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DBS crowned Southeast Asia’s most valuable brand in Kantar BrandZ 2026 ranking

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The region’s Top 30 brands are now worth US$165 billion and outperform global peers on Meaningful Difference.

Shopee, Lazada and POSB rank amongst the fastest-growing brands

SINGAPORE, July 15, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Kantar, the world’s leading data, analytics and AI business, today unveiled the third edition of its BrandZ™ Southeast Asia ranking and report, revealing that Southeast Asia’s Top 30 most valuable brands are now worth a combined US$165.3 billion. The ranking highlights the resilience of the region’s strongest brands, whose value has grown 26% since 2024 despite a challenging global economic environment. Growth has been broad-based: 18 brands have grown, 16 at a double-digit pace, with four more than doubling their value. This was driven by strong consumer relevance and clear differentiation in increasingly competitive markets.

The rankings also highlight the continued dominance of Financial Services, which accounts for more than half of the total value in the Top 30. Banking brands occupy five of the top 10 positions, demonstrating the strength of consumer trust and the growing importance of financial brands in people’s daily lives.

Telecommunications remains the second-largest category, led by Thailand’s AIS, while Retail continues to gain momentum through the growth of e-commerce leaders Shopee and Lazada.

Valued at US$24.5bn, DBS has overtaken BCA to become Southeast Asia’s most valuable brand, more than doubling its value since 2024. This growth is driven by strong brand foundations, anchored in a clear commitment to sustainability and financial security – a positioning that has earned it recognition as Asia’s Safest Bank for 17 consecutive years. Its proposition also travels well beyond its home market, demonstrating its ability to scale a meaningfully different offer across multiple markets.

Kantar BrandZ Top 10 Most Valuable Southeast Asian Brands 2026:

2026 Rank 
(vs 2024)

Brand

Category

Brand value
2026 (US$M)

2-year
change (%)

1 (+2)

DBS

Financial Services

24,545

121 %

2 (-1)

BCA

Financial Services

22,661

-20 %

3 (+1)

AIS

Telecom Providers

14,612

65 %

4 (+3)

Shopee

Retail

10,428

116 %

5 (+1)

UOB

Financial Services

7,768

18 %

6 (-4)

BRI

Financial Services

6,438

-43 %

7 (+2)

Marina Bay Sands

Travel Services

6,092

38 %

8 (-3)

Mandiri

Financial Services

5,488

-34 %

9 (+1)

True

Telecom Providers

5,373

45 %

10 (-2)

Telkomsel

Telecom Providers

4,726

3 %

Scaling success: how top risers are accelerating growth

The fastest-rising brand in the Top 30 is POSB (People’s Own Savings Bank), leaping eight places to No.13, and increasing its value 126% to $4.4bn. Singapore’s oldest bank has strengthened its purpose – ‘Neighbours first, bankers second’ – through community-led initiatives, and emotionally compelling storytelling. Its innovative ‘Treat Yourself Right’ campaign, using GenAI to bring consumers face-to-face with their future selves, demonstrates how technology can deepen engagement while reinforcing brand meaning.

Among the 24 brands featuring in both the 2026 and 2024 rankings, those with the strongest growth also have the widest international reach, highlighting the commercial advantage of translating locally-built brand meaning into regionally relevant offers. Singaporean brand Lazada (No.12; $4.5bn; +105%) has succeeded with a strategy based on quality, authenticity and trust. It offers consumers peace of mind in a complex e-commerce landscape through its ‘100% Legit’ guarantee, and this narrative resonates across diverse markets, supporting sustained growth and strengthening consumer confidence.

Commenting on the results, Rika Sharma, Executive Managing Director, Southeast Asia and Singapore, Kantar, says: “Southeast Asia’s most valuable brands have earned their place by building deep, meaningful connections with consumers around enduring human needs that transcend markets and cultures. While many are already firmly embedded in people’s lives, sustaining growth in the years ahead will require greater ambition and innovation. The strongest brands will be those that expand into new spaces, create new sources of value for consumers and sharpen their differentiation in ways that justify premium pricing. Achieving this consistently will depend on a more strategic application of consumer and market understanding, powered by AI-enabled intelligence that helps turn brand decisions into measurable business impact.”

