Singapore, March 17, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — As Singapore accelerates its national AI strategy — including plans announced by Prime Minister Lawrence Wong to establish a National AI Council and expand the country’s AI ecosystem — a new generation of AI companies is emerging alongside that push.
One of them is Agnes AI, a Singapore-based model company powering multiple AI applications, which has just surpassed tens of millions of dollars in annual recurring revenue (ARR). The company is also working toward a potential Singapore Exchange (SGX) listing by the end of 2026 as it continues expanding its global AI platform. The milestone reflects both the company’s rapid growth and a broader shift in how AI platforms are being built and deployed globally.
“Our models deliver about 90% of top-tier AI capabilities at roughly 10% of the cost,” said Bruce Yang, founder and CEO of Agnes AI. “That efficiency allows us to bring advanced AI to a much broader audience than traditional AI platforms.”
For Yang, the opportunity lies in what he calls the “other 99.5%” of the internet — billions of users who have never used premium AI tools.
“Agnes is a Singapore-based AI platform independent from the technology blocs of the US and China,” Yang added. “Our focus is on serving global users rather than building inside a single ecosystem. That also positions Agnes AI as a potential third alternative to platforms like OpenAI and Minimax.”
Headquartered in Singapore, Agnes AI is building what it describes as Agentic Intelligence infrastructure — a system-level approach to AI that enables intelligent agents to reason, collaborate, and solve complex tasks across real-world environments.
Unlike many AI startups focused primarily on consumer applications, Agnes positions itself as a model-first company developing proprietary AI systems while simultaneously powering a growing ecosystem of AI applications.
AI for the Long Tail of the Internet
According to Yang, Agnes is designed for what the company calls “long-tail users” — the vast majority of internet users who remain underserved by current AI platforms.
“The users Agnes wants to serve are what we call long-tail users,” Yang explained. “This long tail is enormous — it represents about 99.5% of internet users worldwide. Many don’t own a PC or an iOS device. Most are on Android, and their experience with AI is often very surface-level. Many have never used paid AI features before.”
At the same time, Agnes operates as a model company powering multiple AI applications, enabling advanced AI capabilities to reach users through practical everyday tools rather than standalone research systems.
This commercial traction has helped Agnes approach nearly $20 million in annual recurring revenue, positioning the company among the fastest-growing AI platforms emerging from Southeast Asia.
Positioning: A Model-First AI Company with Multiple AI Applications
Agnes builds its platform around three core principles: AI inclusion, AI parity, and AI neutrality.
AI inclusion focuses on expanding access to advanced AI capabilities for billions of users who have historically been excluded from premium AI tools.
AI parity reflects the company’s ambition to give individuals access to capabilities that were once available only to large organizations.
AI neutrality, according to Yang, reflects the company’s geographic and strategic positioning.
Building Agentic Intelligence Infrastructure
Rather than focusing solely on application-layer AI products, Agnes is developing system-level architectures designed for Agentic Intelligence.
At the core of the platform is the company’s RLAF (Reinforcement Learning from Agentic Feedback) framework, powered by proprietary research systems including:
- DSPO (Dynamic-filter Sequence-level Policy Optimization)
- UV (Universal Verifier)
Together, these technologies enable:
- Self-correction mechanisms that improve output reliability
- Long-horizon reasoning for complex multi-step decision processes
- Multi-agent collaboration frameworks that allow AI systems to evaluate and refine each other’s responses
By combining these components into a unified infrastructure layer, Agnes aims to move beyond traditional generative AI toward fully agentic systems capable of autonomous reasoning and coordinated decision-making.
Technical Architecture: Intelligent Routing and System-Level Orchestration
Agnes has developed a clustered model architecture spanning text, vision, and multimodal reasoning, allowing the platform to dynamically allocate tasks across specialized models.
Using Intelligent Routing and System-Level Orchestration, the system automatically determines which model should handle a given request. This architecture enables Agnes to maintain near state-of-the-art performance while significantly reducing training and inference costs.
Key capabilities include:
- Model clusters for multimodal reasoning (text, vision, and hybrid tasks)
- Dynamic compute allocation through intelligent routing
- Cost-efficient inference pipelines that reduce operational overhead
- System-level orchestration enabling coordinated agent workflows
This efficiency allows Agnes to deliver advanced AI capabilities to markets where expensive AI services have historically been inaccessible.
Recently, Agnes AI introduced the Agnes-Claw model, which has already entered the PinchBench benchmark ranking, demonstrating the platform’s ability to achieve competitive performance alongside leading global AI systems while maintaining significantly lower operational costs.
Market Traction and Growing Adoption
Since its launch, Agnes AI has grown rapidly across Southeast Asia and other emerging markets. The platform now serves millions of users globally, with strong adoption in regions where access to premium AI tools has traditionally been limited.
The company has launched multiple fully in-house-developed AI agent products, with the broader ecosystem now serving nearly 10 million users worldwide.
This growth has translated into strong commercial traction, with Agnes approaching $20 million in annual recurring revenue, positioning the company among the fastest-growing AI platforms emerging from Southeast Asia.
Expanding the Platform: API Services for Agentic AI
Looking ahead, Agnes plans to launch developer-focused API services in Q2, covering AI-powered search, office collaboration tools, and multimodal generation. These APIs will allow developers and enterprises to build on Agnes’s Agentic AI infrastructure, supporting its vision of becoming a Model-as-Infrastructure platform for integrating agentic intelligence into products and workflows.
Advancing AI Inclusion and Global Access
A central pillar of Agnes’s mission is expanding access to advanced AI technologies beyond traditional technology hubs.
While many global AI systems focus on a limited set of languages and markets, Agnes prioritizes inclusive AI development, ensuring its systems are relevant to diverse global users.
Through localized datasets, optimized infrastructure, and cost-efficient architectures, the platform enables users in emerging markets to access advanced AI capabilities without the high costs typically associated with premium AI tools.
This approach reflects Agnes’s broader mission to build AI for the 99.5% of internet users who have never used paid AI services.
Funding and Global Expansion
Agnes AI is finalizing its latest funding round, having raised tens of millions of dollars in its recent funding round, driven by strong investor interest in its rapid user growth and technological innovation.
Key target markets include Southeast Asia, India, the Middle East, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States, with localized strategies designed to bring advanced AI capabilities to a global user base.
About Agnes AI
Agnes AI is a Singapore-based artificial intelligence platform focused on building Agentic Intelligence as infrastructure. The company develops proprietary AI models and system-level architectures that enable intelligent agents capable of reasoning, collaboration, and autonomous problem-solving.
Founded by Bruce Yang, a Raffles Institution alumnus and currently pursuing a PhD in Artificial Intelligence at the National University of Singapore, Agnes AI has grown rapidly since its launch, serving millions of users globally and now approaching $20 million in annual recurring revenue.
Through its model-first approach and commitment to AI inclusion, Agnes aims to make advanced AI capabilities accessible to industries, businesses, and communities worldwide.
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