New Venture Climate Alliance guide details how Singapore anchors climate technology commercialization across Southeast Asia — a practical resource for companies, investors, and ecosystem stakeholders, produced through the philanthropic HSBC-supported Innovation Scaling Initiative

SAN FRANCISCO, June 18, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Today the Venture Climate Alliance (VCA) has launched the Singapore Climate Technology Ecosystem Guide, a practical resource designed to help climate technology companies, investors, and ecosystem stakeholders navigate one of the world’s most important growth markets for climate innovation and regional expansion.

Developed through VCA’s Innovation Scaling Initiative and supported by HSBC, the guide provides insights into Singapore’s climate technology ecosystem, including the capital stack, policy and regulatory frameworks, corporate landscape, and pathways for expansion across Southeast Asia.

As climate technologies move beyond innovation toward commercial deployment, founders and investors increasingly face questions about where to establish regional operations, access customers, attract capital, and scale solutions. The guide aims to address these questions by providing practical intelligence on Singapore’s role as a platform for climate technology commercialization and regional growth.

The research draws on more than 200 publicly available sources, interviews, and insights from ecosystem leaders across government, investment, corporate, and startup communities.

“HSBC is proud to support the Venture Climate Alliance’s practical guide for climate tech start-ups and investors entering the Singapore market and beyond. Too often progress is slowed by market complexity—policy nuance, fragmented demand, partnership dependencies, access to capital and perceived and actual risk —rather than technology. This report turns ecosystem insight into actionable guidance to reduce friction and help innovators scale from pilots to deployment.”

Kiran Sura, Global Head of Sustainability Partnerships, HSBC

“Climate technology is at an inflection point; the solutions exist but scaling them into new markets remains one of the sector’s greatest challenges. Southeast Asia is a standout global growth opportunity combining urgent need, rising demand, and an increasingly sophisticated capital ecosystem. Singapore sits at the heart of this, offering the stability, connectivity, and financial infrastructure innovators need to move from validation to large-scale deployment. Guides like this help turn ecosystem complexity into actionable insight, helping founders and investors to make faster, better-informed decisions about where and how to grow.”

Thomas Miles, Senior Manager, Sustainable Finance & Transition, Climate Tech, HSBC

“Across the ecosystem, we heard a common challenge: companies don’t just need capital. They need the partners, policy support, corporate demand, and regional connections that must come together for a solution to scale. Singapore’s strength lies in how it brings these elements together within a highly connected ecosystem. This guide was developed to help founders, investors, and ecosystem stakeholders better understand that landscape and identify practical pathways for commercialization and regional expansion across Southeast Asia.”

Kate Costaris, Venture Climate Alliance

The guide identifies four key strengths that position Singapore at the center of climate technology commercialization across Southeast Asia:

Access to capital through a deep ecosystem of venture capital, growth investors, institutional capital, blended finance vehicles, and government-supported funding programs. Singapore accounts for over half of ASEAN’s green, social, sustainability, and sustainability-linked bond and loan issuance.A coordinated policy environment that provides regulatory clarity and long-term support for climate innovation and deploymentDense corporate networks that create opportunities for pilot projects, commercial partnerships, and customer acquisitionStrategic regional connectivity that enables companies to coordinate growth and deployment across Southeast Asia

The release marks the first in a planned series of Innovation Scaling Initiative market guides exploring key growth climate technology markets globally.

The full guide is available here: https://ventureclimatealliance.org/resources/singapore-guide

About Venture Climate Alliance

The Venture Climate Alliance (VCA) is a global non-profit network of leading venture capital firms that provides general partners and portfolio companies with practical tools, market intelligence, support, and connections to help identify opportunities arising from the transition to a low-carbon economy and navigate climate-related risks. Founded by VCs for VCs, the VCA membership represents more than US$60 billion in assets under management. The VCA helps its members shape best practices, address ecosystem-wide challenges, and embed commercially relevant, climate-aligned strategies within portfolios from day one.

About the Innovation Scaling Initiative

The Innovation Scaling Initiative (ISI) is a two-year program designed to accelerate the commercialization and deployment of climate technologies. Philanthropically sponsored by HSBC and delivered by Venture Climate Alliance in close collaboration with its members, ecosystem partners, and Node, the initiative works to address critical scaling barriers facing climate technology companies through research, ecosystem engagement, market intelligence, and strategic convening.

About HSBC

HSBC Holdings plc, the parent company of HSBC, is headquartered in London. HSBC serves customers worldwide from offices in 56 countries and territories. With assets of US$3,306bn at 31 March 2026, HSBC is one of the world’s largest banking and financial services organisations.

