Renowned business magazine Forbes released yesterday (May 16) its ninth edition of its 30 under 30 Asia, which recognises entrepreneurs, innovators, and rising stars under 30 in the Asia Pacific region.
They have been recognised by Forbes for their innovation in navigating the ever-changing business landscape. Given that sustainability has become a key pillar of many organisations, the honorees are also commended for going the extra mile in their pursuit of sustainability.
This year, 21 countries and territories are represented in this list, with India leading with a whooping 86 honorees. China and Japan are tied for second, presenting 32 honorees each, while Singapore proudly boasts 27 honorees. Australia follows close behind with 26 honorees, and Indonesia rounding up the top five with 18 honorees.
Out of the long list of 300 notable honorees, 35 outstanding individuals across different industries hail from Singapore, including 10 non-Singaporeans who are based and operate from here.
Out of these 35 individuals, we have narrowed the list down to spotlight entrepreneurs and why they deserve to be inducted into this year’s 2024 cohort.
1. Johnson Lim (29), co-founder of GetGo
Category: Consumer Technology
Together with his co-founder and CEO, Toh Ting Feng, Lim launched GetGo in 2021 after seeing a rise in demand for car-sharing services spiked from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Today, GetGo is dubbed Singapore’s “largest car-sharing service” by revenue, earning S$70 million in revenue in 2023. The company also partnered up with local bus and train operator SBS Transit earlier this February, where GetGo’s car-sharing vehicles are available within 500 metres from train stations in the Northeast and Downtown lines, as well as bus interchanges.
GetGo received an S$20 million investment from French investment group Treïs last year, and is currently working towards expanding its fleet to 10,000 vehicles by 2030 and expand its operations beyond Singapore.
2. Pulkit Agarwal (29) and Tamir Shklaz (26), co-founders of Strive
Category: Consumer Technology
On a mission to make math fun for children through coding, Pulkit Agarwal and Tamir Shklaz joined forces in 2020 to launch Strive, a Singapore-based edtech startup.
Through virtual one-on-one classes, Strive teaches students from the ages of 8 to 16 to code games, apps, and animation in ways that align with their school’s math syllabus, such as coding the game Pong to learn about vectors.
The startup is looking to bring its pedagogy to other countries in Asia. It raised $1.3 million in seed funding, led by Y Combinator, early last year.
3. Evan Heng (26), founder of Zenith Learning Group
Category: Consumer Technology
In 2019, Evan Heng founded Zenith Education Studio, a tuition centre that offers a hybrid learning curriculum for primary school students. This curriculum includes classes at seven bricks-and-mortar branches islandwide and a gamified online education platform.
Since then, its primary school curriculum has been rebranded to Zenith Academy, and Zendora, Zenith’s gamified learning mobile application, has been launched. Zenith Education Studio currently focuses on providing tuition for secondary and junior college students.
The edtech startup has also expanded and is recognised as Zenith Learning Group. In July 2023, Zenith raised $1.4 million in a seed funding round led by Trihill Capital.
4. Maya Kale (29), co-founder of Moom Health
Category: Retail & E-commerce
Since she was 15 years old, Kale has been fighting an ongoing battle with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and is struggling to find a way to manage her symptoms.
This spurred her and her sister, Mili, to embark on a journey that took years of extensive research, endless doctor’s appointments, and incurring significant expenses. In 2021, she discovered a solution in natural medicine and established Moom Health.
Moom Health provides supplements for hair and skin treatment, stress reduction and improving sleep. They have recently expanded its product line to address menstrual issues last year.
The femtech startup previously received S$1.2 million in seed funding in September 2022 in a round led by DSG Consumer Partners, with notable participation from Love, Bonito and Nuguru.
5. Chia Pei Qi (29), co-founder of Delugs
Category: Retail & E-commerce
A watch enthusiast and leather crafter, Chia co-founded Delugs in 2018 with her husband, Kenneth Kuan, after identifying a gap in meeting demand for quality watch straps and accessories for luxury watches.
The Singapore-based brand branched out from leather to rubber straps in 2022, one of which was worn by Ed Sheeran for his Patek Philippe 5203G World Time while performing his second show in Singapore earlier this February.
6. Salina Chai (29), co-founder of Margo and Smith
Category: Retail & E-commerce
With more than 150,000 followers on Instagram, almost 40,000 followers on TikTok and a decade of experinence under her belt, Chai has cemented herself as one of the top fashion creators in Singapore.
It was not until 2023 when Chai decided to use her expertise on the fashion industry to launch Margo and Smith, a brand that focuses on maintaining and restoring services for luxury leather handbags, with her husband.
