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Online travel becomes 2025’s breakout winner as accommodation prices lift SEA’s GMV

The online travel sector in Southeast Asia is experiencing a robust recovery and growth momentum, driven by a global appetite for travel and, notably, a sharp increase in accommodation pricing across key markets.

The e-Conomy SEA 2025 report, prepared by Google, Temasek, and Bain & Company, highlights that the online travel sector is projected to achieve a Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) of US$33 billion across the ASEAN-10 markets in 2025. This represents a steady double-digit growth trajectory.

Also Read: From US$40B to US$300B: SEA’s digital economy ends a transformative decade

Accommodation sector sees rate boost

A key contributor to the sector’s overall value growth is the accommodation market, which is enjoying strong growth underpinned by surging hotel room rates. Hoteliers, particularly in high-demand tourist destinations such as Singapore and Malaysia, have successfully raised average room rates by over 20 per cent.

This strategic increase has translated directly into healthier profit margins for hoteliers and significantly boosted the overall value of the accommodation sector within the online travel market.

Sector performance and growth metrics

Overall, the online travel sector’s GMV for the SEA-6 countries is projected at US$33 billion in 2025, reflecting 14 per cent year-on-year (YoY) growth compared to 2024.

Also Read: SEA e-commerce surges to US$185B as video commerce becomes the new growth engine

The revenue generated by online travel is keeping pace with this GMV growth, signalling effective monetisation. Revenue for the SEA-6 region is forecast to reach US$4 billion in 2025. The expansion of coverage to the full ASEAN-10 markets slightly increases the estimated GMV to US$33 billion for 2025, demonstrating stable growth across the entire Southeast Asian region.

Digital channels and monetisation models

In the online travel space, revenue is generated through two primary models: direct sales and third-party platforms. Airlines and hotels derive revenue directly through their own brand.com channels.

Conversely, online travel agencies (OTAs) function as intermediary platforms, earning revenue as a portion of the price of the sold goods or services.

This sector is crucial to maintaining the momentum of the broader digital economy. While the report notes that air passenger volume is projected to grow by 10 per cent from 2024 to 2025, the exceptional margin growth experienced in the accommodation segment (due to rate increases) provides a distinct and immediate financial tailwind for the sector, making online travel a bright spot for profitability and growth in 2025.

Strategic regional cooperation

The growth forecast remains cautiously optimistic. However, the sector’s long-term health will depend on how the region manages macroeconomic uncertainty and leverages catalysts like greater cooperation among SEA nations.

Autonomous vehicles, ads, and new dining models: The future of SEA mobility takes shape

The continued ease of travel and interoperability across borders will be essential for sustaining this recovery trajectory, particularly as the region navigates potential global headwinds.

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Asia’s Fifth Industrial Revolution: Leading the next wave of sustainable prosperity

The world stands at an inflexion point. While mature economies debate automation’s legacy, technology giants and business leaders are keen on AI frenzy, a profound transformation beckons: the Fifth Industrial Revolution, which recalibrates industrial progress around humanity, nature, and shared prosperity.​

For Asia and developing economies, this moment is transformative. Rather than replicating the industrialisation path that prioritised efficiency over equity, emerging markets can leapfrog directly into a development paradigm harmonising economic advancement with social well-being and planetary health.​

The three pillars that define 5IR

The European Commission’s 2021 Industry 5.0 framework established three foundational principles: human-centricity, sustainability, and resilience.​

  • Human-centricity repositions workers as innovation engines. Collaborative robots (cobots) handle physically demanding tasks while humans focus on problem-solving and creativity. BMW’s facilities exemplify this synergy, combining machine precision with human adaptability.​
  • Sustainability moves beyond compliance to competitive advantage. Circular economy principles ensure materials either biodegrade safely or circulate indefinitely, potentially reducing global emissions by 45 per cent by 2050 while creating US$4.5 trillion in economic value.​
  • Resilience builds adaptive systems that maintain prosperity amid shocks — pandemics, climate disruptions, geopolitical tensions. Supply chains incorporating digital twins and AI-powered risk modelling exemplify this principle.​

Why Asia can lead

Conventional wisdom suggests that developing economies must master 4IR before contemplating 5IR. This logic misses Asia’s distinctive advantages.

