Singapore AI Startup Akro Raises US$700K to Automate Data Workflows

Singapore-based AI startup Akro AI has raised US$700,000 in a pre-seed funding round led by Amigos Venture Capital, with participation from strategic angel investors across financial services, healthcare, and consumer technology. The 18-month-old company builds proprietary AI models that automate document processing and data workflows for regulated industries including defence, finance, insurance, legal, and healthcare.

Akro was founded in 2025 by Marcus Quek and Brian Tang, who scaled the company from two founders to eight employees within its first year. Rather than relying on a single general-purpose large language model, Akro uses a network of specialised AI models that can read scanned documents, handwriting, and unstructured forms with higher accuracy than general-purpose frontier models. All processing happens on-premise, ensuring complete data privacy — a critical requirement for regulated industries where sensitive information cannot be sent to external cloud APIs. The company has already secured government and enterprise customers and signed a partnership with ti&m to extend its reach across APAC and EMEA.

The funding will be used to expand Akro's engineering team and purchase additional AI hardware for research and development. Amigos Venture Capital, a boutique seed-stage fund with investments in connectivity infrastructure and applied AI, said the founders' "conviction, technical depth and pace of execution" stood out. The fund noted that Akro's traction within a single year — moving from prototype to production deployments with government clients — demonstrated real market fit for its approach.

Why it matters for Singapore: Akro is part of a growing cohort of Singapore AI startups targeting enterprise and government use cases where data sovereignty is non-negotiable. Rather than competing with frontier AI labs on general intelligence, these startups carve out defensible positions by specialising in specific vertical workflows and offering on-premise deployment. SingTel, DBS, and government agencies all handle sensitive data that cannot leave local infrastructure — creating a natural market for Singapore-based AI companies that can deliver accuracy without sacrificing privacy. Akro's early traction with government customers suggests the model works, and the funding validates that investors are paying attention.