More corporate professionals becoming startup Founders – Angel Central

More corporate professionals are becoming startup Founders, Angel Central, the angel investor club in ASEAN, said in a survey on Wednesday. According to the firm, a notable trend from its 2025 application data is the increasing number of corporate professionals transitioning into entrepreneurship. This year, 77.06 percent of founders who applied through their platform came from corporate backgrounds, significantly outweighing serial or fresh graduate founders. This data suggests that more individuals with industry expertise, domain knowledge, and established professional networks are choosing to pursue entrepreneurial paths, even against the backdrop of a challenging fundraising climate. For the startup ecosystem, this is a positive as it indicates a broadening and maturing founder pipeline – one that is increasingly driven by problem-solvers with real-world exposure and a clearer understanding of the gaps they aim to address. The firm has analyzed data from over 1,000 startup applications received through its platform in 2025. This release highlights a resilient entrepreneurial spirit in Singapore and the region, with no slowdown in startups seeking funding despite a tougher fundraising climate. Despite ongoing global headwinds and a noticeably cautious funding environment, startup activity in Singapore and the region shows no sign of slowing, according to the release. AngelCentral has received over 1,000 startup applications in 2025, up from 900 in 2024. This steady increase highlights the resilience of the entrepreneurial spirit in Singapore and Southeast Asia. Even as fundraising conditions tighten and investors are stricter with funding, aspiring founders continue to pursue opportunities to build and scale companies. For the ecosystem, this signals that entrepreneurial ambition remains undeterred, and the pipeline of new ventures is as strong as ever. Meanwhile, in 2025, artificial intelligence (AI)-related startups on the AngelCentral platform grew by 21.05 percent compared to 2024, showing an acceleration in the startups that have AI and machine learning as their core product – a clear sign that entrepreneurs continue to ride the latest technology. The next largest group of startups are in the software as a service (SaaS), data management, EduTech, healthcare tech, as well as banking and FinTech sectors, which reflects steady demand for digital solutions across core industries. Startups in the energy & environmental renewables, hardware, MediaTech and impact & sustainability spaces also showed noticeable increases in application volume on the AngelCentral platform in 2025. These sectors usually rely on patents on core technologies that come out of universities or research institutes. For instance, the platform’s angel members recently syndicated an investment into a water-purification technology startup addressing Southeast Asia’s clean-water challenges. The core nano technology came out of a local university research. The findings from AngelCentral’s internal data analysis of founders and startups in the Southeast Asia region in 2025 also shows a thriving entrepreneurial landscape in the region – one that continues to attract new entrants in the fields of AI, deeptech and impact despite a challenging fundraising environment. Angel investing continues on, but with more caution and selection – Angel Central