  • Infrastructure flexibility: Unlike economies encumbered by legacy systems, many Asian nations build 5IR-compatible infrastructure from the ground up. Thailand strategically positions digital ecosystem development as preparation for 5IR, attracting foreign investment in data centres and analytics.​
  • Demographic dynamism: Southeast Asia’s young, digitally-native population represents a massive asset. The region’s mobile-first connectivity, already established, provides a foundation for 5IR adoption, provided education emphasises critical thinking, emotional intelligence, and continuous learning alongside technical skills.​
  • Green growth imperative: Climate vulnerability concentrates minds. Asian nations face immediate consequences from environmental degradation, creating political will and market pull for sustainable solutions. Green investment in Southeast Asia’s six largest economies reached US$8 billion in 2024, a 43 per cent year-over-year increase.​

Green investment distribution across Southeast Asia’s six major economies in 2024, showing Singapore and Indonesia leading regional climate finance

Also Read: How to tackle climate change by choosing a career in cleantech

Vietnam exemplifies this trajectory. Despite attracting only two per cent of regional green investment in 2024, the country expanded renewable energy to 43 per cent of electricity generation, among the highest shares in Southeast Asia. Strategic shifts toward wind power and low-carbon transportation demonstrate how targeted policy accelerates transformation in middle-income contexts.​

Biodiversity and biomimicry: Asia’s competitive edge

Asia’s rich biodiversity and agricultural heritage position the region to capture disproportionate value from the emerging bioeconomy, projected to reach US$30 trillion globally by 2050. This sector simultaneously delivers significant economic activity and regenerative environmental benefits.​

Biomimicry, drawing design inspiration from nature’s evolutionary problem-solving, offers proven pathways. Wind turbines modelled on humpback whale fins achieve greater efficiency with reduced noise. Building coatings inspired by lotus leaves repel water while minimising energy consumption. Architecture mimicking termite mound ventilation cuts cooling energy by 90 per cent.​

Indigenous knowledge systems stewarded by Asian communities for centuries provide complementary insights. Traditional resource management, biodiversity conservation, and climate resilience strategies offer wisdom that purely technological approaches miss. Integrating this knowledge with modern tools creates culturally grounded solutions respecting both human communities and natural systems.​

Implementation roadmap: Four phases

Based on successful implementations across diverse contexts:​

  • Phase one (Months one to three): Vision alignment and stakeholder mapping. Create organisational awareness about 5IR’s distinctive value proposition — not merely productivity gains but enhanced worker satisfaction, environmental regeneration, and community contribution. Meaningful stakeholder inclusion from inception reduces resistance and surfaces implementation insights.​
  • Phase two (Months four to six): Capability assessment. Honestly evaluate current infrastructure, workforce skills, sustainability practices, and resilience mechanisms. Developing economies face common barriers — limited capital access, digital skill shortages, weak regulatory frameworks — requiring targeted, realistic planning.​
  • Phase three (Months seven to 12): Pilot implementation. Test 5IR approaches in controlled environments. Poland-based manufacturer CAMELEO deployed virtual reality for customer engagement and training, demonstrating how focused pilots build organisational capability. Worker voice must shape technology adoption, not merely react to predetermined changes.​
  • Phase four (Years two to three): Scaled deployment with continuous optimisation. Track multi-dimensional metrics: employee well-being, environmental impact, supply chain resilience, and financial performance, ensuring transformation serves all three pillars.​

Policy imperatives

Wind turbines operating near an urban skyline at sunrise, symbolising renewable energy and sustainable development 

Governments must create enabling environments through coherent policy frameworks:​

  • Digital infrastructure investment: Southeast Asia requires massive grid modernisation, accommodating renewable energy, generating 200,000 jobs by 2030, while contributing US$25 billion to regional GDP.​
  • Education transformation: Current curricula fail to develop 5IR-essential capabilities — systems thinking, ethical reasoning, continuous learning agility. The World Economic Forum estimates 50 per cent of employees require re-skilling by 2025, particularly acute in developing economies.​
  • Innovation ecosystems: Singapore’s HSBC-Antler partnership supporting green startups and Malaysia’s Digital Economy Corporation illustrate how public-private collaboration accelerates entrepreneurship.​
  • Ethical AI governance: Risk-based frameworks emphasising transparency, fairness, human rights alignment, and accountability must adapt to local contexts rather than being imported wholesale.​ Joining UN DESA and the Korean Government’s Regional Summit on Effective Governance and AI Transformation 2025, Green Transformation and Sustainability Network (GXS) opens its AI Governance Lab.

