The most innovative companies in Asia-Pacific for 2025

Topping this year’s list of MIC honorees in the Asia-Pacific region is a company so innovative that when it emerged from stealth, Fast Company judges and editors were late in the judging process, so we decided to add an unprecedented 11^th spot to this category. Chinese artificial intelligence firm DeepSeek launched a pair of state-of-the-art, open-source AI models that require far less computing power and capital than those of Western companies, sending shockwaves through Silicon Valley and the Wall Street firms that fund them. Several more Chinese tech companies round out the top slots: Baidu, which runs China’s top search engine, started offering driverless taxi services last summer in select cities and is already outperforming Google’s Waymo robotaxis where it operates. Shenzen company Honor released its Magic V3 phone in July, one of the world’s slimmest folding phones. Xiaomi, known for developing smartphones, entered the electric vehicle market last spring, releasing its first car, the SU7; by the end of the year, after just nine months on the market, its annual sales topped the Tesla Model 3 in China.

A handful of 2025 honorees focus on ecological innovations. Lodestone Energy opened its first solar farms last year and already is New Zealand’s leading solar producer. Lodestone is also pioneering agrivoltaics in New Zealand, working with limited land resources to combine solar farms with agricultural and farming land. Who Gives a Crap, Australia’s well-known sustainable toilet paper brand, expanded to the U.S. in May; look out for its colorful, tissue paper–wrapped TP at a Whole Foods near you.

Other innovators on the list include an Indian aerospace manufacturer and launch service provider (Agnikul Cosmos); an autonomous robotics company in Singapore that specializes in industrial applications (Venti Technologies); and an Australian AI-powered text-to-image model that set a new bar for image generation, receiving praise for its accuracy, visual fidelity, and creative control (Leonardo.Ai).

1. DeepSeek

For demonstrating the power of open-source AI

Chinese company DeepSeek sent shockwaves through the AI and investment communities in January with the release of a pair of state-of-the-art AI models that used far less computing power and capital than anyone had previously thought possible. The innovations were borne of necessity: trade restrictions under the Biden administration limited the company’s access to less powerful GPUs—Nvidia H800s instead of the cutting-edge H100s—and DeepSeek researchers had to develop clever workarounds to save GPU power. They included training the smaller R1 model on the larger model, DeepSeek-V3, to be a reasoning model; refining the mixture-of-experts framework, a neural network that segments a large language model by specialized knowledge, any one of which can handle queries while the rest of the model’s parameters remain idle; and compressing some of the data that the model must retain on its way toward an answer. All of this saved a lot of GPU power without sacrificing the model’s intelligence. What’s more, DeepSeek then published its work in research papers, thereby sharing its AI efficiencies with developers around the world. Silicon Valley, where questions of whether AI has been over-valuated have been swirling for months, is still reckoning with the fallout.

Read more about DeepSeek, honored as No. 12 on Fast Company’s list of the World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies of 2025.

2. Baidu

For deploying the world’s largest autonomous driving experiment

Chinese multinational technology company Baidu specializes in search engine services and artificial intelligence, but the internet services giant has also been expanding into robotaxis. Apollo Go, Baidu’s autonomous ride-hailing service, now operates the world’s largest autonomous driving experiment, in the city of Wuhan. Last July, the company launched a 24/7 service of more than 400 Apollo Go robotaxis that provide driverless rides around the city‚ marking a significant milestone for the sector. The company also operates autonomous taxis in Beijing, Chongqing, Shenzhen, and Shanghai. Apollo Go provided approximately 1.1 million rides across China in Q4 2024 alone—a year-over-year growth of 36%—and has given 9 million cumulative rides. To date, Apollo Go’s cars have traveled more than 80 million miles. In May, the company began testing the Apollo RT6 on public roads, its sixth-generation robotaxi and the first to be built from the ground up (rather than retrofitting existing vehicles). The vehicle costs less than $30,000, which CEO Robin Li said on an earnings call would help establish “a robust foundation for making commuting more affordable.” The company intends to roll its robotaxi service outside of mainland China, to Singapore and the Middle East, and already has acquired a license to test its autonomous vehicles in Hong Kong.

