Day: August 20, 2026

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The problem with decarbonising concrete has rarely been a lack of chemistry. The harder question is whether a lower-carbon mix can survive the economics of a construction site, where margins are tight, specifications are strict, and builders are rarely willing to pay more simply because a material is greener.

Neocrete, a New Zealand-based materials startup, believes it has found a way through that bottleneck. The company has raised US$3.5 million in a funding round led by returning investor Wavemaker Ventures, with participation from Icehouse Ventures and Catalytic Capital for Climate and Health, or C3H, a catalytic investment vehicle of Temasek Trust.

Also Read: How a data-driven approach can optimise decarbonisation in the built environment

The fresh capital will be used to scale supply into Europe and the US, while deepening commercial deployment in Southeast Asia. The latter is already becoming an important proving ground for the company: in Brunei, Neocrete’s additive is being used by Readymix Brunei in commercial projects, including the redevelopment of Muara Port, the country’s main port.

Founded in 2018, Neocrete develops additives that allow concrete producers to replace a larger share of cement with lower-carbon materials such as poor-quality fly ash and volcanic ash. These materials are often abundant, but their inconsistent performance has limited their use in structural concrete. Neocrete’s pitch is that its additive can “boost” such materials so they can replace 30 to 50 per cent of cement in concrete while maintaining strength, durability and workability.

That matters because cement is the carbon-heavy ingredient in concrete. Buildings and construction account for about 37 per cent of global emissions, according to the UN Environment Programme, while cement manufacturing alone is responsible for roughly 8 per cent, according to the World Economic Forum.

Brunei as a commercial test case

The Brunei deployment gives Neocrete something many climate materials startups struggle to secure: evidence outside the lab.

Readymix Brunei, the country’s largest ready-mix concrete supplier, began piloting Neocrete’s additives in 2025 to turn locally available waste ash into a usable cement substitute. The ash had previously been dumped because of its poor performance. With Neocrete’s additive, Readymix Brunei is now using it to replace 30 per cent of cement in commercial projects.

To date, 3,700 cubic metres of concrete using Neocrete’s technology have been poured, cutting embodied carbon by 25 per cent, avoiding around 215 tonnes of CO₂, and saving nearly US$20,000. The larger test is Muara Port, where around 65,000 cubic metres of Neocrete concrete are expected to be used. The company projects this could save about US$300,000 and avoid 5,200 tonnes of CO₂.

Neocrete’s performance in Brunei has been independently verified by ABCi, the country’s Building and Construction Industry Control Authority, across concrete grades G25 to G50.

“Neocrete enables us to reduce the cost and carbon of our concrete while delivering a superior product performance for our customers,” said Nick Cocks, CEO of Readymix Brunei. “We are now scaling the use of Neocrete through all our operations.”

For Southeast Asia, the economics are particularly important. The region is still building rapidly — ports, roads, industrial estates, homes, data centres and energy infrastructure — even as governments and large developers begin to face pressure to reduce construction-related emissions. Yet in many markets, green building materials still lose out when they require higher upfront costs or changes to established processes.

Neocrete is trying to avoid both problems. Its additive is designed to work within existing ready-mix and cement production systems, rather than requiring producers to build expensive new plants or overhaul workflows.

Also Read: Climate tech’s shift from doing good to doing well

“Globally, we’ve found customers are willing to pay exactly net zero to achieve net zero,” said Zarina Alexander, Neocrete’s CEO and co-founder. “Green premiums do not work in the concrete industry. In Brunei, by economically boosting the performance of abundant, low-quality materials, we’ve now proven that it’s possible for concrete makers to cut carbon and cost, with no trade-offs.”

Why investors are looking at concrete

The round reflects growing investor appetite for hard-to-abate sectors –industries such as cement, steel, shipping and aviation, where emissions are difficult to reduce because they are embedded in physical production processes.

For Wavemaker Ventures, which has backed Neocrete before, the company sits at the intersection of climate impact and industrial practicality. The Singapore-based VC has increasingly looked beyond software into deep tech and sustainability, areas where Southeast Asia’s industrial base can become both a market and deployment ground.

C3H’s participation is also notable. As a Temasek Trust-backed vehicle, it focuses on early-stage companies in climate, health and their intersection. In Neocrete’s case, the investment is aimed not only at financial returns but also at helping a potential emissions-reduction technology cross the commercial adoption gap.

The company said C3H will support Neocrete through connections to partners across the Temasek Trust Collective and the broader climate solutions sector. That network could matter in Southeast Asia, where adoption of new construction materials often depends on regulators, developers, contractors, cement producers and infrastructure owners moving together.

