Tokyo (VNA) – Fundraising by Southeast Asian startups remained subdued last year, with more businesses forced to shut down operations or reduced to "zombie" companies surviving without fresh capital.
According to research by DealStreetAsia, the region's startups raised 1.16 billion USD in October–December 2025, slightly down from the same quarter a year earlier. For the full year, funding increased 18% to 5.4 billion USD, but that was still about a fourth of the level seen in the peak year of 2021.
Crunchbase data shows that global startup funding rose about 30% in 2025, highlighting that Southeast Asia has lagged in the recovery from what has been called a "funding winter”.
Takahiro Suzuki, general partner at venture capital firm Genesia Ventures, pointed out that one reason for the slow funding recovery in Southeast Asia compared to India or the West is the lack of "down rounds" in which a company raises new funds at a lower valuation than its previous round.
Worse, a few high-profile scandals involving well-funded startups, including accounting fraud at aquaculture tech company eFishery, has fuelled investor concerns over corporate governance in the region's startups./.
