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Business Builders 2026

The leaders powering AI transformation

Every business leader talks about AI. 96% of Singapore finance leaders expect AI investment to increase over the next 12 months. But investment is only the start. The leaders pulling ahead are rebuilding the systems beneath it.

Business Builders is an Airwallex initiative spotlighting founders and finance leaders who are moving AI beyond experimentation and embedding it into the way their businesses operate, grow, and compete. Informed by Forrester research, it showcases how leading businesses are scaling AI through connected systems, trusted data, and modern financial infrastructure.

Singapore is setting the pace for AI transformation

Around the world, organisations are making AI a strategic priority, but few have successfully embedded it into everyday operations. Singapore's finance leaders are already moving further and faster – from investment to implementation.

cited AI executed autonomously with minimal human input (vs 11% globally)

are running a structured, enterprisewide AI talent strategy for finance, including role redesign, certifications, and hiring strategies (vs 15% globally)

Meet the Business Builders

A new generation of leaders building the future of businesses

Business Builders brings together the founders and finance leaders helping define what AI transformation looks like in practice.

Endowus

Dominic Ong

Chief Financial Officer

Dominic is behind Asia's largest independent wealth platform, expanding access to low-cost investing across CPF, SRS, and cash savings. He separates AI hype from AI that works by one test: whether it moves a real number, like resolution rates or reconciliation errors.

Pitstop Auto Club

Cordillia Tan

Chief of Strategy

Cordillia built one of Singapore's most recognised automotive brands by transforming a struggling family business into a multi-million-dollar company. Today, she is applying the same playbook at PetaniAI, helping Southeast Asians discover, learn, and build with AI through content, events, and community.

StaffAny

Eugene Ng

Co-founder & Chief Revenue Officer

Eugene is building the operating system for shift-based businesses. Through StaffAny, he's automating rostering, attendance, and reporting, giving frontline teams the tooling office workers have long taken for granted – and giving his own team more time to focus on growth.

Peakflo

Dmitry Vedenyapin

Co-founder & Chief Technology Officer

Dmitry is giving AI agents the financial context to act on their own. Peakflo helps finance and sales teams eliminate repetitive manual work, from invoice-to-cash to procurement and FP&A, replacing scripted automation with agents that understand a company's financial reality and act on it.

Chronos Agency

Joshua Chin

Chief Executive Officer

Joshua sits at the intersection of growth, data, and automation. Through Chronos Agency, he's helped over 500 brands lift customer lifetime value with AI-driven lifecycle marketing. He applies the same systems-driven thinking internally, building a globally connected business designed to scale efficiently.

GlobalTix

Chee Kong (CK) Chan

Co-founder & Chief Operations Officer

CK built GlobalTix to connect attractions with travel sellers worldwide, so booking a bungee jump is as seamless as the jump itself. His focus: real-time visibility into cash position, so demand spikes across markets get met instantly, not chased after the fact.

CardUp

Diana Lim

Vice President, Partnerships and Founding Team Member

Diana helps businesses put high-value payments like rent, tax, and supplier invoices on credit – unlocking cash flow without changing how they pay. Her take: the case for infrastructure investment isn't made with a pitch, it's made with data. Deep customer discovery first, then AI to find the patterns and predict what's next.

Stryv

Roy Ang

Co-founder & Chief Executive Officer

Roy built Stryv into a challenger brand spanning consumer electronics and home care – sold direct-to-consumer through over 2,000 retail partner touchpoints across Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. His view: AI can already out-price any human on commercial decisions, given clean, real-time data to work with.

Polybee

Siddharth Jadhav

Founder & Chief Executive Officer

Siddharth is pioneering agriculture's future through AI-powered robotics. Through Polybee, he's building autonomous systems that increase crop yields at scale, while laying the operational infrastructure needed to support the business's global expansion.

Explore the research behind Business Builders

Discover Airwallex's latest Forrester-commissioned report on how finance leaders are building the infrastructure, trust and workflows needed to scale AI.

Business Builders on building with AI

Airwallex Testimony

“The companies that get results didn't start by asking 'What AI should we buy?' They started by asking 'What does our data need to look like for AI to work?’’’

Dmitry Vedenyapin

Co-founder & CTO, Peakflo

Airwallex Testimony

“If we want to continue to feed the world with high-quality produce, we need physical AI in agriculture to perform the dirty, dull and dangerous jobs in the farm. Otherwise, your side of guac is only getting more and more expensive!”

Siddharth Jadhav

Founder & CEO, Polybee

Airwallex Testimony

“One of our biggest bets was investing in an internal AI operating system before we could measure the ROI.”

Cordillia Tan

Chief of Strategy, Pitstop Auto Club

The conversation continues

Business Builders will continue to spotlight leaders, share new perspectives and explore how AI is reshaping the way businesses operate. Check back for fresh interviews, event highlights, and new insights throughout the year.

Airwallex commissioned Forrester Consulting to conduct research to understand how finance leaders are navigating the shift from early adoption to the realities of scaling AI across complex environments.

 A survey of 1,279 finance decision‑makers and interviews with six finance leaders across 11 markets provide insights into the barriers that emerge beyond initial deployment, and how orchestration aligns data, systems, workflows, and human judgement to advance AI in a sustainable way.

All statistics referenced above come from this study, June 2026.