Also Read: Bridging the valley of death: How C3H is powering the next wave of climate, health tech startups

The investment case

Green investors increasingly recognise that 5IR-aligned enterprises deliver superior risk-adjusted returns. Companies prioritising sustainability, worker wellbeing, and resilience demonstrate lower volatility, stronger innovation pipelines, enhanced talent attraction, and better regulatory positioning.​

Southeast Asia’s green economy could generate US$120 billion in new value and 900,000 jobs by 2030 through bioeconomy development, grid modernisation, and electric vehicle ecosystem advancement. Measuring success through GDP alone increasingly appears anachronistic. The European Commission’s “Beyond GDP” framework incorporates human development indicators, wellbeing metrics, environmental sustainability measures, and social equity assessments.​

For technopreneurs, 5IR markets reward solutions integrating human needs, environmental stewardship, and economic viability. Singapore’s Green Li-ion and Ampd Energy exemplify how technical innovation aligned with 5IR principles captures market share while generating measurable sustainability impact.​

Navigating real constraints

Developing economies face genuine obstacles requiring acknowledgement and creative problem-solving:​

The digital divide threatens deepening inequality if access remains unevenly distributed. Deliberate inclusion strategies — such as subsidised access, culturally appropriate interfaces, and multilingual support — become prerequisites for equitable transitions.​

Resistance to change, both organisational and cultural, impedes adoption. Transparent communication, inclusive decision-making, and demonstrable early wins build trust.​

Financial gaps create genuine barriers for SMEs. Blended finance models combining public funding, private investment, and development finance can bridge gaps.​

Also Read: Beyond resilience: A call to action for a climate-proof Philippines to the tech ecosystem

How synergies embrace Asia’s fifth industrial revolution

Asia’s emergence as the global leader in the 5IR hinges on unprecedented synergies across multiple dimensions. 

First, the convergence of human capital and technology creates a distinctive advantage: the region’s young, digitally-native workforce seamlessly integrates with collaborative robots and AI systems designed for human augmentation rather than replacement. Unlike mature economies struggling to retrain ageing workforces, Asian economies would cultivate next-generation workers inherently aligned with 5IR’s collaborative paradigm.​

Second, biodiversity and innovation ecosystems synergise powerfully. Asia’s unparalleled biological richness feeds biomimicry initiatives — from whale-fin-inspired wind turbines to nature-based solutions addressing climate challenges. Simultaneously, indigenous knowledge systems stewarded by Asian communities for centuries integrate with cutting-edge technology, creating culturally grounded, holistic solutions unavailable to regions possessing only technological capacity or environmental wisdom in isolation.​

Third, climate urgency accelerates policy alignment. Unlike regions where sustainability competes with growth imperatives, Asian nations recognise existential threats from rising seas, extreme weather, and agricultural disruption, creating political will for transformative environmental policies. This urgency drives coherent government action on renewable infrastructure, circular economy adoption, and green workforce development simultaneously.​

Finally, emerging market dynamics enable leapfrogging. Unburdened by legacy industrial systems, Asian nations can build 5IR-compatible infrastructure from the ground up, capturing efficiency and sustainability advantages simultaneously. Public-private partnerships, innovation sandboxes, and blended finance models multiply impact beyond what either sector achieves independently.​

These synergies, demographic, ecological, political, and infrastructural, position Asia not merely as a participant in 5IR but as its pioneering leader, demonstrating that prosperity, sustainability, and human dignity are not competing objectives but mutually reinforcing imperatives.​

The choice before us

Asia stands at a pivotal juncture. The region can either replicate extractive, inequality-generating industrialisation patterns of the past, or pioneer a genuinely sustainable, human-centred prosperity model, becoming the global standard.