Ryan Tan, Head of C3H, said decarbonising concrete remains “an urgent and difficult challenge” in a hard-to-abate sector, adding that Neocrete’s lower-carbon and lower-cost approach addresses a key barrier to commercial deployment.

A crowded race to clean up cement

Neocrete is not alone in trying to reduce concrete’s carbon footprint. Global rivals include Canada’s CarbonCure, which injects captured CO₂ into concrete; US-based Solidia Technologies, which uses alternative cement chemistry and CO₂ curing; CarbonBuilt, which focuses on lower-carbon concrete blocks; and newer cement-process companies such as Brimstone, Sublime Systems and Fortera. Europe’s Ecocem is also pushing low-carbon cement technologies. The approaches differ, but the commercial hurdle is similar: producers need emissions reductions without sacrificing cost, strength, certification or supply reliability.

Neocrete’s distinction is that it does not try to replace concrete production outright. Instead, it aims to make existing supplementary cementitious materials — industrial by-products or natural pozzolans that can partially replace cement — perform well enough for wider use. In markets where fly ash quality varies or supply chains are fragmented, that could be valuable.

The opportunity is also tied to a looming materials shift. Traditional high-quality fly ash, a by-product of coal power generation, has long been used in concrete. But as coal plants retire in some markets and construction demand grows elsewhere, the industry needs ways to use more variable ash streams and alternative materials.

Neocrete’s next phase will test whether the Brunei results can translate across geographies with different regulations, raw materials and buyer behaviour. The company has been selected for Amazon’s 2026 Greentown Labs Go Build Programme with the Global CO₂ Initiative, and won the London Climate Action Week flagship pitching event at Reset Connect in June 2026.

Those credentials may help open doors, but the company’s larger challenge is execution: convincing conservative construction supply chains that a new additive can be reliable at scale.

Also Read: Funded: SEA climate tech has US$1.1B and a problem no one wants to name

Matt Kennedy-Good, Neocrete’s co-founder and president, summed up the company’s ambition plainly: “Neocrete’s mission is to make low-carbon concrete the default choice, by making it perform better and cost less.”

If the company can keep proving that equation beyond Brunei, its biggest contribution may be to shift the climate conversation in construction away from paying more for greener materials and towards making the cheaper option the cleaner one.

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For many founders of Singapore’s small and medium-sized enterprises, the hardest decision may not be how to grow, but how to let go.

A large cohort of business owners across the city-state is approaching retirement age, often after spending decades building profitable, specialised companies in areas such as business services, logistics, maintenance, healthcare support, compliance, industrial distribution and other recurring B2B niches. Yet many of these firms do not have obvious successors. Children may not want to take over, senior managers may lack financing, and traditional private equity buyers often prefer larger companies with cleaner exit routes.

Also Read: The new succession: Charting the rise of Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition in SEA

Timah Partners is trying to build a different answer to that problem.

The Singapore-based evergreen holding company has secured a SGD60 million (about US$46.5 million) debt facility to finance the acquisition of multiple SMEs in Singapore. The facility is backed by UOB, RHB Bank and Genesis Alternative Ventures.

The structure matters as much as the size. Timah describes it as an umbrella delayed-drawdown acquisition facility, meaning the financing terms and framework are agreed upfront, while the capital can be drawn down over time as suitable acquisition targets are identified. In practical terms, it gives Timah a pool of pre-arranged debt that can be used across several transactions, rather than forcing the company to negotiate a fresh loan for every acquisition.

For SME owners, that could make a material difference. Succession deals often stall not because of interest, but because of uncertainty: whether financing will be approved, how long the buyer needs to complete diligence, and whether employees, customers and suppliers will be protected after the sale.

“Succession is a big life decision for a founder. It’s not just about price,” said Dennis Chua, founder and CEO of Timah Partners. “What founders prefer is clarity, a straightforward and simple process, partners they can trust and are proud to be associated with, and confidence that their business and people will be taken care of.”

Financing the companies banks often struggle to value

Timah’s focus is on essential, recurring and cash-generative B2B companies facing succession issues. Many of these are not asset-heavy businesses. They may have strong customer relationships, trained teams, repeat contracts and predictable cash flow, but limited hard collateral such as factories, machinery or property.

That creates a financing gap. Traditional lenders are often more comfortable underwriting companies with tangible assets they can secure loans against. Asset-light SMEs, even when profitable, may face more conservative credit terms because much of their value sits in people, processes, client relationships and operating history.

