Decoding the landscape of venture investment
Venture capital (VC) investment has been on a downward trend in recent years—but just how bad is it? Let’s take a Deep Dive.
📉 While venture funding in most of the world has been continuing its gradual post-Covid funding recovery, Asia-Pacific is still struggling.
🇨🇳 The biggest dip is in China, which has a disproportionate effect regionally, as it dominates Asia’s venture ecosystem.
🤪 Other negative factors include the geopolitical challenges in the Middle East and South Asia, and the universal drag caused by the US currently being run by a reckless lunatic.
QUOTABLE
“Customers have more money than VCs do.”
— Sahil Lavingia, investor and founder and CEO, Gumroad
BY THE NUMBERS
$12.9 billion Venture capital investment in Asia stood at US$12.9 billion during the first quarter of 2025, down from US$20.7 billion during the first quarter of 2024.
$1.1 billion The region’s biggest deal in 2024 was the US$1.1 billion raised by Chinese electric vehicle company IM Motors.
11% In the private equity space, deal value in Asia increased by 11 per cent in 2024, but it was accompanied by a steep decline in fundraising.
113 In Southeast Asia, there were just 113 venture deals during the first quarter of 2025.
QUIZ
According to market intelligence firm IDC, what level will investment in AI companies in Asia reach by 2028?
A. US$10 billion
B. US$110 billion
C. US$210 billion
Scroll to the bottom for the answer.
DID YOU KNOW?
Funding sentiment in Southeast Asia has taken a major hit in recent years as a result of the eFishery scandal, in which Gibran Huzaifah, the founder of the high-flying Indonesian startup, admitted to faking the financial results he reported to investors.
THE EDIT
🏢 Safe as houses. Investors in Southeast Asia have been softening on tech and moving back into funding physical businesses, as a way of reducing risk during a volatile period.
🤓 Get smart. It’s still possible for a whole range of ventures to get funded, but you need to be clever about it.
💼 Smart money. Fintech and other finance-related investments represent a relative recent success story.
💸 Still funding. These are the most active VC firms in Southeast Asia right now.
WATCH
Consumer, software, fintech, digital health, sustainability and mobility are all still promising sectors for investment, according to Singapore-based VC firm Vertex Ventures.
THE FULL PICTURE
Venture funding in Asia has been on a severe decline since 2021, dropping from US$194.1 billion to US$65.8 billion in 2024—marking a return to the same low point the market faced a decade earlier.
KEY PLAYER
Yashish Dahiya
Healthtech platform PB Health, founded by Yashish Dahiya, closed the largest seed-stage fundraise round for an Indian startup led by US-based venture capital firm General Catalyst. The platform combines hospital infrastructure and insurance services and its goal is to deliver a seamless, cashless care experience to patients.
ONE FINAL THING
Thought VC funding was solely a modern phenomenon? Turns out it has a long history, dating right back to the early days of European colonial plunder.
