The Breakthrough Energy Fellows program took a major leap forward this month as we welcomed the first-ever Fellows from Southeast Asia into our global community of innovators. BE Fellows – Southeast Asia (BE Fellows – SEA), launched in collaboration with Temasek and Enterprise Singapore, marks the start of our program’s first regional hub.
We officially announced the first two projects from BE Fellows – SEA at the Singapore Week of Innovation & Technology (SWITCH), Enterprise Singapore’s flagship deep tech conference. These four Singapore-based Fellows are focused on critical solutions to decarbonizing the global economy, including developing clean fuels and recycling critical raw materials. Their projects are aligned with Breakthrough Energy’s mission to accelerate climate solutions, and they join the rest of the Fellows in Cohort 4 in driving progress forward.
The innovators from Southeast Asia bring fresh insights and regional expertise, strengthening our commitment to nurturing climate tech breakthroughs across the globe.
The Breakthrough Energy Fellows - Southeast Asia Innovators
CRecTech
Lim Kang Hui, CEO, and Haw Kok Giap, CTO and COO, co-founded CRecTech in 2020 after meeting during a graduate research program at the National University of Singapore. CRecTech is developing a solution to produce methanol from biogas at scale to reduce carbon emissions from the maritime industry. Currently, the industry accounts for approximately 3% of global carbon emissions and faces challenges decarbonizing due to the lack of affordable and abundantly available renewable fuels like bio-methanol. With its novel catalytic process, CRecTech aims to simplify and reduce the cost of bio-methanol production to drive adoption at scale. More than 2kg of CO2 would be abated for every kilogram of marine fuel oil substituted with CRecTech’s bio-methanol; at scale, this could translate to nearly a billion tonnes of maritime CO2 emissions abated.
Lincore
The CEO and CTO of Lincore, Saikiran Reddy and Wang Xun, met while attending university together in 2021. Lincore focuses on refining critical raw materials. The World Bank estimates that 3 billion tonnes of metals and minerals will be required by 2050 to meet the needs of the global energy transition. To reduce the reliance on mining new metals and minerals, there is an urgent need to improve the recycling of existing critical materials. Lincore seeks to address this with its electro-metallurgical refining technology. Lincore’s process extracts critical materials like Lithium, Nickel, Cobalt, and Manganese from black mass (shredded recycled batteries) and produces material that can be used to manufacture new batteries.
Why Southeast Asia?
Climate change poses serious risks to Southeast Asia, where rising sea levels, intensified weather patterns, and biodiversity loss are increasingly impacting communities. But given its fast-growing economy and rising energy demand, Southeast Asia is also well-positioned to lead in adopting climate solutions that generate economic value while lowering emissions.
Alongside our partners Temasek and Enterprise Singapore, we aim to drive investment into scalable climate solutions across the region to help reduce the impact of climate change and strengthen resilience. The region benefits from unique access to diverse funding sources, including venture capital, growth equity, and government grants, which are essential for expanding these clean technology initiatives. With a rich pool of skilled talent and advanced research infrastructure across universities, Southeast Asia offers fertile ground for developing a robust climate innovation pipeline.
Like all BE Fellows, Lim Kang Hui, Haw Kok Giap, Saikiran Reddy, and Wang Xun will receive technical support, funding, and business resources to develop, validate, and de-risk their technologies. Additionally, Fellows can tap Temasek and EnterpriseSG’s vast regional connections, resources, and market insights to further expedite the development and commercialization of their region-specific climate solutions.
In addition to the Fellows expansion, we are also celebrating the graduation of Singapore Climate Ventures’ first cohort, a program designed to equip aspiring climate entrepreneurs with essential startup skills. Organized by Nanyang Technological University, National University of Singapore, and Temasek with Breakthrough Energy’s support, this part-time program allows participants to develop projects that can pursue funding and additional support, with the hopes that many of those teams become future Fellows.
The launch of BE Fellows – Southeast Asia marks a milestone in our journey to accelerate climate solutions on a global scale—and we’re just getting started. The application to apply for Cohort 5 of the Breakthrough Energy Fellows program, including BE Fellows – SEA is officially open. Nominations and applications are accepted here. This next cohort will begin the program in September / October 2025.
