We published the monthly startup fundraising data and trends from across India, Greater China and SE Asia this week, and the performance has been somewhat mixed.
Southeast Asia’s startup funding plummeted 83.5% in July after the mega haul seen in the previous month, DealStreetAsia’s proprietary data shows. Privately held companies in the region raised about $697.9 million across 30 equity deals in July, compared with $4.22 billion across 41 deals in June. The numbers indicate that June’s four-year funding high was largely an outlier driven by exceptionally large transactions rather than the start of a broad-based acceleration in regional dealmaking.
Fundraising by Indian startups more than halved to $959.8 million in July from $2.12 billion in the previous month, indicating a pullback in big-ticket investments. Notably, June’s higher base was largely due to a $900-million funding round by CRED. Deal volume witnessed a relatively moderate decline of 8.3%, signalling that investor participation remained fairly steady even as cheque sizes shrank during the period.
Meanwhile, startup fundraising in Greater China reached a 28-month high of $11.6 billion across 272 deals in July, although the headline figure was heavily skewed by a single transaction—Kling AI’s nearly $3-billion round, which accounted for 25.7% of the total deal value in July. The month recorded 26 megadeals worth almost a combined $8.4 billion, or 71.9% of total monthly financing. The megadeal count rose from 24 in June, and their combined value increased from $6.4 billion.
Let’s move on to the other top headlines from the week.
Exclusives
GV (formerly Google Ventures), the venture capital investment arm of Google parent Alphabet, has invested in Singapore-based biotech startup Engine Biosciences, close on the heels of a nearly $7.5-million investment from Pfizer Ventures, the corporate venture arm of US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer.
AIGF Advisors, a SE Asia-focused PE fund backed by Japanese conglomerate Mitsubishi Corporation, is learnt to be weighing an exit from Singapore-based logistics provider BHS Kinetic. AIGF invested an undisclosed amount in BHS Kinetic in January 2022, marking the first investment from its second fund, which closed at 17.3 billion yen in the same year.
Singapore-based sustainability software firm Gprnt is raising a $10-million Series A round to accelerate its regional expansion and broaden its platform. “We want to close the fundraise around the end of this year,” CEO Lionel Wong said.
Singapore-based AI firm Graas, which has acquired AI product data platform Trustana, is open to more acquisitions. The company also expects to post its first profitable quarter since its founding in 2022 by the fourth quarter of this year, co-founder and CEO Prem Bhatia said.
LP-GP corner
Climate-tech venture builder 100×100 (formerly Wavemaker Impact) is expanding its scope from Southeast Asia to India with the launch of its second vehicle, targeting a $100 million corpus and a first close early next year.
Publicly listed Chinese chip designer GigaDevice Semiconductor has committed $100 million to Yunfeng Capital, a private equity fund managed by Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma and media guru David Yu, to invest in Asia’s technology industry. The commitment marks the first USD-denominated primary fund investment by Beijing-headquartered GigaDevice after years of investing in yuan funds.
India’s deeptech-focused Bluehill.VC has made the final close of its maiden $42 million fund, including a Rs 50-crore greenshoe option.
Mirae Asset Venture Investments (India) Pvt Ltd, the venture capital arm of Mirae Asset Financial Group, announced the first close of its third India-focused private fund at nearly $118 million.
BlackSoil Asset Management has deployed nearly $79 million across 40 companies through its second credit fund, which raised $52 million in the final close.
Accel has raised $550 million for its ninth India-focused early-stage fund. The new fund is part of a broader $3.5 billion global fundraising exercise across four vehicles.
In this week’s Beyond the Buyout newsletter, we examine whether rising hospital valuations in India can keep pace with the growth investors are betting on – and what happens if they cannot. We also look at two contrasting investment bets in Asia’s food sector and how Singapore’s IPO comeback depends on long-term post-listing structural liquidity.
Analyses and interviews
We looked at the numbers of Southeast Asian tech behemoth Sea Ltd, whose total operating expenses jumped 50.9% to $2.90 billion in Q2, while sales and marketing spending accelerated 64.5% to $1.66 billion. E-commerce arm Shopee’s costs rose at nearly twice the pace of its business, with cost of revenue up 51.9% to $3.22 billion. Yet, despite the heavy spending, adjusted EBITDA increased 12.2% to $255.4 million. The biggest difference between Sea Ltd’s current spending cycle and its earlier growth-at-all-costs era lies on the other side of the ledger: this time, Shopee is monetising much harder.
Indonesia-listed technology major Bukalapak seeks to build multiple long-term growth engines rather than rely on a single business. “Gaming currently contributes the most, both in terms of revenue and adjusted EBITDA. But that doesn’t mean it will become our only business,” Victor Lesmana, Bukalapak’s director, said.
Across Southeast Asia, EV charging is beginning to evolve from a largely infrastructure-led business into one increasingly tied to software, payments, mobility platforms, fleet management, energy optimisation, and driver economics. Although the transition is still at an early stage, a common pattern is emerging: owning chargers and securing locations may no longer be enough.
Asia’s private credit opportunity is all about scale—both in the size of the region’s economies and in the credit system—even as it remains fragmented, says Haseeb Malik, Partner and Head of Asia Credit at Värde Partners. However, large, well-resourced platforms with strong origination capabilities can still uncover substantial deal flow.
Asia PE-VC Summit 2026 update
The 11th Asia PE-VC Summit comes at an important time for Asian private capital. LPs are more selective, exits and DPI are under greater scrutiny, China is being re-underwritten, India remains highly competitive, and SE Asia is being read very differently through PE and VC lenses. Take a look at our 60+ confirmed speakers and what the summit will cover across the two days.