This requires courage — to invest in long-term transformation over short-term optimisation, to prioritise worker wellbeing alongside productivity, to respect planetary boundaries as non-negotiable constraints. It demands wisdom — integrating indigenous knowledge with modern technology, measuring what truly matters beyond GDP.

Most fundamentally, the Fifth Industrial Revolution asks what kind of future we choose and what we’re willing to sacrifice to protect it.

For policy leaders: create enabling environments through infrastructure investment, education transformation, and ethical governance. For technopreneurs: build enterprises solving human problems while regenerating nature. For green investors: capital toward 5IR-aligned ventures delivers superior returns and measurable impact.

Asia’s young populations, digital fluency, biodiversity richness, and climate urgency create unique advantages. The region need not wait for permission from traditional industrial powers. By embracing 5IR’s principles, Asian nations can leapfrog into leadership – not merely catching up but charting pathways others will follow.

The future we create today shapes possibilities for generations to come. Let it be one where technology serves humanity, prosperity includes rather than excludes, and progress regenerates rather than depletes. This is Asia’s Fifth Industrial Revolution to lead.

Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing views from the community. Share your opinion by submitting an article, video, podcast, or infographic.

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The rise of privacy-conscious smart-city infrastructure powered by AIRA

Through Taipei’s Global Pass programme, AIRA is unlocking smart-city growth by upgrading existing CCTV systems with lightweight, hardware-light AI.

AI adoption across Southeast Asia is accelerating, yet many cities still rely on ageing CCTV networks that cannot support modern analytics without costly hardware upgrades. Governments want smarter, safer, more efficient urban environments, but legacy systems and rising privacy expectations often make large-scale transformation difficult. This tension has created space for solutions that can modernise existing infrastructure without adding new risks or exceeding public budgets.

To support companies building this kind of practical, region-ready technology, the Taipei City Government launched the Global Pass programme in 2024. The initiative embeds Taiwan-based startups directly into overseas ecosystems. This gives them access to market insights, local partners, and on-the-ground opportunities to demonstrate their products.

AIRA is one of the clearest examples of this approach in action. With a privacy-first, hardware-light system that upgrades standard CCTVs into intelligent, on-premise AI tools, the company reflects the mission-driven innovation Global Pass was built to champion. Their expansion journey shows how thoughtfully designed AI can strengthen smart-city infrastructure across Southeast Asia without replacing what already exists.

Privacy-conscious AI for Southeast Asia’s smart city ambitions

Through Taipei’s Global Pass programme, AIRA is unlocking smart-city growth by upgrading existing CCTV systems with lightweight, hardware-light AI.

As cities across the region pursue digital transformation, many still grapple with concerns around surveillance, data governance, and the financial burden of upgrading legacy equipment. AIRA’s model responds directly to these challenges by offering a way to enhance existing CCTV networks rather than rebuild them, which makes adoption both faster and more feasible for budget-conscious governments.

According to Stephanie Chen, Business Development Manager at AIRA Corp, “most companies still need GPU cards for camera analytics, but one GPU card can cost as much as five or six servers.” AIRA instead uses compact CPU-based devices that are “as small as a palm,” making deployment significantly more accessible.

At the same time, public expectations around privacy continue to shape how smart-city technologies are evaluated. As Chen explains, keeping everything on-site is a deliberate design choice. “We run fully on-premise, so customers keep control of their own data. Nothing is sent to the cloud, which reduces exposure and keeps everything secure.”

Also read: How GliaCloud is turning AI video into a growth engine for Southeast Asia

AIRA’s product suite designed for real-world deployment

AIRA’s approach starts with a simple idea: smart-city systems work best when they enhance existing infrastructure rather than replace it. Their flagship tools address three core needs in the region. These are: access control, investigations support and perimeter safety. They are all powered by energy-efficient AI designed to minimise false alarms and improve day-to-day reliability.

