SINGAPORE: Six Malaysian companies have made it into Forbes Asia's third annual edition of the 100 to Watch list, which spotlights small companies and startups on the rise across the Asia Pacific region.

They are Aerodyne, BoomGrow, Care Concierge, Involve Asia, Lapasar, and PolicyStreet.

The 100 to Watch list, which can be found at www.forbes.com/100toWatch and in the September issue of Forbes Asia, is sponsored by FedEx.

"Companies on this year's Forbes Asia's 100 to Watch list are a study in resilience. With rising interest rates, funding is harder to come by for startups.

"The companies on this year's list, therefore, represent those with strong prospects to become success stories," said the editor of Forbes Asia, Justin Doebele, in a statement today.

According to Forbes Asia, a drought in global venture capital activity has not deterred startups across Asia from breaking new ground.

This year's list spotlights small companies and startups that are targeting underserved markets or applying new technologies, from generative AI to blood-based cancer diagnostics.

These include eco-friendly innovations, such as the development of insect-based alternative proteins and digitisation of milk production to improve yields.

Others include social commerce providers, which help users sell consumer products.

Thirteen countries and territories are represented across 11 categories, including biotechnology and healthcare, e-commerce and retail, and finance.

Leading the list for the second year in a row, Singapore contributed 20 companies to the list, followed by Hong Kong with 15 and mainland China with 11.

The emerging innovation hubs of Indonesia and the Philippines contributed 11 and nine companies, respectively.

For the selection of the 100 to Watch list, Forbes Asia solicited online submissions and invited accelerators, incubators, SME advocacy organisations, universities, venture capitalists and others to nominate companies as well.

The final 100 were selected from over 550 submissions.

To qualify for consideration, companies had to be headquartered in the Asia Pacific region, privately owned, for profit, have no more than US$50 million in its latest annual revenue and have no more than US$100 million in total funding through Aug 7.

Forbes Asia editors evaluated each submission, looking at metrics such as a positive impact on the region or industry, a track record of strong revenue growth or ability to attract funding, promising business models or markets, and a persuasive story.

-- BERNAMA