Singapore captures 92% of Southeast Asia’s startup funds

Investments in the region quadrupled.

Singapore-headquartered companies raised $8.57b (US$6.7b) in equity funding, or 92% of the total disclosed equity funding in Southeast Asia in the first half of the year, even as investments in the region quadrupled compared to last year, according to Kickstart Ventures.

Venture-backed companies raised a total of $9.27b across 217 equity deals, the strongest funding total since H1 2022 but the lowest deal volume in the period tracked since 2018. Funding value was over four times the $2.38b recorded a year earlier, whilst deal volume fell 5% year-on-year and stood nearly 62% below the peak of 572 transactions in H1 2022.

Singapore secured 145 deals, equivalent to 67% of regional volume. Data centre firm DayOne was the top equity fundraiser in Singapore with a total of $5.75b. Singapore also took nine in 10 regional AI deals.

In a separate report by Tracxn, Singapore accounted for nearly 60% of the logistics tech funding in the region. Singapore accounted for 82.5% of all-time blockchain equity funding tracked across Southeast Asia. It also accounted for 82.5% of all-time blockchain equity funding tracked across SEA.

The report said that the figures reflect Singapore's position as a regional and global financing hub– several of the largest companies headquartered there raise capital to finance global rather than exclusively Southeast Asian expansion. As a result, Singapore's funding share should not be read as an equivalent to capital deployed within its domestic economy.

Singapore-headquartered companies accounted for 145 deals, equivalent to 67% of regional volume, and raised US$6.7 billion, or 92% of disclosed equity funding.

Malaysia recorded the strongest breadth outside Singapore, with 27 deals raising $259.56m.

Minette Navarrete, President and Managing Partner at Kickstart Ventures, believes geopolitical uncertainty is pushing global capital into Southeast Asia through Singapore.

“Deal volume remains a better measure of market momentum, and on that measure, capital has returned but not broadly, and that tells us Southeast Asia’s recovery is still finding its footing,” Navarrete.

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