Newcomers combine bold positioning with cross-market relevance

Six new entrants join BrandZ’s Southeast Asian ranking this year, spanning five categories and five markets: Malaysian telecom provider CelcomDigi (No.14; $4.2bn), Vietnam-founded EV manufacturer VinFast (No.15; $4.0bn), Malaysian retailer 99 Speedmart (No.21; $2.6bn), Indonesia’s Mayapada Hospital (No.24; $2.4bn), and financial services brands SCB (Siam Commercial Bank) (No.28; $1.4bn) from Thailand and BDO (No.29; $1.4bn) from the Philippines. Each newcomer has broken into the Top 30 by establishing a clear point of differentiation that cuts through, and by amplifying that difference through focused, effective communications.

VinFast exemplifies this approach through its ‘For a Green Future’ mission, combining accessible electric mobility with ecosystem innovation, such as its GreenSM Taxi services. This clear, future-facing positioning has supported rapid expansion within Southeast Asia and beyond. Meanwhile, Indonesia’s Mayapada Hospital has built momentum by positioning itself as a provider of world-class healthcare within the region, reducing the need for outbound medical travel. Its strong, digitally led communications reinforce its premium, progressive credentials among consumers.

Key trends from the 2026 Kantar BrandZ Top 30 Most Valuable Southeast Asian Brands report include:

Southeast Asia’s Top 30 outperform the Kantar BrandZ Most Valuable Global Brands on the three fundamental drivers of brand growth – Meaning, Difference and Salience – signalling their strong connection with consumers and their readiness for sustained future growthConsumers increasingly see Southeast Asian brands as ‘worth it’. By demonstrating clear Meaningful Difference, these brands reinforce perceptions of value for money and justify premium pricing.

The 2026 Kantar BrandZ Top 30 Most Valuable Southeast Asian Brands ranking, full report and in-depth analysis are now available at: www.kantar.com/campaigns/brandz/southeast-asia

For category-level competitive insights, Kantar’s free BrandSnapshot tool, powered by BrandZ, offers at-a-glance intelligence on 15,000 brands worldwide. Explore it here.

ENDS

About Kantar: Kantar is the world’s leading marketing data and analytics business. We deliver the intelligence needed to power brand growth in the AI era. We provide the signals that help organisations act quickly and confidently. We empower brands to make effective marketing decisions based on predictive evidence. And we help them craft powerful growth strategies rooted in the connection between consumers, brands and enterprise value. All this is powered by our uniquely robust human and synthetic data, our unrivalled IP, our AI-native platform and the team of global brand experts that bring this all together.

About Kantar BrandZ: Kantar BrandZ is the global currency when assessing brand value, quantifying the contribution of brands to business’ financial performance. Kantar’s annual global and local brand valuation rankings combine rigorously analysed financial data, with extensive brand equity research. Since 1998, BrandZ has shared brand-building insights with business leaders based on interviews with 4.6 million consumers, for 22,392 brands in 54 markets. Discover more about Kantar BrandZ here.

The Kantar BrandZ Most Valuable Southeast Asian Brands is the most definitive and robust ranking available. The ranking is based on interviews with more than 120,000 respondents, on 2,050 brands in 85 categories. The ranking focuses exclusively on consumer-facing brands, and brands must meet the following criteria:

The brand must have originated in one of the following markets: Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand or VietnamThe brand must be owned by a publicly listed company or by a company that publishes full financial statements in the public domain.

For more information, please contact:

Amanjit Singh, Marketing Director- APAC, Kantar | Amanjit.singh@kantar.com  
Mishuelle Wee, Digital Marketing Manager, Kantar | mishuelle.wee@kantar.com  

 

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SOURCE Kantar

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35.5%! LONGi Once Again Breaks World Record for Crystalline Silicon-Perovskite Tandem Solar Cell Efficiency

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SHANGHAI, July 16, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — At the 2026 Solar and Energy Storage Innovation Conference, LONGi officially announced that its independently developed crystalline silicon-perovskite tandem solar cell has achieved a conversion efficiency of 35.5%, certified by the European Solar Test Installation (ESTI), once again setting a new world record.

