ASEAN Bound: How Sunway iLabs & JETRO Are Fast-Tracking Japan’s Deep Tech Startups

Sunway iLabs and JETRO turn Malaysia into a real-world testbed for Japanese AI and deep tech startups looking beyond their home market.

Sunway Innovation Labs (Sunway iLabs), the innovation and venture arm of Sunway Group, and the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) Kuala Lumpur have wrapped up the J-StarX Malaysia Deep Tech Programme (MYTech) 2025. The accelerator was designed to help four Japanese startups enter Malaysia first, ASEAN next, using Sunway’s “living laboratory” and JETRO’s cross-border network as launch platforms.

Running from August to October 2025, this year’s edition marked the seventh year of collaboration between the two organisations and sharpened its focus on AI and deep tech. The idea is simple but strategic: use Malaysia’s relatively business-friendly environment, English-speaking ecosystem, and central location as a staging ground for Japanese founders who want to test, localise, and scale across Southeast Asia. 

Inside MYTech 2025: 

Unlike many accelerators that end with a pitch and a photo op, MYTech 2025 leaned heavily into on-the-ground immersion.

Over three months, the participating startups:

• Visited ecosystem builders like MRANTI and InvestKL, as well as industry partners.
• Joined mentorship sessions with local experts.
• Met potential customers, investors, and collaborators.
• Heard firsthand from Japanese entrepreneurs who have already set up in Malaysia.

Beyond introductions, the programme pushed founders to understand:

• How to navigate regulatory frameworks and compliance.
• How Malaysian and ASEAN business culture differs from Japan.
• How to tweak products, pricing, and positioning for regional markets.

For many deep tech startups, this kind of structured market-learning sprint is as valuable as capital. It reduces execution risk when they eventually commit to PoCs, local hiring, or setting up a regional base.

Four Startups, One Regional Thesis

The 2025 cohort brought together four Japanese companies using AI and deep tech to solve real-world problems:

• Buddy Cloud Inc. – enables mobile-based pet health diagnostics, bringing clinical-style insight into pet owners’ hands.
• FiberCraze Co., Ltd. – develops nanofibre-based textile materials, targeting more sustainable and functional fabrics.
• BioPhenolics Inc. – produces bio-based phenolic compounds, offering greener alternatives to petrochemical-based inputs used across multiple industries.
• I.W.G Inc. – builds DoCloud, an AI-powered platform that supports interoperable healthcare data and more efficient hospital workflows.

Taken together, the cohort reflects a clear thesis: deep tech that sits at the intersection of sustainability, healthcare, and advanced materials — areas where ASEAN has large, fast-growing needs but often fragmented solutions. The programme helped each startup move beyond “cool tech” and work on how that tech actually lands in hospitals, factories, and households in the region.

By the end of the programme, the founders were not just pitching features; they were talking about use cases, pilots, and pathways to commercial deployment in Malaysia and beyond.

Why Malaysia Is Emerging as a Testbed

From JETRO’s point of view, MYTech is part of a bigger push under the J-StarX brand to help Japanese startups expand globally through themed, region-specific programmes (MedTech, SpaceTech, Silicon Valley, etc.). The Malaysia Deep Tech track is tailored for companies in AI, advanced manufacturing, semiconductors, and healthcare looking at Southeast Asia. 

Malaysia offers a few strategic advantages for this:

• A diverse population and mixed-income market that can mirror broader ASEAN demographics.
• Active ecosystem builders like MRANTI and InvestKL helping foreign startups plug into local industry and government. 
• Strong university and research partners, such as Sunway University, that can support pilots, testing, and joint R&D. 

For Japanese deep tech companies that are often engineering-heavy and cautious about expansion, having a structured, partner-led path into Malaysia lowers both perceived risk and the operational burden of going abroad for the first time.

From Pilots to Policy: Why Alumni Stories Matter

The organisers can now point to alumni examples that go well beyond slideware:

• AeroSense, a drone tech spin-out from Sony–ZMP, started with pilot projects and now works with Sunway University on environmental mapping while serving as a drone technology partner to Malaysia’s government.
• PT Bio is co-developing genomic and microbiome-based solutions with Sunway Property, facilities teams, and researchers to help cut carbon emissions in real estate and urban environments.
  

These stories matter for two reasons:

1. They show that the programme can bridge the gap between PoC and actual deployment, which is often where innovation dies.
2. They demonstrate how deep tech can plug into national priorities like sustainability, climate resilience, and smart city development.

For investors and corporates watching from the sidelines, alumni traction is often a stronger signal than the size of the cohort or the flashiness of demo day.

What This Means for Founders and Investors in Asia

For founders across Asia’s startup community, MYTech 2025 sends a few important signals:

• Cross-border accelerators work best when anchored in strong local platforms. Sunway iLabs isn’t just a co-working space; it comes with corporate units, university labs, and a built-in test city in Sunway City.
• Deep tech needs ecosystem orchestration, not just funding. Access to regulators, corporates, and researchers can matter more than a cheque when you’re building robotics, bio-based materials, or health data platforms.
• Japan–ASEAN collaboration is shifting from trade to co-creation. Instead of simply selling into Southeast Asia, Japanese startups are increasingly co-developing products tailored to local conditions, regulations, and climate goals.

For investors, MYTech is also a reminder that corporate-backed innovation platforms can be powerful deal sources and co-investment partners. Programmes like this surface high-quality international startups that already have some degree of regulatory and market validation in ASEAN.

A Bridge, Not Just a Batch

The J-StarX Malaysia Deep Tech Programme is framed as an accelerator, but in practice it functions more as a bridge between two ecosystems: Japan’s deep tech talent base and ASEAN’s demand for practical, scalable innovation.

With Sunway iLabs and JETRO committed to this partnership for the long term, future cohorts are likely to benefit from:

• Stronger alumni networks,
• More mature corporate and government relationships, and
• A clearer playbook for scaling deep tech into Southeast Asia.

The key takeaway here is that cross-border deep tech expansion is becoming more structured and repeatable. If you are building in AI, advanced materials, sustainability, or healthtech, programmes like MYTech show how carefully designed collaboration can turn a new market from a risk into a growth engine.

Quick Takeaways

• Sunway iLabs and JETRO wrapped up the MYTech 2025 accelerator, focused on AI and deep tech.
  
• Four Japanese startups joined the cohort, targeting healthcare, sustainability, biotechnology, and advanced materials.
  
• The programme offered immersion visits, mentorship, investor introductions, and PoC pathways through Sunway’s living laboratory.
  
• Malaysia is increasingly positioned as a launchpad for Japanese startups expanding into ASEAN.
  
• Alumni startups like AeroSense and PT Bio have already progressed to real partnerships and government-level deployments.
  
• The initiative highlights a shift from market entry to co-creation, with deep tech aligned to regional needs.
  
• MYTech is emerging as a structured pathway for Japan–ASEAN collaboration, beyond traditional trade and investment.