3. Lodestar Energy

For bringing utility-scale solar power to New Zealand

Inspired by its Australian neighbors and the country’s successful embrace of solar power, New Zealand has been steadily increasing its solar capacity by shifting toward larger-scale operations. Lodestone Energy, which launched in 2021, opened its first two solar farms last year, named Kohirā and Rangitaiki. With respective capacities of 33 megawatts and 32 megawatts, they were the two largest solar farms in the country—until Lodestone opened the 42-megawatt Te Herenga o Te Rā, in January. Lodestone a specializes in utility-scale photovoltaic farms that connect directly to the grid, allowing the company to sell its electricity right back to the local utility. Te Herenga o Te Rā alone has the capacity to power nearly 10,000 homes.

In New Zealand, where the sheep still outnumber humans and farmland is limited, Lodestone is pioneering the use of agrivoltaics, utilizing the same agricultural land for both sheep grazing and solar power generation. The practice is particularly valued for the economic benefits it provides to farmers, who receive rent from lease agreements and a percentage of the solar assets’ profits. The grazing livestock naturally cuts back the vegetation growing around and beneath the solar modules. Everyone wins, even the sheep. Lodestone plans to break ground this year on Haldon Station, which eventually will have a 180-MW capacity. In the meantime, it plans to open two smaller solar farms, and the company expects by the end of the year to produce enough energy to power 45,000 homes across New Zealand.

4. Honor

For developing the thinnest-ever foldable smart phone

Though their share of the overall smartphone market is in the low single digits, foldable smartphones have grown slowly but steadily popular as phone companies release new offerings. One of the best is the Magic V3 by Honor, the Chinese company formerly known as Huawei. Launched in 2024 and with a profile that measures 9.2 millimeters folded and 4.4 millimeters unfolded, the Magic V3 counts among the world’s thinnest folding phones. (For context, Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold6 comes in at 12.1 mm folded and 5.6 mm unfolded.) When closed, the Magic V3 feels to be around the same thickness as the iPhone 15 Pro Max, and users say that when opened, the fold crease in the screen is barely noticeable. Users also have praised the phone’s features, including external and internal displays, wireless charging, a long battery life (around 15 hours with moderate use, compared to the 15 Pro Max’s 8.5 hours), water resistance, and high durability despite its sleek profile. The Magic V2 was already overtaking Samsung in Western Europe’s foldable phone market when the V3 began selling outside of China. By September, Honor was outselling its Korean competitor in the foldable phone market; by December, the Magic V3 comprised 21% of all Honor’s device sales.

5. Agnikul Cosmos

For launching a single-piece, 3D-printed rocket engine into suborbital flight

Ever since the government reformed its space policy in 2020 to allow for greater participation from startups, India’s private space sector has been expanding in every direction. Agnikul Cosmos, an aerospace manufacturer and commercial launch service provider based in Chennai, represents this shift toward privatization. Last May, after four failed attempts, the company successfully completed a test launch for Agnibaan, its small-lift launch vehicle capable of carrying 100-kilogram payloads into low orbit. While its competitors must rely on the government space agency’s launchpad to get to space, Agnibaan launched from Agnikol’s very own launchpad, a first for the budding industry.

The sub-orbital test launch in May marked the second such achievement for an Indian private space company, following Skyroot Aerospace’s Vikram S rocket launch in November 2022. It also demonstrated the world’s first single-piece 3D-printed semi-cryogenic rocket engine, the Agnikul-built Agnilet. (Semi-cryogenic rocket engines use a mix of kerosene and ultracold liquid oxygen for fuel, which translates to a high thrust-to-weight ratio, cost-effectiveness, and operational simplicity. The kerosene takes up less room than the liquid hydrogen used in fully cryogenic rocket engines, freeing up space for more payloads.) Unlike traditional rocket engines, which can take up to 12 weeks to manufacturer, Agnikul—whose name is a portmanteau derived from the Sanskrit words for fire (अग्नि, or agni)and an ancient type of schooling (गुरुकुल, or gurukul)—says it can produce two of its Agnilet engines each week.

