Applied AI innovation hub

Empowering the World’s Next Innovators

The best solutions are emerging from places the world too often ignores.

Avant Labs is a technology and impact-focused innovation hub. We give leaders the tools, mentorship, and pathways to build scalable ventures across Southeast Asia and other emerging markets.

Explore what we do Get in touch
Partners
  • Nextopia
  • Global Shapers Community
  • UNLEASH
Explore

There's more than one wayTo get involved.

ProgramsLearn by buildingBootcamps, hackathons, and workshops on AI and entrepreneurship. For startupsGrow your startupIncubation, go-to-market, market entry, and cross-border business development across the region. For organizationsBring AI into your organizationAvant Strategy diagnoses, builds, and embeds AI with your team. CommunityJoin the communityAvant Society brings founders, operators, researchers, and students together every week. EventsJoin eventsPanels, build nights, and showcases throughout the year. ResearchRead our insightsReports on AI, markets, and policy in emerging economies. PortfolioProjects we've worked withVentures, projects, and communities we've helped build. ResourcesExplore our reportsInteractive data, slide reports, and case studies to download and share. PartnershipsPartner or sponsorCo-host programs and support builders across the region. ExpertiseMentor or speakShare what you know with the next generation of founders.
Events

What's happening atAvant Labs.

All events
Insights and resources

Research fromAvant Labs.

All insightsResources

Have an idea worth building?Let's talk.

Avant Labs is here to empower you with personalized guidance to create more meaningful impact.

Get in touchSee our portfolio
About us

An enabling platform forBold founders.

The Avant Labs community
What is Avant Labs

What we do

  • Educate founders through immersive learning and systems thinking
  • Incubate early-stage ideas into investable ventures
  • Connect founders with capital, technical partners, and real-world pilots
  • Build coalitions and ecosystems for frontier innovation
Why Avant Labs

The most transformative solutions are already emerging from places the world too often ignores.

We help these innovators rise: equipped, connected, and empowered.

Who we serve

Mission-driven leaders from:

  • Developing cities and remote communities
  • Emerging economies
  • Diaspora innovators solving problems in their home countries
  • Regions facing urgent crises in climate, health, education, and inequality
Core technology pillars

We focus on applied AI, decentralized systems, and regenerative innovation, supporting changemakers using deep tech in health, sustainability, finance, education, and governance.

1

Artificial intelligence and machine learning

Smart, context-aware solutions for productivity, diagnostics, education, financial inclusion, decision-making, and personalization.

2

Web3 and decentralized technologies

Infrastructure for digital trust, identity, ownership, governance, and economic coordination that enables transparent, inclusive participation.

3

Data infrastructure and digital public goods

Platforms for transparency, open data, interoperability, and ethical data use, especially where such systems are missing or fragmented.

4

Sustainability and regenerative technologies

Tools for environmental resilience, circular economies, carbon reduction, climate adaptation, and long-term planetary health.

Avant Society

A room full ofBuilders.

A curated community of founders, operators, researchers, and students. We meet every Wednesday evening in Bangkok to learn, build, and open doors for each other.

25+projects and communities in our portfolio
45+events hosted and supported since 2024
20countries reached by ventures our team has built
100+research reports published on our blog
Avant Labs community
Ecosystem building
Education
Bangkok
Services

Three ways weMove ideas.

Education at Avant Labs
Educate

Education

Founder-first pedagogy rooted in leadership, foundational business and entrepreneurial skills, systems thinking, and future-skills literacy.

  • AI for Good Bootcamp
  • Workshops and masterclasses
  • Case-based business courses
Incubation at Avant Labs
Incubate

Incubation

Structured sprints, validation labs, and pilot design support that turn early ideas into investable ventures.

  • Validation sprints
  • Pilot design
  • Introductions to capital and technical partners
Ecosystem building at Avant Labs
Connect

Ecosystem building

A community of changemakers using innovative insights to empower developing regions.

  • Avant Society weekly sessions
  • Hackathons and showcases
  • Cross-border ecosystem partnerships
ProgramEducation

AI for GoodBootcamp

Most teenagers in Bangkok have used AI. Almost none have built with it. In this two-day intensive with UPstra, students aged 14 to 18 go from problem to working AI product to pitch in 48 hours, and the winning team continues into real project development with Avant Labs.

