Southeast Asia’s venture capital map fractured further in 2025. Singapore alone accounted for 78.1% of the region’s equity funding value (US$4.2 billion) and 61.4% of deal volume, according to a new DealStreetAsia-Kickstart Ventures report.
The city-state’s share intensified in the second half of the year, with funding value jumping 147% and late-stage rounds such as Thunes’ US$150 million Series D and Princeton Digital Group’s US$1.30 billion raise reinforcing its pull. Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia trailed far behind with US$360 million, US$340 million and US$260 million respectively, while the rest of the region shared just US$350 million.
Vietnam suffered the sharpest reset, its H2 funding nearly halving to US$90 million. The Philippines remained starved of late-stage capital, and Malaysia’s early-stage activity kept shrinking. Only Thailand improved, though almost entirely on the back of fintech.
Singtel Innov8‘s Edgar Hardless points to the region’s chronic lack of exits as the core problem, while Kickstart Ventures’ Minette Navarrete argues governance has become “a new competitive advantage.” The result: a Singapore-centric funding map, and a harder climb for founders everywhere else in the region.
Read the full report here.
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REGIONAL
SEA venture funding stabilises but shows no real rebound: Southeast Asia closed 2025 with only 461 equity deals, the lowest annual count since 2018, a sign the region’s venture market has stopped falling but not yet rebounded.
Jakarta court lengthens sentence in Chromebook graft case: A Jakarta appeals court increased Ibrahim Arief’s prison term to five years over a corruption case tied to Chromebook procurement for Indonesian schools, linked to ex-minister Nadiem Makarim’s tenure.
Lumio Solar bags US$900K for plug-and-play solar in PH: The Philippine startup wants to make rooftop solar accessible to renters and households without property ownership, betting plug-and-play appliances can widen adoption beyond wealthier homeowners.
MAS commits US$173M to next phase of fintech innovation: Singapore’s central bank will channel US$173 million into fintech development, sustaining the city-state’s push to cement its position as the region’s leading financial and innovation hub.
Vietnam to embed AI lessons across all school grades next year: From the next academic year, AI education will be integrated into Vietnam’s national curriculum, reflecting a state-led effort to build foundational digital literacy at scale.
AI boom to keep Singapore manufacturing resilient, say economists: Surging data centre and semiconductor demand tied to the AI buildout is expected to buffer Singapore’s manufacturing sector against broader global trade headwinds, economists say.
Gojek Singapore expands Zig tie-up with GoTaxi launch: The ride-hailing partnership between Gojek and Zig deepens in Singapore, with the GoTaxi service marking a broader push to consolidate mobility options for commuters on the island.
GoTo VP Catherine Hindra resigns citing personal reasons: Catherine Hindra’s departure adds to a string of senior exits at the Indonesian tech giant as it continues restructuring amid pressure to reach sustained profitability.
FEATURES AND INTERVIEWS
Chocolate Finance eyes SMEs’ idle cash after consumer scale: Having built US$1.3 billion in assets from over 150,000 Singapore consumers, the fintech now targets small businesses’ spare cash, betting the same simple-yield pitch translates to SMEs.
INTERNATIONAL
South Korea’s President Lee says interest rate rise is unavoidable: President Lee’s remarks signal tightening monetary conditions in a key regional tech economy, with potential knock-oneffects for startup valuations and venture activity across North East Asia.
ChatGPT, Reddit, and Roblox face EU Digital Services Act rules: The EU’s DSA brings strictercontent moderation and transparency obligations to major platforms, a regulatory template SEApolicy makers are increasingly watching and replicating.
Meta executive leaves for OpenAI amid India scrutiny: A senior Meta executive’s move to OpenAI coincides with growing regulatory pressure on the social media giant in India, one of its largest and most contested markets globally.
Chinese automakers follow Tesla’s bet on humanoid robots: Chinese EV makers are integratinghumanoid robotics into their manufacturing and product road maps, intensifying competition in asector that SEA industrial players are beginning to monitor closely.
US erects barriers around drones and robots as China holds scale: Washington’s exportcontrols and procurement restrictions on drone and robotics technology are reshaping supply chains, forcing SEA buyers to pick sides in an increasingly bifurcated market.
Apple App Store chief Phil Schiller exits as Tim Cook steps down: Phil Schiller’s departure is part of a broader leadership exodus at Apple, raising questions about the company’s developer and app ecosystem strategy at a pivotal moment for mobile platforms globally.
Tim Cook’s farewell: Apple’s future lies with a product builder: In his parting message, Cook signals confidence in his successor’s product-first philosophy, a transition that will reverberate across the global app and device ecosystem that SEA developers depend on.
Crypto shrugs off Fed rate fears as stocks wobble: Digital asset market cap climbed 1.09% to US$2.64 trillion even as equities stumbled under bond-yield pressure, exposing a widening divergence between risk appetites in crypto and traditional markets.
Bitcoin sellers dig in at US$81,000 ahead of Asia open: Total crypto market value fell 0.89% to US$2.61 trillion in 24 hours, with traders citing shifting rate-hike expectations as the driver behind the pullback.
