Ecobiz.asia – Breakthrough Energy, Temasek and Enterprise Singapore have extended their climate technology innovation program in Southeast Asia for another three years, committing to support new cohorts of innovators from 2028 to 2030 as they work to bring low-carbon technologies from the laboratory to commercial deployment.
The renewal of Breakthrough Energy Fellows – Southeast Asia (BE Fellows – SEA) was announced at the Singapore Week of Innovation and Technology (SWITCH) 2026, alongside the addition of three corporate partners: Olam Agri, Indonesia’s Pertamina New & Renewable Energy (Pertamina NRE) and ExpresSo NB, the venture arm of Thailand’s PTT.
The new partners will provide participating companies with access to industry expertise, potential funding, pilot sites and commercial networks to help accelerate the testing and deployment of climate technologies across the region.
Ben Gaddy, interim head of Discovery at Breakthrough Energy, said the program had demonstrated the potential of combining Southeast Asia’s growing energy demand with its pool of climate technology innovators.
“This renewal and extension give our Fellows a clearer path from breakthrough ideas to real-world impact,” Gaddy said in a statement on Wednesday (Oct. 28, 2026)
Launched in 2024, BE Fellows – SEA is the first regional hub outside the United States established by Breakthrough Energy, the climate organization founded by Bill Gates.
The program provides researchers, scientists and technology innovators with funding, technical mentorship and access to investors, industry experts and other partners.
Since its launch, the initiative has supported 12 companies from Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand developing technologies in areas including clean fuels, plastic recycling, alternative materials for electric vehicle batteries, agricultural productivity, and climate adaptation and resilience.
Under the extended program, participating fellows can receive up to US$500,000 in funding, alongside technical and commercial support and access to the partners’ networks of investors, industry specialists and government agencies.
Russell Tham, Temasek’s head of emerging technologies, said scaling climate technologies beyond the laboratory would require access to capital, industry expertise and market opportunities.
Cindy Khoo, managing director of Enterprise Singapore, said connecting innovators with industry networks and real-world deployment opportunities was critical to commercializing deep technologies across the region.
The expanded corporate partnerships are intended to address a key challenge for early-stage climate technologies: moving from technical validation to their first commercial applications. The partners will help identify potential projects and pilot sites, connect founders with industry advisers and refine business models to meet regional energy and industrial needs.
An early example of this approach emerged in August 2026, when BE Fellows participant CRecTech signed an agreement with Pertamina NRE to jointly develop Indonesia’s first biogas-to-biomethanol demonstration plant in Sumatra.
CRecTech co-founder and chief executive Kang Hui Lim said the program had helped the company establish development milestones, assess the technology’s economic and environmental impact, and evaluate customer needs and commercial viability.
The partnership with Pertamina NRE is intended to take CRecTech’s biomethanol technology from the laboratory to a pilot facility for real-world testing and validation.
The three-year extension will continue the program’s focus on helping climate technology companies overcome the technical and commercial barriers that often prevent promising innovations from reaching the market. ***