Crystalline silicon-perovskite tandem solar cells represent the mainstream technology route for next-generation ultra-high-efficiency solar cells, with a theoretical efficiency limit of up to 43% – far exceeding the Shockley–Queisser limit of 33.7% for single-junction cells. Through sustained technological breakthroughs, LONGi’s tandem cell team lifted the efficiency to 33.9% in November 2023 and further to 34.6% in June 2024. In less than a year since then, the team has achieved a series of successive advances, moving from 34.85% to 35.2%, and now to 35.5%, clearly demonstrating the R&D strength and spirit of exploration at LONGi’s Central Research Institute.

In May this year, LONGi’s independently developed two-terminal crystalline silicon-perovskite tandem cell efficiency (35.2%) was included in the 68th edition of the Solar Cell Efficiency Tables published by the team led by Professor Martin Green at the University of New South Wales, Australia, marking a representative high-level achievement for this technology route at the time. Meanwhile, under conditions closer to industrial-scale dimensions, LONGi achieved conversion efficiencies of 34.3% (261 cm²) and 32.2% (274 cm²), highlighting the promising industrialization prospects of tandem technology. Furthermore, LONGi’s tandem modules delivered conversion efficiencies of 31.4% and 29.4%, both independently certified by authoritative international institutions and included in the efficiency tables, further strengthening the foundation for moving crystalline silicon-perovskite tandem technology from the lab to industrial application.

Driven by its leading technological innovation capabilities, LONGi has established a tiered R&D system of “one generation in mass production, one in development, and one in reserve,” continuously advancing technological breakthroughs and high-quality development in clean energy. Looking ahead, LONGi will remain focused on technological leadership, delivering iterative breakthroughs to contribute the innovative strength of a Chinese enterprise to the global energy transition.

SOURCE LONGi Green Energy Technology Co., Ltd.

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Altimetrik Joins the World Economic Forum’s Centre for AI Excellence to Advance Responsible, Enterprise-Scale AI Innovation

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BENGALURU, India, July 16, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Altimetrik, an AI-native engineering company, has joined the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Centre for AI Excellence. Through this collaboration, Altimetrik will contribute its expertise in AI engineering, data, and platform foundations to help shape global standards for the responsible adoption and enterprise-scale deployment of artificial intelligence.

Central to Altimetrik’s contribution is ALTi AIOS™, its recently launched AI engineering operating system, purpose-built for the brownfield realities of large enterprises. The platform is backed by more than 10,000 engineering practitioners delivering AI in production across BFSI, manufacturing, retail, automotive, healthcare, and life sciences.

“Joining the World Economic Forum’s Centre for AI Excellence is a milestone for Altimetrik and an opportunity to help shape the global agenda on enterprise AI,” said Raj Sundaresan – CEO, Altimetrik. 

“AI is receiving unprecedented attention, but real transformation requires more than deploying tools. It requires organizations to be engineered to run AI responsibly, securely, and at scale.”

Most enterprises today are not greenfield. They are running decades of accumulated systems, data estates, and operational processes that AI must integrate with, not replace. ALTi AIOS™ abstracts that complexity, standardizes how humans and AI interact, and manages models, data, and governance through a unified operational layer. Through ALTi AIOS™, AI shifts from isolated pilots to enterprise-wide execution, with measurable business outcomes and built-in governance from the start.

“The enterprises that define the next decade will be the ones that engineer context, orchestration, governance, and trust into every layer of their agentic systems, not bolt it on after the fact,” said Niraj Nagrani – Chief Data and AI Officer, Altimetrik.

“The World Economic Forum’s Centre for AI Excellence is the right platform to advance that agenda, and we’re proud to bring ALTi AIOS™ and our production AI experience to that conversation.”

The WEF Centre for AI Excellence advances responsible AI through workstreams focused on accelerating impactful innovation, preparing industries and societies for the Intelligent Era, and promoting trustworthy technology through effective governance. Altimetrik joins a cohort of global organizations contributing engineering depth, sector expertise, and applied research to those workstreams.

Learn more about ALTi AIOS™.

About Altimetrik

We are Altimetrik, an AI-native engineering company helping some of the most revered and iconic enterprises modernize systems, data, and processes at the heart of their business, so they can move faster, operate more efficiently, and innovate continuously. Through ALTi AIOS™, our AI-native operating system, we combine the latest AI capabilities with deep engineering expertise to help clients solve complex challenges, accelerate modernization, and deliver measurable outcomes at scale.