The new facility is designed to support the acquisition of SMEs with consistently strong cash flows, including those that fall into this asset-light category. For Timah, that is central to the model. It allows the company to pursue businesses that may be too small or too operationally hands-on for conventional private equity, but too valuable to simply wind down when their founders retire.

Also Read: Oneteam nets US$2.6M funding to revolutionise SME succession planning in Singapore

“This umbrella facility lets us run a consistent, high-certainty, and smooth acquisition process with excellent partners, and move swiftly when it matters,” Chua said. “It’s also built for the kind of businesses we focus on: resilient cash-flowing SMEs that are often asset-light.”

The delayed-drawdown format is more common in mature private credit and buyout markets, where acquisition platforms secure capital commitments before they need to deploy them. Its use for SME succession in Southeast Asia is still relatively rare, particularly when applied to a programme of smaller company acquisitions rather than a single large transaction.

Why succession is becoming an investable theme

Singapore’s SME succession challenge is not unique. Across Southeast Asia, many family-owned companies created during the region’s industrialisation and services growth cycles are now confronting generational transition. These businesses often occupy unglamorous but important parts of the economy: cleaning and maintenance providers, technical services firms, distributors, training providers, compliance specialists and other operators that keep larger enterprises functioning.

The problem is that the region’s capital markets have not always been built for them. Venture capital is geared towards fast-growing startups. Traditional private equity tends to seek scale, consolidation potential and a defined exit within several years. Bank lending can be limited by collateral requirements. Strategic buyers may be interested, but not always in preserving the founder’s culture or team.

Timah is positioning itself as a permanent owner rather than a fund with a fixed life. Its evergreen structure means it does not have to sell portfolio companies within a standard private equity timeline. That is significant for founders who want liquidity but also care about continuity.

The timing is also notable. Southeast Asia’s private equity market has become more selective in recent years, as higher interest rates, slower exit activity and more cautious public markets have made leveraged deals harder to execute. For smaller companies, the bar is even higher. Against that backdrop, acquisition vehicles with patient capital and committed debt facilities may become more relevant.

Building operators, not just buying companies

Timah is not only acquiring businesses. It is also trying to solve the leadership gap that appears after a founder exits.

The company runs a CEO Succession Programme aimed at developing high-potential mid-career professionals into leaders of acquired SMEs. That is an important piece of the puzzle. In many founder-led firms, the owner is also the chief salesperson, cultural anchor, capital allocator and problem-solver. Removing that person without a credible successor can weaken the business, even if the company looks stable on paper.

By pairing acquisition capital with an operator-development model, Timah is attempting to institutionalise a process that is usually informal in Southeast Asian SMEs. The goal is to keep the company’s existing strengths intact while professionalising areas such as finance, systems, talent development and governance.

UOB’s participation also reflects how banks are thinking about SME continuity beyond traditional lending. Eric Lian, Head of Group Commercial Banking at UOB, said the partnership with Timah would support “the renewal and sustained growth of strong local enterprises”, while helping SMEs remain resilient as operating conditions change.

Over time, Timah expects its lending relationships to extend beyond acquisitions into broader banking and financing support for portfolio companies, including founder wealth-planning needs. That would make the model less a one-off acquisition machine and more an ecosystem around SME transition.

The competitive landscape

Timah’s rivals are not limited to companies with the same label. In Singapore and Southeast Asia, it competes for deals with family offices, search funds, boutique private equity firms, management buyout teams and strategic buyers looking to acquire profitable SMEs. Oneteam is one such SME acquisition platform focused on succession solutions. In February this year, it secured a dedicated M&A financing facility from Polaris, the alternative financing arm of GB Helios.

Globally, its model sits in the same broad universe as permanent-capital acquirers and holding companies such as Constellation Software, Tiny, Chenmark and Permanent Equity, which buy and hold smaller, durable businesses rather than chasing short-term exits. The difference is that Southeast Asia’s SME succession market remains less institutionalised, leaving room for locally rooted platforms that understand founder psychology, relationship-driven diligence and the region’s fragmented business landscape.

Also Read: Beyond growth: Why succession planning matters for startups

For Timah, the challenge will be execution. A committed facility can speed up dealmaking, but it does not remove the hard parts of SME acquisitions: judging founder dependence, retaining key staff, pricing businesses fairly, and integrating operations without smothering what made them work.

Still, the facility gives Timah a clearer shot at building scale in a market where trust and certainty often matter as much as valuation. If it succeeds, the company could offer a template for how Southeast Asia handles one of its quieter economic transitions: what happens to good businesses when their founders are ready to step away.

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The Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC) will host two prominent exhibitions from 13-16 October in Hong Kong  — the Hong Kong Electronics Fair (Autumn Edition)  and electronicAsia , jointly organized by HKTDC and MMI Asia Pte Ltd. 

