2025 Report
The State of Business Growth 2025: Singapore Edition
Carol Fong Head of Asia, HubSpot
"The difference for businesses that thrive comes down to how quickly they can adapt, decide, and execute."
Executive foreword: Enabling agility is a competitive advantage
There’s only one constant in growth: Change. Today’s bleeding-edge technologies will one day become defunct, effective strategies and ecosystems get oversaturated, and macroeconomic conditions shift in an instant. In 2025, that’s never been more true. It’s not just global economic uncertainty and rapid political change. AI technology is becoming ubiquitous, and the marketing and sales strategies that drove growth in the 2010s just don’t cut it anymore. In today’s rapidly-changing economic climate, agility is everything. The business that sticks to their six or 12-month preset playbooks, or the one that hasn’t adjusted their sales messaging to account for tariffs, will fall behind their peers that are nimble and responsive to change. The difference for businesses that thrive comes down to how quickly they can adapt, decide, and execute. Businesses need tools that are simple to adopt, simple to implement, and simple to use. Disconnected systems and data silos slow execution and therefore, growth. But tools are just that: Tools. The best stack in the world won’t, on its own, help a business adapt to rapid change if leaders haven’t figured out what they need that stack to accomplish. Leaders who embrace change, set bold direction for teams, and are backed by a culture execution will achieve scale with minimal friction. Those who stand still will end up moving backward. Singapore is one of the world’s most open economies, a leading business hub supported by a staunchly pro-business government that leads the globe in innovation and growth. As someone who’s seen hundreds of businesses scale across Asia, I’ve observed a clear pattern: Companies that thrive adopt technology early, think smarter, and enable their teams to always move ahead of their competitors. To understand how Singaporean businesses are adapting to a shifting economic and business climate, we surveyed over 500 business leaders about their growth strategies, technology investments, and the challenges they face in 2025 and beyond. What we discovered reveals both the opportunities ahead and the tactics that separate high performers from the rest of the pack. The businesses that are winning have moved beyond talking about digital transformation — they’re living it. Here’s how you can, too.
Based on a survey of 544 business leaders across Singapore, we explored how businesses are navigating growth, technology, and transformation in 2025. The findings reveal critical performance gaps and strategic differences that separate winners from the rest.
Digitalisation separates top performers from the pack
Nearly all (91%) of businesses have digitised to some degree, with 93% reporting productivity gains from digital tech adoption and 90% seeing customer experience gains. But the fully digitalised minority (21%) see even greater results, as 98% report both productivity improvements and customer experience gains, creating a clear divide between digital leaders and digital followers.
Integrated systems drive overperformance
While 90% of businesses have some level of systems integration, only 15% are fully integrated. This gap matters: 88% of businesses with fully integrated core systems report outperforming their peers, with many significantly ahead. Integration isn't just operational efficiency—it's competitive advantage.
AI drives better performance and faster returns
65% of businesses with advanced AI implementations achieve positive ROI within three months of new tech investments, and 90% report outperforming their peers. Yet only 16% have reached advanced AI implementation, creating significant opportunity for early movers.
Growth looks different by company size
While small firms focus on marketing and sales optimisation and large enterprises chase operational efficiency, 49% of mid-market businesses cite digital transformation as their top growth driver. Each segment is advancing, but through distinctly different strategies.
The data shows clear winners: companies with unified systems and AI capabilities are outpacing competitors.
But having the right technology is only the beginning. In Singapore's fast-moving economy, sustainable advantage comes from the ability to adapt quickly when conditions shift.
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Research Methodology
This research was commissioned by HubSpot and conducted by Lonergan Research in accordance with the ISO 20252 standard. The study surveyed 544 Singaporean business leaders in organisations with more than one employee, representing decision-makers across marketing, sales, customer service, and business development functions. Respondents were distributed throughout Singapore, spanning companies from small businesses (2-19 employees) to large enterprises (500+ employees) across diverse industries including financial services, technology, manufacturing, and professional services. The online survey was conducted among members of a permission-based panel between April 14-25, 2025, with data weighted to the latest population estimates from Singapore's Ministry of Manpower to ensure representative insights into the current state of business growth, digital transformation, and technology adoption among Singapore's business community.