOREA scales 204 brands across 105 hubs, capturing USD 4 million in cumulative revenue.
Refundy introduces an automated refund optimization system for global B2B marketplaces when platform prices fluctuate, empowering merchants across 55 countries to recapture margins while driving strong, profitable monthly recurring revenue (MRR) of nearly USD 150,000.
Meanwhile, Krush breaks the mold of standard matchmaking apps by engineering a transnational social network and “social club” for global Asians, capitalizing on cross-border interaction to achieve a 57% Day-7 retention rate — proving that people are looking for more than matches; they are looking for a sense of belonging.
Driving Global Innovation Across Deep Tech, Web3, and Enterprise Software
The remaining cohorts of the Singapore showcase highlight highly specialized applications tackling complex multi-market operational workflows.
In the deep tech and dual-use space, unmanned vehicle architect Juan Herrero founded Hyarks to deploy autonomous fleets of marine vessels that source real-time oceanic data. This marketplace solution eliminates the USD 1.9 billion in searching waste endured by commercial fishing fleets while simultaneously tapping into a USD 500 million defense opportunity in APAC.
On the financial security front, Novo AI enables health insurers to detect fraud, abuse and hidden claims leakage within complex, unstructured medical and billing documents. Founded by former Google leaders, the company works with enterprise insurers like Tokio Marine and April Group to improve loss ratios, automate workflows and drive smarter decisions across 4 continents.
Infrastructure capabilities are further advanced by Pathors, which supplies a hyper-low-latency enterprise Voice AI engine delivering response times under one second to optimize call-center efficiencies.
Catering to the building sector, Rosary Labs deploys AI agents for Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industry, converting drawings from PDF to CAD to BIM, and automating BIM review and bill of quantity generation, reducing costly human error, ensuring compliance for public sectors and increasing tender success rate for top developers.
In market research, Decisions Lab shortens standard corporate go-to-market lifecycles through an AI buyer simulation engine that role-plays target consumer personas with high accuracy.
Last but not least, Shieldbase, founded by Diego Rojas, it’s an AI operating system for the enterprise with strong focus on governance and security
The presentation of these 11 standout teams at Demo Day #32 marks just the beginning of their cross-border growth journeys. By equipping this batch with rigorous pitch reframing, tailored corporate matchmaking, and localized landing infrastructure, AppWorks continues to solidify its role as the ultimate launchpad for deep technical moats and cross-border expansion in Greater Southeast Asia.
Alyssa Chen, Principal at AppWorks, noted: “AI is transitioning from a digital efficiency tool into a core operational necessity for frontline industries. In our AW#32 batch, founders are moving far beyond pure-software applications to embed AI directly into manufacturing and defense, sectors hardest hit by labor deficits. This industrial push inherently anchors their technology in Taiwan’s global hardware infrastructure, creating an unassailable tech moat that is now drawing mature Korean startups to actively scale into our GSEA platform. At AppWorks, we are actively enabling this next generation of pan-Asian winners to orchestrate cross-border resources and execute deep, real-world localization.”
About AppWorks
Founded in 2009, AppWorks is one of Asia’s leading startup accelerators and venture capital firms, supporting over 663 active startups and 2,189 founders. Its equity-and-fee-free accelerator program nurtures founders at every stage, backed by strong regional networks and deep alumni engagement. By focusing on frontier AI and specialized Requests for Startups (RFS) verticals, AppWorks positions itself at the forefront of the region’s digital transformation, providing founders with institutional capital, mentorship, and a vibrant community. For more information, visit appworks.tw.
AppWorks Demo Day #32 Singapore Pitching Teams
- Innowave Tech (SG): An enterprise autonomous factory platform powered by a proprietary industrial foundation model enabling millisecond-level, closed-loop defect detection and operational decisions.
- NOTAG KOREA (KR): An AI-driven cross-border operations engine that unifies multi-country e-commerce channels and logistics for globalizing Korean fashion and beauty brands.
- Refundy (KR): An automated B2B marketplace refund optimization platform that helps international merchants automatically recapture lost margins from platform price fluctuations.
- Krush (KR): A transnational social network and physical social club engineered for global Asians utilizing AI anti-fraud verification and high-intent community matching.
- LIPS (TW): High-precision 3D vision systems and spatial compute infrastructure designed for industrial automation, smart factories, and automotive manufacturing.
- Hyarks (TW): An autonomous marine vessel and drone fleet establishing a global data marketplace to optimize commercial far-sea fishing and regional maritime defense.
- Rosary Labs (MY): Specialized AI agents for the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industry that automate manual drafting conversions and quantity estimation workflows.
- Pathors (TW): A hyper-low-latency enterprise Voice AI infrastructure engine delivering real-time voice response times under one second to optimize call-center conversion.
- Decisions Lab (HK): An AI-powered buyer research simulation engine that role-plays target consumer personas to compress corporate go-to-market validation cycles.
- Novo AI (SG): An advanced anomaly detection and risk management model engineered by ex-Googlers to systematically catch paper-heavy leakage and billing abuses for global insurance brands.
- Shieldbase (SG): An enterprise-grade data security and privacy infrastructure engine focusing on automated sensitive data de-identification and cross-border compliance.
