On 14 October 2026, e27 hosted Borderless Innovation: X-HUB Tokyo-Singapore Demo Day 2026 with X-HUB TOKYO, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s global startup accelerator, run by Deloitte Tohmatsu. This is the third year e27 has partnered with Deloitte Tohmatsu to bring Tokyo’s startups to Southeast Asia, and this year’s cohort arrived with a clear focus: technology built for Japan’s labour shortage, ready for a region starting to feel the same pressure.

The online session brought nine Tokyo-based startups in industrial AI, robotics, enterprise AI, supply chain, medical AI and water technology in front of Singapore and Southeast Asian investors, corporates and government agencies. Each founder pitched, took live questions from a mentor on Southeast Asia market fit, and then met guests in themed breakout rooms. The session came two weeks before the cohort travels to Singapore for SWITCH 2026, from 27 to 29 October.

Industrial AI and robotics tackling the labour shortage

• Hutzper: builds Owlox, a safety AI for construction sites that checks whether workers are actually clipped in, not just wearing a harness.
• SYNRA: uses cameras to read tiny vibrations in equipment and predict failures, with no sensors needed on machines that are too hot or too high to reach.
• D’isum: brings predictive maintenance to SME manufacturers through a smartphone or tablet, with no training data or data science team required.
• RoboFounders: builds physical AI and a robot OS for dangerous manufacturing work, with deployment results already in Malaysia.

AI agents built for enterprise operations

• Jurin AI: runs AI agents that handle customer support across phone, email and chat in more than 105 languages, around the clock.
• datagusto: provides a runtime safety layer that catches AI agents before they misfire, then diagnoses and fixes the root cause.
• AI Hikari: runs supply chain work, from product listing to delivery and settlement, through AI agents on its COMSEE platform.

Health and food security solutions with regional reach

• Neuspective: helps radiologists and pathologists produce faster, more accurate diagnostic reports with its Qreia platform.
• Shelltas: runs a “Water OS” that keeps aquaculture and hydroponic systems stable with far fewer water changes.

Also Read: Why Antler is going all-in on Japan’s earliest-stage founders

A format built for conversations, not just pitches

Each startup pitched for three minutes, then took two minutes of live questions from a mentor. The mentors focused on one thing: whether the product fits Southeast Asia, and who the first partners and customers could be.

The five mentors were Remi Choong, Partner at Elev8.vc; Andrew Shuttleworth, Chief Strategy Officer at Obayashi Construction-Tech Lab Singapore; Syahmi Rashid, Technology Scout and Solutions Strategy Consultant at the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA); Charmaine Ng of Nebius’s startup platform and community team; and Tushar Poddar, Advisor and Principal Consultant at TPM Solutions.

After the pitches, Choong and Shuttleworth joined Christine Galolo, e27’s Director for Growth and Marketing, for a fireside chat titled “Why Southeast Asia, Why Now: Japanese Deep Tech Going Global.” The pairing was deliberate: a Japanese corporate already operating in Singapore, and a Singapore deep tech investor.

The session closed with four themed breakout rooms: Smart Factory, Robotics and Infrastructure, AI Agents, and Health and Food Security. Guests picked the room they wanted when they registered, and we matched anyone who didn’t. Each room had an e27 facilitator and a mentor alongside the founders.

What the demand told us

The event drew 141 registrations and 96 live participants. The external guests came from 59 organisations, a mix of venture capital firms, global corporates, government agencies and development finance institutions.

In the days after the session, attendees sent 46 requests to connect with specific founders, and every one of the nine startups received interest. The room was buyers and capital. Nearly two in three requests came from investors and corporates, not ecosystem observers. That matters for a cohort heading into in-person meetings.

Some of those connections are already turning into meetings during SWITCH week.

Also Read: Japan’s next-gen startups land in Singapore at X-HUB TOKYO 2025

What this means for Japan-Southeast Asia collaboration

Japanese startups have long been seen as strong on technology and slow on going abroad. This cohort suggests that view is out of date. These founders came with clear Southeast Asia use cases, live deployments at home, and in some cases results already in the region.

The appetite on the Southeast Asian side is just as clear. The technology Japan built for its own demographic challenge is exactly what the region’s factories, construction sites and service businesses are starting to need.

The bridge between the two works best when it is built before the plane lands. Demo days like this one are where that bridge starts.

Thank you to Deloitte Tohmatsu, X-HUB TOKYO and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, to our mentors and fireside speakers, and to the nine founding teams who pitched.

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This article is produced by the e27 team

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