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SOURCE Venture Climate Alliance (VCA)

Workera analysis of over 800 participants finds a 42% average proficiency gain in 13 days and surfaces hidden capabilities across the workforce

PALO ALTO, Calif., June 18, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Workera, the trusted skills data layer for the enterprise, today released findings from a leading global medical device manufacturer’s workforce transformation initiative, documenting measurable gains in learning velocity, proficiency, and capability maturity. The analysis, drawn from over 830 participants across structured upskilling programs, shows the company reached Workera’s highest performance tier, best-in-class learning velocity, while surfacing and developing previously hidden workforce capabilities at scale.

Medical device manufacturers face intensifying pressure to innovate faster while maintaining the safety and regulatory rigor that defines the sector. That demands a workforce that can move fluidly between established competencies and emerging technical capabilities, AI, cloud infrastructure, digital collaboration, without sacrificing precision or accountability. The challenge is widespread: the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025 finds that 39% of workers’ core skills are expected to change by 2030, and 85% of employers plan to prioritize workforce upskilling by then. This manufacturer’s results show how verified capability measurement and personalized development can unlock both velocity and resilience.

“What this manufacturer achieved isn’t a faster training program, it’s a different operating speed for capability itself,” said Kian Katanforoosh, founder and CEO of Workera. “Their active participants moved from foundational to accomplished proficiency in under two months, roughly four times faster than typical industry rates. That kind of velocity doesn’t come from more content. It comes from verified measurement. When employees and leaders can see exactly where proficiency stands and where the gaps are, development stops being guesswork and starts being precise.”

The Transformation Results

Workera’s analysis examined verified capability across the company’s baseline proficiency, structured upskilling programs, and continuous learning pathways. The findings point to both strong execution and a repeatable model for enterprise skill transformation:

Best-in-class learning velocity: Active participants achieved a learning speed of +39 points per week, well above the industry average of 5–10 points per week. At that pace, employees moved from Beginning to Accomplished proficiency in under two months, placing the company in Workera’s highest tier: Level III (“Best-in-Class”).

Rapid, significant proficiency gains: Across all participants who took an initial assessment, studied, and reassessed, scores rose from an average of 168 to 239, a +42% improvement, in an average of just 13 days between assessments. The gains show that personalized development paths let employees focus on closing their specific skill gaps.

Program-level overachievement: While the platform-wide gain matched the +42% benchmark, the company’s core structured programs exceeded it:Core technical programs: +53% average score improvement per employee, in an average of 14 daysGlobal enterprise programs: +44% average score improvement per employee, in fewer than 15 daysCorrecting the self-assessment gap and reducing training waste: A persistent workforce challenge surfaced clearly in the data: employees routinely underestimate their own capabilities. Across cohorts, 78% of the broader employee population underrated their skills. By surfacing these hidden capabilities through objective measurement, the company avoided the redundant courses that drive most training waste, directing development only where it was actually needed and moving employees into high-value roles faster.

Full transformation in core power skills: The company drove Teamwork to Level 5 maturity (“Successful Transformation”), with 84% of assessed employees ranking as Accomplished and none remaining at the Beginning level. Foundational AI and leadership capabilities, including Generative AI Essentials (70% Accomplished) and Digital Leadership Fundamentals (67% Accomplished), crossed into Level 4 maturity (“Broad-Based Capability”), establishing a resilient, AI-ready cultural foundation.

Why This Matters for Medical Device Innovation

Medical device manufacturers operate under constraints many industries don’t: regulatory rigor, safety criticality, and the need to maintain established competencies while rapidly acquiring new ones. These results show those constraints and fast learning velocity are not in conflict.

Verified measurement enabled three outcomes:

Confidence in AI readiness: With 70% of the workforce at accomplished proficiency in Generative AI Essentials, the company can deploy AI-augmented workflows across product development, manufacturing, and operations, backed by decision-grade evidence that employees understand both capability and risk.

Precision in capability development: By measuring actual proficiency rather than course completion, the business identified who needed further development and who could move directly into high-impact roles, eliminating wasteful training cycles and shortening time-to-contribution.

Resilience through cultural alignment: Reaching Level 5 maturity in Teamwork across 84% of the workforce reflects something deeper than a metric, a culture where learning is embedded in how work happens, not layered on top of it. That foundation makes future capability transitions faster and more durable.