First, airaFace provides enrollment-based facial recognition for access management and visitor flow. Second, airaTrack supports rapid, privacy-conscious investigations. It does this by enabling fast cross-camera search without prior enrollment and can process up to 10,000 matches per second. Chen explains its value for large venues: “You can simply click on a face and investigate the whole footage across cameras, even if the person is wearing a mask or it’s low light.”

Through Taipei’s Global Pass programme, AIRA is unlocking smart-city growth by upgrading existing CCTV systems with lightweight, hardware-light AI.

Third, airaFence focuses on real-time virtual fencing and intrusion detection and is already deployed across more than 100 construction sites in Taiwan. Its precision is a key differentiator. “Some AI cameras produce thousands of false alarms a day,” Chen says. “We focus on human detection so birds, cats and shadows do not trigger alerts.”

All three solutions run on AIRA’s lightweight CPU-based AI, delivered through compact NUC devices that plug into existing CCTV networks. This removes the need for GPU hardware, large servers or cloud infrastructure and keeps all processing on-premise. The browser-based interface can be learned in under two hours, and export tools automatically blur non-target individuals, which reflects AIRA’s commitment to privacy within everyday workflows.

Global Pass as a catalyst for meaningful market entry

Through Taipei’s Global Pass programme, AIRA is unlocking smart-city growth by upgrading existing CCTV systems with lightweight, hardware-light AI.

For AIRA, Global Pass played a strategic role in bridging the gap between technological readiness and real-world adoption. Instead of entering Thailand with assumptions about the market, the programme allowed the team to observe firsthand how smart city ambitions intersect with practical constraints like legacy infrastructure, budget pressure, and rising privacy expectations. While in Thailand, they also made use of the co-working spaces partnered under the Global Pass, where live demos replaced theoretical pitches, giving C-level leaders and system integrators a clear view of what CPU-based, on-premise AI could actually deliver.

This early access shaped AIRA’s expansion philosophy. By working directly with distributors and system integrators from day one, the company understood how to localise enablement materials, structure proof-of-concept kits, and support partners through remote training. The Solution Day sessions hosted by their Thai distributor reflected this approach, creating a shared understanding of the technology that could scale beyond one event or one country. Global Pass ultimately helped AIRA refine a regionally attuned, partnership-driven strategy that now guides their growth across Southeast Asia.

Also read: How IsCoolLab is shaping the future of industrial automation in Southeast Asia

Expanding a partnership-driven model across Southeast Asia

Through Taipei’s Global Pass programme, AIRA is unlocking smart-city growth by upgrading existing CCTV systems with lightweight, hardware-light AI.

Beyond Thailand, AIRA is applying the same partnership-driven approach to scale across the wider region. In the Philippines, their distributor is leading more than ten active projects across malls, government facilities and major venues. The team also maintains a sales representative in Malaysia and collaborates with multiple system integrators across Southeast Asia. Its expansion strategy lowers the barrier to adoption and allows partners to demonstrate value quickly while maintaining AIRA’s emphasis on privacy and on-premise processing.

Looking ahead, the company plans to replicate this approach across more markets through partner launches, additional Solution Day sessions, small-box demo units and scalable reseller ecosystems. As Stephanie Chen summarises, “Our mission is to bring AI to life. We want cities to use their existing CCTV not just as decoration, but as tools that truly improve safety and operations.”

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The e27 team produced this article sponsored by the Taipei City Government

We can share your story at e27 too! Engage the Southeast Asian tech ecosystem by bringing your story to the world. You can reach out to us here to get started.

Featured Image Credit: AIRA

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How GliaCloud is turning AI video into a growth engine for Southeast Asia

From publishers to online retailers, GliaCloud is using Thailand as a launchpad to scale AI video creation across Southeast Asia through the Global Pass programme.

Across Southeast Asia, video has become the language of the internet. Audiences scroll, swipe and consume visual content at a pace that challenges even the most resourceful publishers and marketers. For startups in Taipei looking to enter these fast-moving markets, breaking in requires more than a good idea. It requires cultural fluency, trusted local partners and a front-row view of how regional audiences behave online.

Taipei City’s Global Pass initiative was designed with this reality in mind. The programme gives founders a way to step directly into new markets, test their products with real users and build the relationships that shape sustainable international growth. GliaCloud is one of the companies taking full advantage of this opportunity. How did this Taiwan-based AI video startup use Global Pass to immerse itself in Thailand’s vibrant digital ecosystem?