Like their parent brand, Mason and Smith that focuses on luxury leather footwear, Margo and Smith uses traditional methods from Japan and Hong Kong to restore their goods, and aims to become a “haven for bag lovers and collectors.”
7. Benjamin Long (26) and Kristoffer Jacek Soh (26), co-founders of Beep
Category: Enterprise Technology
With the aim to revolutionise the vending machine industry, Soh and Long came together to launch Beep in 2018, with their Internet of Things (IoT)-powered platform that allows cashless transactions.
In 2021 Beep ventured into the realm of EVs with Voltality, their eMobility platform designed to establish seamless charging experiences for businesses and drivers alike. Last August, Beep partnered with 11 operators to launch SEA’s largest EV roaming network, and has raised an undisclosed amount in a seed round led by GGV Capital and Wing Vasiksiri.
8. Rachel Hu (28)- founder of CambioML
Category: Enterprise Technology
Founded in 2023, CambioML is a Singapore-based startup that leverages artificial intelligence (AI) to create tools for different businesses with their research and Development (R&D) efforts.
CambioML’s platform can analyse and clean up data from various sources, including images, PDFs, and web pages. This data can then be used for training large language models (LLM) without the loss of crucial data.
The startup has raised funding from investors including General Catalyst and the Y Combinator. Hu, who previously worked at Amazon Web Services, is currently also a fellow at the venture capital firm GGV Capital.
9. He Jiachen (26), Long Yinan (29), Wei Yipei (29) and Wang Yifeng (28), co-founders of Toeverything
Category: Enterprise Technology
Co-founded by He Jiachen, Long Yinan, Wei Yipei and Wang Yifeng in 2022, Toeverything is a SaaS-based software startup.
The company offers knowledge management software, including AFFiNE, an open-source workplace collaboration tool that allows users to track tasks, share documents, and visualize the thought process through online drawing and writing.
Last year, the Singapore-based firm raised US$8 million in pre-A financing from investors, including Redpoint China Ventures and Sinovation Ventures, bringing its total funding to US$10 million to date.
10. Jake Berber (26), co-founder of Prefer
Category: The Arts (Art & Style, Food & Drink)
With climate change severely affecting the growth and harvestation of crops worldwide, many foodtech startups have tried to offer sustainable food options that can help maintain its supply – coffee being the crop that is affected the most.
This problem led Jake Berber to co-found Prefer in 2022, a Singapore-based food startup that leverages fermentation technology to turn food waste into bean-free, ground coffee. The startup partners up with many cafes and F&B establishments for its coffee grounds, and its ready-to-drink beverages are currently sold at 14 outlets islandwide.
Earlier this year, Prefer raised US$2 million in a seed funding round led by Forge Ventures to grow its manufacturing facility and aid its expansion overseas in the SEA region.
11. Seth Lai (29), Chef-owner of Ce Soir
Category: The Arts (Art & Style, Food & Drink)
Not everyone has the honour to say they earned their first Michelin Star, even fewer could say that they earned it before the age of 30. That is, except for Seth Lai, who earned his first Michelin Star at 27 with only five years working in the professional culinary field in 2021.
Lai went on to maintain his star as Chef de Cuisine at Singapore’s 28Wilkie until its closure in 2023. The Malaysian-born chef is now the Chef-Owner of Ce Soir, a fine-dining restaurant in Singapore that offers new takes on Asian cuisine using modern European techniques.
12. Avni Agrawal (29), co-founder of SixSense
Category: Industry, Manufacturing & Energy
Founded in 2018, SixSense specialises in using AI technologies to detect faults in manufacturing equipment. The startup’s software processes product images at high speeds to highlight potential issues and sift through data to identify the root cause.
In 2022, SixSense raised US$2.6 million in a series A funding round led by Tin Men Capital, bringing its total financing to an estimated US$3.8 million.
13. Bryan Oh (29), Kenneth Palmer (28), co-founders of NEU Battery Materials
Category: Industry, Manufacturing & Energy
Driven to create a more environmentally friendly battery source, Bryan Oh and Kenneth Palmer founded battery recycling startup NEU Battery Materials in 2021.
Its patented method aims to recover critical metals from lithium-ion batteries. Lithium is extracted from the black mass (a mixture that contains the most expensive parts to create a battery) and produced into lithium hydroxide. According to the startup, this method is more “environmentally friendly” as only electricity and water are consumed in the process.
Last July, NEU Battery Materials received US$3.7 million in a seed funding round led by SGInnovate, along with notable investors, including ComfortDelGro Ventures and Shift4Good.