The Broader Implication

What this manufacturer achieved, moving from baseline to accomplished proficiency in a core capability in an average of 13 days, sets a new benchmark for enterprise upskilling. It challenges the assumption that workforce transformation is inherently slow, and shows that combining verified measurement, personalized development, and employee agency can accelerate learning velocity to four to five times industry norms without sacrificing quality or safety.

For medical device manufacturers balancing innovation speed with regulatory accountability, the insight is direct: the bottleneck to faster capability development isn’t employee capability. It’s clarity. When employees and leaders can see exactly what proficiency looks like and where gaps exist, development becomes efficient, measurable, and fast.

“The velocity here matters for every manufacturer and healthcare organization watching the AI transition,” Katanforoosh added. “Workforce transformation doesn’t have to be a 12-month program. It can be a two-month sprint, but only when you measure capability rigorously, personalize development precisely, and give employees clear proof of progress. In regulated industries especially, that combination is what makes speed and accountability compatible instead of opposed.”

To learn more about how Workera supports workforce transformation in medical device manufacturing and other regulated industries, visit workera.ai.

About Workera

Workera is the AI agent platform built to maximize human potential. Workera reads capabilities from the tools people already work in, verifies them continuously, and does so at scale. Our four purpose-built AI agents handle every talent decision: who to hire, who’s ready to move, where the gaps are, and how to close them. The newest, Ambient Coaching, surfaces skills intelligence in the flow of work. Trusted by the Fortune 100, Workera has been recognized by TIME’s Best EdTech Companies and World’s Top HRTech Companies in 2025 & 2026; the World Economic Forum’s Tech Pioneers; and Inc.’s 2025 Fastest Growing Companies. In 2024, Workera was named one of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies alongside Microsoft, Canva, and others leading the AI revolution. Learn more at workera.ai.

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SOURCE Workera

FREDERICTON, NB, June 18, 2026 /CNW/ – Bulletproof announced today that it has been recognized by CRN®, a brand of The Channel Company, on the 2026 CRN Solution Provider 500 list, the annual ranking of the top solution providers, VARs, systems integrators, strategic service providers, and IT consultants with operations in North America by revenue.

“The Solution Provider 500 list highlights those companies generating the highest revenue through leadership in business and service innovation,” said Jennifer Follett, Vice President, U.S. Content, Executive Editor at CRN, The Channel Company. “This recognition highlights those organizations that consistently demonstrate agility and sustained growth amid rapidly evolving industry demands and technological change. Congratulations to every company that earned a well-deserved place on this year’s Solution Provider 500.”

This achievement reflects Bulletproof’s continued momentum as a trusted technology partner delivering end-to-end IT solutions. For more than 20 years, Bulletproof has helped public and private sector organizations modernize, manage and optimize their technology environments while reducing risk and improving resilience. With deep Microsoft expertise and an integrated delivery model, Bulletproof helps customers turn complex technologies into practical scalable solutions that support operational efficiency and drive meaningful business outcomes.

“As organizations work to modernize infrastructure, strengthen security, and prepare for the next wave of AI-driven change, they need practical guidance and accountable execution. Said Guido Timmerman, President of Bulletproof. “This recognition underscores Bulletproof’s commitment to helping customers turn complex technologies into real business outcomes through deep expertise, integrated services, and a model built on one partner from strategy to execution.”

The full 2026 Solution Provider 500 list is available at crn.com/sp-500/

About The Channel Company  
The Channel Company (TCC) is the global leader in channel growth for the world’s top technology brands. We accelerate success across strategic channels for tech vendors, solution providers and end users with premier media brands, integrated marketing and event services, strategic consulting, and exclusive market and audience insights. TCC is a portfolio company of investment funds managed by EagleTree Capital, a New York City-based private equity firm. For more information, visit thechannelco.com. 

About Bulletproof
Bulletproof is a Microsoft Solutions Partner delivering end-to-end security, compliance, cloud, and modern work solutions to help organizations operate with confidence. 

For more than 20 years, Bulletproof has helped public and private sector organizations reduce risk, strengthen cyber resilience, and modernize and manage their technology environments. Our deep Microsoft expertise enables us to translate complex technologies into practical solutions that drive real business outcomes.  

Our award-winning team delivers managed IT and security services, 24/7 SOC monitoring, compliance and governance programs, cloud transformation, and professional services that support organizations at every stage of their journey. Bulletproof protects tens of thousands of client workstations across North America and beyond, empowering them to secure, comply, and grow with confidence. For more information visit: bulletproofsi.com.

SOURCE Bulletproof