The fairs will be held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (HKCEC), showcasing the latest consumer electronics, smart products, electronic components and innovative technology solutions. Last year, the fairs brought more than 3,200 exhibitors from 20 countries and regions and attracted nearly 60,000 industry buyers from 142 countries and regions, who visited to source the latest products and explore new business opportunities.

Entering its 46th edition, the Electronics Fair continues to serve as a premier global platform connecting the international electronics industry, showcasing groundbreaking products and innovative solutions that align with latest tech trends. 

This year’s fair will spotlight three key themes: 

• AI and Robotics:  Bring together the latest advancements and applications in AI, robotics and intelligent automation, showcasing how emerging technologies are driving industrial transformation and reshaping the future of work and everyday life. The fair will also feature the dedicated “RoboPark” zone, where diverse application scenarios and live demonstrations highlight how robotics are being incorporated into industrial manufacturing, commercial services and daily life, unlocking limitless possibilities for a smarter future.
• Smart Wellness: Showcasing a wide range of digital health devices, smart wearables, personal care technologies, elderly-care solutions and wellness -focused electronic products, this theme reflects the growing demand for technology-enabled health management and enhanced quality of life.
• NEXTEntertainment: Focusing on the future of the digital entertainment, the fair showcases immersive, interactive and intelligent entertainment experiences.  Featuring XR technologies, smart gaming devices, digital content creation tools, entertainment solutions and innovative consumer electronics to enhance entertainment experiences and empower digital content creation.
  

Various zones will be set up to facilitate buyers in sourcing products. The highlighted zones include: 

• Hall of Fame: A collection of electronic products from renowned global brands. The fair will continue to feature the “RISE Avenue”, highlighting emerging brands and innovative products.
• Future Industries Zone (NEW): Organised by the HKTDC and the Hong Kong Electronic Industries Association, and supported by the Innovation, Technology and Industry Bureau (ITIB) of the Hong Kong SAR Government, the Future Industries Zone showcases innovations across five key areas including Future Computing & Microelectronics, Future Materials, Future Wellness, Future Supply Chain and Future Energy & Ocean Economy, this new zone highlights the latest technological advancements shaping the future of industries and smart cities.
• Startup Zone: Showcasing promising startups and emerging ideas. A curated series of start-up events will be held to foster connection, collaboration, and growth.
• GoGlobal Connect Zone (NEW): Bringing together professional service providers, to offer on-site one-stop support for businesses seeking to expand internationally, helping them explore overseas markets, drive business growth and accelerate global development.

  

electronicAsia, held concurrently with the Hong Kong Electronics Fair (Autumn Edition),  focuses on various electronic components, parts, and related solutions. 

During the fairs, a series of forums, conferences and seminar sessions will be organized, where industry  experts will share insights on latest market trends and technological developments while providing valuable networking opportunities for industry professionals.  In addition, startups will be able to showcase their innovative ideas through this platform, connect with potential investors and gain advice from experts to support their business growth and development. 

Register Now for Free Admission: https://tinyurl.com/2rzyunh5 

Fair websites: 

Hong Kong Electronics Fair (Autumn Edition): https://www.hktdc.com/event/hkelectronicsfairae/en

electronicAsia: https://www.hktdc.com/event/electronicasia/en

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The post Hong Kong Electronics Fairs (Autumn Edition) and electronicAsia: Cutting-Edge Technologies on Display This October, Shaping the Future of Industries appeared first on e27.

Southeast Asia’s travel industry has roared back from the COVID-19 pandemic, and a new generation of founders is betting that the region’s next big travel wins won’t come from another flight-and-hotel search engine, but from the unglamorous plumbing around it: visas, eSIMs, hourly hotel bookings, corporate travel expense trails, and the local guides who make a trip memorable.

Between 2018 and 2024, dozens of traveltech startups quietly emerged across Jakarta, Ho Chi Minh City, Manila, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, chasing everything from capsule hotels and glamping cabins to AI-enabled visa infrastructure and self-guided city quests.

Also Read: The impact of eSIM on international roaming and travel

Some, like Indonesia’s Bobobox, have scaled into multi-country hospitality brands backed by the likes of Li Ka-shing’s Horizon Ventures. Others remain scrappy, single-city bets still hunting for their first cheque. Together, they map a region-wide reimagining of how people move, sleep, pay and explore.

Below, we round up 23 of these emerging Southeast Asian traveltech companies — their founders, funding, and the problem each is trying to solve — as a working reference for anyone tracking where the region’s travel economy goes next.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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