Seven Filipino AI Startups Took the Stage at GITEX AI Asia 2026

Seven Filipino startups represented the Philippines at GITEX AI Asia 2026 in Singapore on April 9 to 10, pitching AI-driven solutions to international investors and partners. It is a small delegation, but a telling one: the products cluster around the real-economy problems where Philippine builders have an edge, including education, agriculture, property, and climate.

The seven

The lineup spanned several sectors. GradeChum automates evaluation of handwritten and digital student work, cutting teacher workload. Cerebro is an integrated school management and content system for hybrid learning. Farmesto pairs IoT sensors with AI for greenhouse dosing, irrigation, and climate control, while GreenVisions offers AI-driven farm monitoring and diagnostics to lift yields. Duon Wayfinding does real-time indoor navigation and geo-marketing inside malls and buildings. Collo is a cloud property-management platform automating tenant management, billing, and collections. WEHLO builds localized weather and hydrometeorological monitoring for disaster preparedness.

Who backed them

The startups were supported by DOST's Technology Application and Promotion Institute (DOST-TAPI), with funding flowing through the GALING, TECHNiCOM, and Expanded Venture Financing programs, plus the SPICE program that funds international exposure. That public scaffolding, covering commercialization, IP protection, and market access, is increasingly how local deep-tech reaches a global stage.

What it signals

The context is encouraging: the Philippines placed 50th of 139 economies in the Global Innovation Index 2025 and third among lower-middle-income economies. The pattern across the seven is worth internalizing if you are building here. None are generic chatbots; each applies AI to a domain with messy local data and a clear buyer, whether a school, a farm, a mall, or a disaster-response agency. That focus is exactly what travels well to an international showcase.

Key takeaways

• Vertical beats generic: every selected startup solves a specific real-economy problem with local data.
• Public funding is a real path: DOST-TAPI's GALING, TECHNiCOM, and SPICE programs fund commercialization and overseas exposure.
• Education, agri, proptech, and climate are where Philippine teams are currently most competitive.

If you are weighing what to build, the GITEX cohort is a useful mirror. Pick a domain you understand, ground it in data others cannot easily get, and use the available public programs to reach buyers beyond the local market.