GliaCloud as an AI video creation partner

GliaCloud helps publishers, marketers and e-commerce brands turn text and data into high quality, impactful video content at scale. According to co-founder and COO Agnes Peng, the company solves a growing challenge in Asia where “the demand for video content is exploding, but professional video production is still expensive, time consuming and requires specialised skills.”

Their suite of tools streamlines the entire process. First, GliaNetwork automatically converts daily articles into video summaries for news publishers. Next, GliaDirector supports enterprises that need hundreds of branded videos. Another tool is GliaCommerce, which specialises in product videos and A/B tested creatives that drive measurable business performance.

Peng emphasises that GliaCloud’s differentiation lies in its focus on outcomes. “We are an outcome based platform. Video creation has to be tied to engagement, conversions and business impact,” she said. In many ways, GliaCloud grows alongside the industries it serves.

From publishers to online retailers, GliaCloud is using Thailand as a launchpad to scale AI video creation across Southeast Asia through the Global Pass programme.

Also read: How IsCoolLab is shaping the future of industrial automation in Southeast Asia

Using Global Pass to build presence and gather market insights

Recently, GliaCloud leveraged the Global Pass programme in Thailand. Their team gained access to physical meeting spaces, partner introductions and networking events that would otherwise be difficult without a local office.

“The programme gave us a physical environment to meet partners, get spontaneous feedback and have real conversations,” Peng explained. “It’s very different from just searching online or doing remote calls. For video solutions, cultural understanding is everything.”

Because video performance varies dramatically across Southeast Asia, in-person exposure was crucial. Peng noted that “every market in Southeast Asia is different. People think of the region as one block, but it is actually many cultures with different habits, tastes and content preferences, especially in video.”

This included discovering insights such as local colour preferences, content pacing, and audience behaviour unique to Thai platforms.

Strengthening traction in Thailand’s media and e-commerce ecosystem

GliaCloud already works with over a hundred publishers in Thailand. Peng shared that many of Thailand’s well known digital outlets use GliaNetwork, noting that “they produce thousands of articles every day, and we help curate the top stories into video summaries with monetisation built in.”

GliaCloud is now moving deeper into Thailand’s e-commerce market with Global Pass support. “E-commerce is huge in Southeast Asia, and video has become essential for online buying behaviour,” Peng said. “But many brands don’t know how to measure whether a video is actually good. They struggle with digital literacy, data analysis and A/B testing.”

Their team is returning to Thailand to conduct more field research and explore proof of concept projects. “We want to understand what types of videos really work for Thai consumers. We need real market feedback to help brands improve their results,” she added.

Also read: The rise of privacy-conscious smart-city infrastructure powered by AIRA

Expansion across Southeast Asia

From publishers to online retailers, GliaCloud is using Thailand as a launchpad to scale AI video creation across Southeast Asia through the Global Pass programme.

Beyond Thailand, GliaCloud already has customers in the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. Across Asia, it serves over 2,000 publishers. Japan remains its largest market, but Peng said the company sees strong long term potential in Southeast Asia, especially for its e-commerce solutions.

A key part of GliaCloud’s strategy is cultural localisation. “AI models today don’t fully understand local culture,” Peng said. “If you ask a model to generate something in a Taiwanese or Filipino style, it often creates a Western version of it by default. We collect cultural data so our videos reflect real local tastes and user scenarios.”

Her long term vision is to empower organisations across the region to create effective video content at scale. “We want to help publishers and marketers use AI in a way that leads to measurable business results,” Peng concluded. “That has always been our focus.”

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How IsCoolLab is shaping the future of industrial automation in Southeast Asia

IsCoolLab leverages Taipei’s Global Pass to advance computer vision automation across Southeast Asia’s manufacturing sector.

Expanding into Southeast Asia is a milestone many Taipei startups aspire to reach, but the reality is that early market entry often feels like navigating in the dark. Taipei City’s Global Pass programme was created to change that story by giving founders a guided route into fast-moving ecosystems like Thailand and Vietnam, where timing and access make all the difference.