  • A working AI-powered solution to a problem they chose
  • The founder's toolkit: scoping, prototyping, and pitching under pressure
  • A project that exists in the world, not just on paper
  • A cohort of peers from schools across the city
  • A one-on-one consultation with UPstra
FacultyKacha "Shogun" MahadumrongkulFounder and MD, Avant Labs (Yale)
FacultyMatthew McDonnellFounder, Kebayoran Technologies (Harvard Business School)
FacultyCaderyn Owen JonesOutgoing Curator, Global Shapers Community, WEF (Yale)
Program detailsRegister interest
AI for Good Bootcamp poster
Ages
14 to 18
Next intake
12 to 13 December 2026
Format
Two days, 9:30 to 17:00
Partners
Future Atlas and UPstra Group
Includes
A one-on-one university consultation with UPstra for every participant
Need AI inside your company?Our consulting arm, Avant Strategy, diagnoses, builds, and embeds AI for corporates.
Visit Avant Strategy
Ventures

Companies we'reBuilding.

Wellbeing

Zenful Institute

Wellbeing for leaders and executives, and a platform for Southeast Asia's wellness providers.

zenfulinstitute.com Food and agriculture

Verdin

Organic food and regenerative agriculture, from farm to table.

verdin.life
Incubation portfolio

Who we'veBuilt with.

Events

Come buildWith us.

The future ofSeries

The Future of AI inSoutheast Asia

Most AI is built elsewhere, for someone else.

What should Southeast Asia build next, and who gets to build it?

PanelistChompakorn ChaksangchaichotManaging Director, VISAI. Building Thai-language AI.
ModeratorKacha "Shogun" MahadumrongkulFounder and Managing Director, Avant Labs.
Wed 11 Nov 20265A Floor, Nextopia
Siam Paragon, Bangkok
18:45
Registration
19:15
Panel and Q&A
20:30
Networking
21:00
Close
StudentFreeVerified on approval
Early bird500 THBEnded 31 Oct
General600 THBRegular admission
Register nowEvent details
18 Nov2026

Bangkok Underwater: Climate Storytelling

Climate stories from a Thai context across journalism, fiction, and film, with Soiciety founder Chatwan Mongkol and a screening of the short film Bangkok 2032. With what a WHY at Nextopia, Siam Paragon. 25 seats.

Details
12 to 13 Dec2026

AI for Good Bootcamp

A two-day intensive for students aged 14 to 18. Build an AI-powered solution to a real problem and pitch it. With Future Atlas and UPstra Group.

Details
16 Dec2026

Impact Night with Global Shapers Bangkok

A dinner celebrating Bangkok's changemakers, with stories from Global Shapers alumni, then dinner, music, and connection. Co-hosted with Nextopia.

Details
WednesdaysLate Oct to Apr

Avant Society sessions

Talks, workshops, and build nights on entrepreneurship, technology, and impact at Nextopia. Monthly membership.

Join
More soon2026 and beyond

Future Avant Labs events

New workshops, panels, and programs are added regularly. Get notified when the next one opens.

Get notified

Past events

Blog

Research andInsights.

Resources

Reports toRead next.

Report · 9 slides

Six trends shaping 2026

Takeaways on regulation, infrastructure, and institutional adoption across digital assets, AI, Web3, and on-chain finance. From the Avant Labs Fireside Series on the future of the digital economy.

Read the report Interactive

Private equity landscape: SEA and Thailand

An interactive analysis of the market's transformation, from regional trends to local opportunities. Explore the data, meet the key players, and understand the forces shaping investment.

Explore Report

Impact investing trends 2025

Where impact capital is flowing, the thematic frontiers drawing new money, and the push for stronger accountability on outcomes.

Read Case study

AI for rural healthcare

How health-tech startups are using AI to re-engineer care in rural Southeast Asia, from diagnostics to the last mile.

Read Whitepaper

Technology literacy in Southeast Asia

A data-driven look at digital skills adoption across the region, and where the gaps hold workers and businesses back.

Read
WEF briefing series

Global research, read for Southeast Asia.

WEF briefing · Youth Pulse 2026

Reading the Youth Pulse

Two in three young people fear AI will shrink entry-level jobs. What a generation sees that its leaders still underestimate.

Read the briefing WEF briefing · Global Risks Report 2026

The age of competition

Geoeconomics tops the short-term risks and AI jumps from 30th to 5th. What it means for founders building in Southeast Asia.

Read the briefing WEF briefing · Top 10 Emerging Technologies 2026

AI leaves the screen

Eight of ten technologies act on the physical world. Where Southeast Asia has an edge in grids, cooling, food and security.

Read the briefing WEF briefing · Energy Transition Index 2026

Investment is not enough

Record clean-energy money, yet readiness fell. How Thailand and its neighbours rank, and why the wires are the bottleneck.

Read the briefing
Get in touch

Let's buildWhat matters.

Email
connect@avantgroup.tech
Phone
+66 82 084 2999
Office
Avant Labs, 20th Floor, T-One Building
8 Soi Sukhumvit 40, Khwaeng Phra Khanong
Khlong Toei, Bangkok 10110
Community venue
Nextopia, Siam Paragon
Meetup
Avant Labs Innovation Hub