On 28 July, The GEAR by Kajima convened the fifth edition of its Startup CoLab Partner Forum – and this one carried extra weight. For the first time, BCA’s new CEO Derek Tan joined in person, alongside leadership from across the programme’s full partner network: JTC, SMU IIE, Enterprise Singapore, ACE.SG, and HKSTP.
The high level of support from our programme partners, paired with the positive outcomes of the programme so far, demonstrates Startup CoLab has become a strong pipeline for built environment innovation across Singapore’s industry.
Programme Momentum
The numbers presented at the forum tell a clear story of how Startup CoLab continues to gain momentum. The programme’s 2026 application volume is already closing in on the whole of 2025’s total – in just six months. On the proof-of-concept side, the pipeline shows healthy throughput: roughly a third of selected startups have completed their POC, another third are in progress, and the remainder are either in planning.
Growth has come predominantly through the partner network itself – 99% of applications are referred in by programme and ecosystem partners, reflecting deepening trust in the programme as each partner’s own front door to construction-tech innovation.
Beyond the numbers, the Partner Forum itself is proving to be one of the programme’s most valuable assets – a rare room where The GEAR can sit down with senior leaders from across the built environment ecosystem and reflect together on where the industry is heading. The back-and-forth with partners in that room, comparing notes on what they’re each seeing in the market, is where some of the sharpest thinking happens. It’s also an opportunity for The GEAR to put its own thought leadership on the table – including the emerging trends compilation that is a key part of the discussion.
Where the Market Is Heading
These trends aren’t abstract – they’re surfacing directly from the applications coming through Startup CoLab’s own pipeline and our broader market observations:
Data centres are reshaping demand for cooling optimisation and embodied carbon-reducing technology. Southeast Asia’s data centre market is projected to grow from US$15.7B in 2025 to US$35B by 203. Data centre capacity in the region is projected to triple from 2025 levels by 2030, driven by a tenfold surge in AI use. Malaysia alone already has over 500 operational data centres, 300 under construction, and 1,140 more planned. This is driving fresh demand in two areas: cooling and asset-optimisation technology, and low-carbon concrete for embodied-carbon reduction – and puts Singapore in a strong position as a regional hub for data-centre-enabling startups.
Physics-informed AI is moving from research to real funding. Rather than relying purely on historical data, this approach embeds known physical laws – thermodynamics, fluid dynamics, structural mechanics – directly into AI models, making them faster and more consistent with real-world constraints than LLMs or traditional simulation. The signal is hard to ignore: three major funding rounds, totalling $15.8B USD, branded around “physics-informed AI” landed within a single week in June 2026. For the built environment, the applications are proving to be highly impactful in building performance and energy modelling, structural health monitoring, and HVAC digital twins.
Labour shortages and cheaper hardware are accelerating construction robotics. 2026 robotics capital invested has already surpassed all of 2025 ($18B vs $15B), with China alone contributing $3.3B across 126 deals in Q1. Falling costs for compute, sensors, and actuators – combined with a maturing ecosystem of standards for robots working near people – are lowering the barrier to deployment. Notably, only 7% of Startup CoLab applicants currently sit in this space, suggesting a need for more targeted scouting to bring top embodied-AI startups into the pipeline.
Looking Ahead
We’re grateful for the support and involvement of all our programme partners – and for the leaders who took the time to join this edition in person. The next forum is already on the calendar for October/November. And as the partner network keeps growing, we’d love to hear from any organisation or corporate keen to explore what it would look like to join it. If the fifth edition is any indication, the sixth will have plenty to build on.
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Learn more about The GEAR Startup CoLab Programme here.