14. Kit Yong (29), co-founder of Forte Biotech
Category: Industry, Manufacturing & Energy
Founded by Kit Yong in 2021, Forte Biotech is a biotech developer of testing products for prawn farmers in the SEA region, which help to quickly diagnose diseases and monitor pathogen levels in ponds. Forte Biotech’s products include test kits, readers, heaters and starter kits.
Forte Biotech’s solutions are now used by prawn farmers in Vietnam, and the company hopes to expand to more countries in the region. According to Forbes, the agritech startup has raised almost $1 million in funding from investors, including Touchstone Partners.
15. Mihir Pershad (29), founder of Umami Bioworks
Category: Industry, Manufacturing & Energy
Umami Meats, a food tech startup known for its “cultivated seafood,” was founded in 2020, just weeks before the COVID-19 lockdown in Singapore. The company has since rebranded to Umani Bioworks and merged with Shiok Meats, another Singaporean cultivated meat startup, this March.
In 2022, the startup received approximately S$3 million in seed funding.
16. Mock Yi Jun (26), Loon Kin Yip (26) and Ng Yau Xuan (28), co-founders of Advisory Singapore
Category: Social Impact
A charity project that dates back to 2016, Advisory Singapore prides itself on being a ” fully youth-led” non-profit organisation. It aims to connect young people to educational resources that help them explore educational and career options through initiatives including industry-specific events, networking, and mentorships.
According to its website, Advisory’s offline programming has engaged more than 9,300 students and has held 66 public and school events since its inception.
17. Ian Chew (27), founder of Greenie Web
Category: Social Impact
At the age of 13, Chew realized that websites and software would require less processing time when the code length, image size, and frame rates were reduced, which could decrease carbon emissions.
This discovery led to him launching Greenie Web and developing the Digital Carbon Emissions Calculator and Rectifier. Chew has also launched the 28 by 28 program to commemorate COP28 UAE, which aims to build awareness for digital sustainability.
18. Brayden Lim (29), co-founder of Alinea Collective
Category: Media, Marketing & Advertising
Brayden Lim is the co-founder of Alinea Collective, a studio in Singapore that specialises in food photography.
Since its inception in 2015, the studio has worked with several international brands, including McDonald’s, KFC, Häagen-Dazs, Burger King, Heinz and Singapore Airlines.
As the creative director and lead photographer, Lim’s work has been recognised internationally. His previous accolades include the One Eyeland’s Top Still Life Photographer award in Singapore in 2019, the One Eyeland Photography Award in 2020 and first runner-up in the 2020 Foodelia International Food Photography Awards.
19. Nigel Giam (29), cofounder of Corsiva Lab
Category: Media, Marketing & Advertising
With only S$500 and fresh out of university at the age of 23, Giam co-founded the digital marketing agency Corsiva Lab in 2017. The company offers a wide array of services, such as web and mobile app design and development, corporate brand development, and digital marketing.
Over the years, the company has grown a reputable portfolio of clients from Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam. Their most notable client was Singapore’s Infocomm Media Development Authority, where they authorized the company to help local companies go digital.
Last year, Giam sold Corsiva Lab to VE Technology Group for S$15 million, but he remains CEO. Beyond Corsiva Lab, Giam has also ventured into F&B and Hospitality in Malaysia — he is the director of Paya Beach Spa & Dive Resort in Tioman Island and Mockingbird Restaurant & Bar in Johor Bahru.
20. Lincoln Lin (29), founder of Filmplace
Category: Media, Marketing & Advertising
Drawing from a decade of industry experience, Lin founded Filmplace in 2019 with a solution to filmmakers’ key challenges: locating suitable shooting sites and finding talent.
The company launched an online platform for discovering locations and talent within budget constraints. The website currently contains over a thousand listings from Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, and South Korea, which has garnered market success.
Filmplace has since launched its mobile app and has resonated well with South Korea’s film scene. The company was selected as one of the top 30 startups in the Global K-Startup Grand Challenge (KSGC) program in 2020 and COMEUP 2021, both of which were organised by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups of the Republic of Korea.
21. Yeo Guang Jin (29), founder of 1UpMedia
Category: Media, Marketing & Advertising
In 2022, Yeo founded 1UpMedia, a Singapore-based podcast production house. The company has produced many well-loved podcasts across different genres, earning them top spots on Spotify’s charts.
Most notably, 1UpMedia collaborated with Mediacorp to produce two podcasts: Heinous, which shares Asian crime stories) and Post Love which tells narratives of affection.
In 2023, 1UpMedia was named Best Asian Podcast Publisher of the Year by RadioInfo and its Heinous series was nominated for the Ambies 2024.
Featured Image Credit: Forbes