6. Xiaomi Technology

For bringing its smartphone knowhow into EVs

Xiaomi Technology is primarily known as the world’s third-largest smartphone maker. But the Chinese electronics company ventured into a very different market in 2024: electric vehicles. Its maiden vehicle, the SU7, launched last March to great acclaim. The full-size sedan matches or beats the Tesla Model 3 on performance, range, and cabin technology and starts at the relatively low price of around $30,000. The SU7 is also outfitted with a smart device ecosystem that syncs with Xiaomi’s other products. Industry observers were especially surprised by the great user reviews; no less a fan than Ford CEO Jim Farley sang its praises on a podcast last October, recounting how he’d shipped the “fantastic” SU7 from Shanghai to Chicago and driven it for six months, and now “I don’t want to give it up.”

Xiaomi reportedly sold out of its entire SU7 production run of 2024 on the first day it was available. By the end of the year, the company had sold more than 130,000 cars. In October, the company unveiled a prototype of the luxury SU7 Ultra. At a road test at Germany’s legendary motorsports track Nürburgring Nordschleife, the SU7 Ultra broke the record for the fastest four-door sedan. It went on sale this March; Xiaomi plans to release an electronic SUV, the YU7, this summer.

7. Leonardo.Ai

For creating a text-to-image AI tool cool enough to catch Canva’s eye

As artificial intelligence companies continue the quest to perfect a model for generating images from nothing but text prompts, the Australian startup Leonardo.Ai—founded just three years ago—stood out in 2024 for the June debut of its first text-to-image model, Phoenix. Built in-house, the technology set a new bar for image generation, receiving praise for its accuracy, visual fidelity, and creative control. The next month, the design software giant Canva acquired Leonardo.AI, which will continue to run as a separate entity. Though the terms of the deal have not been disclosed, media reports based on documents from its largest shareholder estimate that Canva paid $320 million for the startup, just two years old at the time.

Leonardo.Ai’s founders originally conceived the company as a resource for game designers. But they quickly broadened its mandate to appeal to advertisers, marketers, and designers of all stripes. At the time of acquisition, the startup boasted 19 million registered users. In October, Canva announced Dream Lab, a content creation tool powered by Phoenix, making Leonardo.AI’s technology available to its more than 200 million monthly users. The tool allows Canva’s users to render images in any one of 19 styles from written prompts alone—and that’s just so far. More features are coming soon, including photo prompts and shape references that will allow for more of one of the Leonardo.Ai team’s guiding principles: user customization.

8. Who Gives a Crap

For bringing cheeky, eco-friendly toilet paper around the globe

You may not know this—and you may not wish to know—but there’s a good chance your favorite toilet paper brand is helping to destroy one of our planet’s most sensitive ecological systems: Canada’s epic boreal forest. (Check for yourself via the Natural Resources Defense Council’s annual The Issue with Tissue.) One of the brands that received an A rating this year, Who Gives a Crap, will make you forget all about the scratchy, sandpaper-y eco-friendly TP of yore. The Melbourne-based company launched in 2012. But until last year, if you wanted to get your hands on one of its sustainable, 100% recycled rolls outside Australia, you had to order it online. (At least the company sends its plastic-free packages via carbon-neutral shipping.) But last May in the U.S., its colorful, tissue paper–wrapped TP began popping up in select Whole Foods. By the dog days of summer, Who Gives a Crap was available in Whole Foods nationwide.

The company is now betting for the first time on more than just toilet paper. In October, it released a three-product line of sustainable garbage bags, for trash, compost, and dog poo. The trash bags are composed of 100% recycled plastic, and the compostable food waste bags decompose within three months at an industrial facility.

Who Gives a Crap makes a point to give back, donating half of all profits to charities and NGOs focused on improved access to water, toilets, and hygienic care. To date, they have donated around $12.5 million.