Instead of searching for the right partners or cold-messaging their way into local networks, participating startups enter these markets with curated pathways and built-in credibility. Global Pass acts as a regional compass, helping companies understand where the opportunities are, who matters, and what it takes to move from interest to real traction.

Advancing smart manufacturing through intelligent automation

IsCoolLab is one of the startups putting this support to work. The company has been carving out a name for itself in industrial automation by answering a simple question: how can factories modernize quickly without overhauling everything they already have? Their answer is Robotiive, a computer-vision-driven RPA platform that allows machines to observe screens, signals, and workflows with the same situational awareness as a trained operator.

By removing the need to modify hardware or production lines, the team gives manufacturers a realistic way to upgrade. Deployments happen in days, not months. Factories that once viewed Industry 4.0 as a costly, complex transition now have a practical path forward. This is what positions IsCoolLab as one of Taiwan’s most compelling industrial innovators.

Also read: How GliaCloud is turning AI video into a growth engine for Southeast Asia

Understanding the opportunity in Thailand and Vietnam

When IsCoolLab looked across the region, Thailand and Vietnam stood out. Both markets are scaling their industrial sectors at impressive speed, yet many facilities still run on manual processes and legacy systems. The mismatch between ambition and infrastructure creates an urgent need for automation that adapts to existing realities.

Robotiive fits naturally into this gap. Instead of expecting factories to change their systems to accommodate automation, it adapts to the systems they already have. This alignment between market need and product capability is what made Thailand and Vietnam strategic entry points for the company’s Southeast Asia expansion.

Using Global Pass to accelerate market entry

Even with a strong product-market fit, entering a new country requires the right local relationships. This is where Global Pass shifted the trajectory for IsCoolLab. By placing the team in front of accelerators, investors, and ecosystem leaders, the programme turned potential cold starts into warm conversations that mattered.

Each pitch session and meeting was more than a presentation. It was a chance to test messaging, understand market expectations, and hear first-hand how regional stakeholders viewed industrial automation. These insights shaped the company’s approach and helped them speak the language of the local ecosystem with growing confidence.

Achieving traction and partnerships through Global Pass

As the conversations deepened, meaningful traction followed. Visibility through the programme helped IsCoolLab connect with investors who were actively exploring industrial AI opportunities. These discussions sharpened the company’s regional positioning and expanded its network far more quickly than independent outreach could have.

Equally important were the commercial introductions tailored to the team’s goals. The meetings facilitated by Global Pass connected IsCoolLab with partners who immediately saw value in their solution. These early interactions laid the groundwork for pilot discussions and future deployments, proving that the market was not only interested but genuinely ready.

Also read: The rise of privacy-conscious smart-city infrastructure powered by AIRA

Extending momentum across Southeast Asia

This growing momentum soon translated into concrete milestones. In Thailand, IsCoolLab formalized a partnership with Digital Focus, a respected system integrator with deep experience in the local landscape. This agreement marks the company’s official market entry and opens a pathway for scaled adoption.

In Vietnam, the team is already engaged in proof-of-concept work with partners in the petroleum sector and related industries. These projects signal that Robotiive is resonating with industries that are seeking efficiency, reliability, and faster pathways to modernization.

Setting the direction for regional expansion

IsCoolLab leverages Taipei’s Global Pass to advance computer vision automation across Southeast Asia’s manufacturing sector.

With progress underway in two pivotal markets, IsCoolLab is now shaping a wider Southeast Asia roadmap. The company sees rising demand in regions where factories are expanding capacity yet still operate on older equipment and manual processes. These environments are ideal for a flexible automation layer like Robotiive.

The Global Pass experience continues to guide IsCoolLab’s next steps by sharpening their understanding of regional dynamics and partnership models. As the company scales, its goal is to help Southeast Asia’s manufacturing sector transform sustainably, efficiently, and at the pace that today’s global landscape demands.

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The e27 team produced this article sponsored by the Taipei City Government

We can share your story at e27 too! Engage the Southeast Asian tech ecosystem by bringing your story to the world. You can reach out to us here to get started.

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