Our clients get access to the latest AI innovations while maintaining the flexibility to choose the right technologies for their business, through trusted relationships with OpenAI, Google Gemini, Anthropic, Databricks and major hyperscalers.

A member of the World Economic Forum’s Centre for AI Excellence, the Forum’s global hub for shaping responsible AI, Altimetrik is also recognized in the 2025 Constellation Research ShortList™ for Global AI Services and named a Major Contender in multiple Everest Group PEAK Matrix® assessments, including Software Product Engineering Services (2026), Enterprise Quality Engineering Services (2025), and Digital Engineering Services for BFSI and Life Sciences. Learn more at altimetrik.com.

 

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GIMM Festival brings leading microbiology experts to Lisbon to discuss emerging viruses, antimicrobial resistance and biological engineering

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Charles M. Rice (2020 Nobel Prize in Medicine), Bonnie Bassler, Yasmine Belkaid and Isabel Gordo are among the confirmed speakers.

LISBON, Portugal, July 16, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Bacteria are continuously evolving and becoming increasingly resistant to life-saving medicines. Understanding how microorganisms adapt, communicate and influence human health is now a global scientific priority. This will be one of the central themes of the second edition of the GIMM Festival, taking place in Lisbon from 17 to 19 September.

Under the theme ‘Microbes – The Questions of the Future’, the festival will bring together internationally renowned researchers to explore the role of microorganisms in human health, biological evolution and ecosystem sustainability. The event aims to foster dialogue between science, society and biomedical innovation, at a time when challenges such as pandemics, antimicrobial resistance and environmental change are raising urgent new questions for research and policy.

The programme features some of the most influential names in contemporary microbiology:

Charles M. Rice (Rockefeller University), Nobel Prize winner in Medicine (2020), whose work led to the identification of the hepatitis C virus and enabled the development of effective antiviral treatments;Yasmine Belkaid, President of the Institut Pasteur, recognised for her pioneering research on the microbiome and immune system interactions;Bonnie Bassler (Princeton University), a leading expert in quorum sensing, the chemical communication process used by bacteria;Isabel Gordo (GIMM), ERC Advanced Grant recipient, who studies bacterial evolution within the human body and the mechanisms behind antibiotic resistance.

Over three days, researchers and the public will engage in discussions on major scientific challenges of the 21st century, including host–microbe interactions and disease, antimicrobial resistance and bacterial evolution, emerging viruses and preparedness for future pandemics, as well as microorganism engineering and synthetic biology.

Antimicrobial resistance is considered by the World Health Organization one of the greatest threats to global health, with the potential to cause millions of deaths in the coming decades if no effective action is taken. At the same time, advances in microbiome research and the growing capacity to engineer microorganisms are transforming fields such as medicine, biotechnology and environmental sustainability, opening new possibilities for prevention, diagnosis and treatment.

“The microscopic world has a profound impact on our health, ecosystems and the future of biotechnology. The GIMM Festival aims to bring researchers and society closer together to discuss how these discoveries can shape the future,” says Maria Manuel Mota, CEO of the Gulbenkian Institute for Molecular Medicine.

With the participation of world-leading scientists, including a Nobel laureate, the GIMM Festival positions Lisbon as an international hub for scientific debate, reinforcing its role as a meeting point for cutting-edge research and innovation in microbiology and global health.

The full programme and registration are available at www.gimmfest.pt.

About the Gulbenkian Institute for Molecular Medicine (GIMM)
The Gulbenkian Institute for Molecular Medicine (GIMM) is a biomedical research institute created through the merger of the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência (IGC) and the Instituto de Medicina Molecular João Lobo Antunes (iMM). With a strong commitment to advancing knowledge, developing innovative solutions for health and translating discoveries into real-world impact, GIMM aims to establish itself as a global leader in life sciences and biomedical research.
www.gimm.pt 

About the GIMM Festival
The GIMM Festival is an annual event in Lisbon that celebrates science as a driver of social transformation. Organised by GIMM, it brings together national and international experts to discuss the major challenges of global health, promoting the connection between cutting-edge research, biomedical innovation and society.
www.gimmfest.pt

Press Contacts
Rita Resendes   
Communications & Media Relations Manager, Fundação GIMM 
rita.resendes@gimm.pt
+351 916 519 630

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