9. Venti Technologies

For doing the heavy lifting at one of the world’s largest ports, in Singapore

The self-driving-vehicle sector is teeming with companies in competition to make it big on the open road. Venti Technologies, based in Singapore and launched by a team with roots in MIT, stands out for focusing on autonomous technologies for industrial use—specifically in low-speed environments like ports, airports, and warehouses. The company’s suite of special-purpose algorithms is designed to optimize cargo container transportation and works with a wide range of vehicles, allowing the AI-enabled technology to move varying weight loads and distances through complex spaces and changing routes.

Venti is entering the fifth year of its partnership agreement with the Port of Singapore Authority to provide self-driving vehicles that transport containers among PSA’s five terminals in the island country. A fleet of dozens of cargo movers guided by Venti’s technology work 24 hours a day and perform around 90% of the inter-yard jobs. The tasks involve more than just moving containers from point A to point B: The vehicles must also be able to interact with sophisticated machinery, like cranes, and load and unload cargo with precision. The AI-enabled vehicles reduce PSA’s handling costs for goods and improve the safety conditions. ​​(Though it does so by replacing people with machines.)

Last year, Venti’s vehicles drove 180,000 kilometers and moved an average of 5,000 containers each week. The company also worked with Katoen Natie, a Belgian international logistics company, and says it recently locked in a contract with Norfolk Southern, one of the largest railroad companies in the U.S.

10. Intellect

For expanding mental healthcare access across the Asia Pacific region

Intellect, founded in Singapore in 2019 by Theodoric Chew and Asia’s fastest-growing mental health platform, hopes to drastically transform mental healthcare across the Asia Pacific region. The company offers AI-enabled virtual care and tele-consultations via its digital platform; services include counseling, clinical therapy, and medicine management, as well as screening assessments for mental health disorders.

One of Chow’s primary goals when he launched Intellect was to increase access to support wherever they operated. Today, Intellect collectively serves 4 million people in 30 languages across 60 countries. The company partnered with Asia’s largest private healthcare group, IHH Healthcare, in 2023 to offer digital mental health programs for IHH patients, along with its staff; its corporate clients have included Dell, ByteDance, Shell, McDonald’s, Singtel, and Visa. Last July, Intellect launched its flagship mental health clinic in Singapore, which blends virtual and IRL care; today, it has six clinics. The company has raised $27 million in funding to date; it plans in the next year to open clinics in Hong Kong, Australia, and Japan.

11. Vow

For growing foie gras in a lab from quail cells

Lab-grown meat has had a tough go of it. Expensive and difficulty to produce at scale, the high-tech protein’s biggest problem is perception. A lot of people are grossed out by the prospect, considering it sterile, or overly synthetic, or not really food. As the only company in the world selling cultured meat, Australian biotech startup Vow is in the unique position of shaping the public’s perception. It’s doing so with spreadable meats.

The company knows how to make a splash. Its first foray into cultured meat was actually a meatball made using wooly mammoth DNA that Vow unveiled two years ago at the Nemo science museum, in Amsterdam. But the wooly mammoth meatball wasn’t for consumption. The company launched its first commercially available product in Singapore last April: Forged Parfait, Vow’s version of liver pâté, with a pink hue and a deeply savory flavor. Seven months later, it revealed its second product of the year, Forged Gras, with the subtly gamey flavor and creamy texture of real foie gras. Both are grown in a bioreactor from the cells of a Japanese quail egg.

After restructuring the team toward the end of last year, Vow says its focus for 2025 will be improving popular perceptions of lab-grown meat. While its products are available in select restaurants in Singapore and Hong Kong, the company is awaiting regulatory approval in Australia and is seeking the same from the FDA in the U.S. The company can back up its build-it-and-they-will-come-around mentality with data: it has retained 100% of its restaurant partners, and 93% of diners said they’d gladly eat a Forged dish again.

Explore the full 2025 list of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies, 609 organizations that are reshaping industries and culture. We’ve selected the companies making the biggest impact across 58 categories, including advertising, applied AI, biotech, retail, sustainability, and more.