CYBERSECURITY
Ransomware hits schools via stolen logins, not malware: A new Sophos report finds identity-based attacks drove 85% of ransomware incidents against education institutions, above the 79% cross-sector average, as stolen credentials and phishing replace exotic malware.
CrowdStrike and Telkom Indonesia sign MOU on AI-driven cybersecurity: The partnership positions Indonesia’s state-owned telco to deploy AI-powered threat detection across itsinfrastructure, signalling growing enterprise-level cyber security investment in South East Asia’slargest economy.
SEMICONDUCTOR
SEA’s chip-hub ambitions collide with smuggling scrutiny: Singapore police recently froze a US$42 million bungalow tied to a fraud probe linked to Nvidia chip reseller Aperia Group, underscoring the region’s growing role as a transhipment point for restricted chips.
Nvidia’s US$3.5B MediaTek bet maps its AI chip strategy: Nvidia’s investment in MediaTek signals a push to broaden its AI silicon foot print beyond data centres into edge devices, with implications for chip supply chains across Asia.
Nvidia’s AI advantage is moving beyond the GPU: Nvidia is extending its moat into networking, software, and systems, a strategic shift that could reshape how AI infrastructure is procured and deployed across the region’s hyper scalers and cloud providers.
Chinese hyperscalers ramp AI spending but trail US rivals: Moody’s finds that Chinese cloud giants are accelerating AI infrastructure investment but remain significantly behind US counterparts in scale gap with direct consequences for SEA’s AI supply chain choices.
AI
100-plus companies call for unified action against rogue AI: OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and over 100 other firms have jointly urged governments to act against unaligned AI systems, in one of the broadest industry-led AI safety coalitions to date.
India’s hiring slowdown shows AI’s early jobs impact: A survey of 651 Indian tech firms found 65% say AI has already reduced hiring, a pattern also emerging in Britain’s job market data, a warning sign for other economies.
OpenAI backs Thailand’s new eight-week AI accelerator: OpenAI and Thailand’s science ministry are running an eight-week Bangkok accelerator for ten local startups, pushing the country’s AI ambitions beyond demos into hospitals and classrooms.
Japan’s US$27.9B AI market hides tough entry barriers: Japan’s AI sector is projected to triple to US$27.9 billion by 2029, driven by an ageing population and government investment, but foreign entrants face steep structural and cultural hurdles.
THOUGHT LEADERSHIP
Southeast Asia’s AI edge isn’t one advantage, it’s eleven: Rather than chasing frontier labs, the author argues the region’s opportunity lies in combining imported models with local strengths across eleven distinct advantages, not one grand strategy.
Stop treating Southeast Asia as a single market, argues op-ed: Running teams across Singapore, Tokyo and New York, the author warns that treating SEA’s 680 million people as one addressable market is where expansion budgets quietly go to die.
Why the global AI marketing backlash skips Southeast Asia: While Western trend decks warn that 78% say AI ads feel less authentic, the author argues that framing doesn’t map cleanly onto Southeast Asian consumer attitudes toward AI-generated marketing.
A founder’s guide to pitching Southeast Asia’s investors: Raising capital in the region takes more than a good deck, the guide argues, offering founders a practical playbook for navigating one of the world’s most closely watched startup ecosystems.
AI speeds up global expansion but can’t fake local nuance: AI can translate, summarise competitors and prepare market analysis overnight, but the author warns that tasks once needing local specialists still require human judgement to get markets right.
Factory announcements aren’t SEA’s real manufacturing story: Beyond the plant openings, the author argues Southeast Asia’s real competitiveness will be decided by the supply-chain ecosystem — suppliers, logistics, skills — that surrounds new factories.
Southeast Asia builds specialised manufacturing hub network: Vietnam, Malaysia and Thailand are attracting investment across electronics, semiconductors and automotive supply chains, each carving a distinct role while Singapore anchors higher-value technology work.
Southeast Asia quietly gains from shifting FDI redistribution: Beyond incentives, the author recalls how a Miami-based company’s expansion decision hinged on culture, not spreadsheets, as manufacturers quietly redirect investment across the region.
Indonesia’s insurers enter a second digital transformation wave: A former enterprise-software executive turned insurance insider shares what surprised him most after moving into Indonesia’s insurance sector amid its ongoing digital shift.
AI’s environmental impact needs product-level decisions: By the time sustainability teams weigh in, the author argues the important environmental decisions have already been made, pushing companies to treat AI’s footprint as a product design choice.
How to build teams that resist burnout, not just endure it: With Microsoft data showing 48% of workers feel overwhelmed by their workload, the author draws on 15 years leading APAC and EMEA teams to outline what actually prevents burnout.
When your cloud provider’s data centre gets hit by a drone: After a military drone strike knocked out an AWS data centre serving millions of users, the author recounts a week spent manually migrating a platform because automated tools failed too.
SWOT isn’t boring; it’s just used too late, argues writer: Frameworks like SWOT, 5W1H and PESTLE aren’t office wallpaper, the author argues — used at the right time, they help avoid costly strategic mistakes many teams only diagnose in hindsight.
China’s overseas asset tax reform is a signal for SEA: Beijing’s push to tax citizens’ offshore assets is a fiscal move with wider consequences, the author argues, as it reshapes how private wealth moves through the region, not just government revenue.
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