It’s the fag end of the first half of the year, and just about everyone, I imagine, is chasing deadlines or measuring whether their annual goals are on target. Asia’s stock exchanges are no exception. After a sluggish six months that left many IPO hopefuls stuck on the sidelines—thanks to geopolitics, volatile markets, governance issues, and uncertain macroeconomic conditions—the region’s public markets are beginning to show green shoots of activity.
In the Philippines, for instance, where the IPO tally for 2026 still stands at an uncomfortable zero, the picture could change in the second half as GCash operator Mynt prepares for what could become the country’s largest-ever public listing. Demand, however, is far from assured and the market desperately needs one or two successful listings that help restore investor confidence, as my Cebu-based colleague Mars Mosqueda wrote this week.
Separately, Katrina Bianca Cuaresma reported from Manila that the GCash IPO could become the benchmark for every Philippine fintech waiting in the wings. She explained what a successful Mynt debut could mean for rivals such as Maya and Tonik, which will need to convince investors that they’re more than just 50 shades of the fintech story.
In Indonesia—where the MSCI this week deferred a decision on the country’s emerging markets status, triggering a relief rally—the pipeline is quietly gathering pace. Infrastructure company Bach Multi Global is seeking to raise up to $17.2 million; Nitrasanata Dharma, the operator of the Jakarta Eye Center network, is seeking to raise up to $38.3 million; medical equipment distributor Esa Medika Mandiri plans to raise as much as $15.1 million; while RANS Entertainment Indonesia, a media and entertainment company founded by celebrity couple Raffi Ahmad and Nagita Slavina, is seeking to raise up to $24 million.
IDX-listed Merdeka Gold Resources, meanwhile, made its trading debut in Hong Kong after raising $304.7 million in a landmark secondary listing.
In Singapore, Foundation Healthcare Holdings, backed by SeaTown, is seeking to raise $187 million through an IPO.
And then there’s India, where the mood has brightened noticeably after hopes grew that the Middle East War may be nearing an end. Heavyweight IPO candidates—the National Stock Exchange and Jio Platforms—have filed draft papers. According to a report in Nikkei, 170 companies are waiting in the wings after the market regulator gave the green light.
On the flip side, China’s DSC Holdings, a provider of operating systems for used car dealers, saw its shares plunge 46.8% from its IPO price on its Nasdaq debut this week, taking some of the shine off this year’s first Chinese listing in the US.
With the IPO window opening up, the biggest challenge facing private equity and venture capital firms in the Asia Pacific may not be exits or capital deployment. A recent survey of 105 fund managers, founders, and other private capital executives, by DealStreetAsia, found that fundraising has emerged as the biggest hurdle.
The findings of the survey are compiled in Turning Friction into Capital Flow: APAC PE/VC Edition 2026, a report we produced along with Vistra Fund Solutions.
AI progresses, but what about valuations?
A perfect storm of rapidly progressing AI, an intensifying US-China tech rivalry, and surging investor enthusiasm is driving China’s AI funding frenzy to new heights. DeepSeek’s maiden round of fundraising at a valuation exceeding $50 billion, fully ignited private market expectations for what Chinese AI companies can be worth. The latest to set a record for China’s AI valuation growth is Kunlunx AI, which achieved a unicorn valuation of over $1 billion less than 90 days after its corporate registry. Another major early-stage megadeal saw Striding AI, a newly formed embodied intelligence startup, raise nearly $100 million in angel financing.
Startups across Greater China, India, and Southeast Asia have raised at least $20.3 billion in disclosed capital so far this year, after fresh rounds from India’s Sarvam, Malaysia’s Respond.io and Singapore-based Pints AI tipped the region past the $20-billion mark this week. Greater China accounted for about 90% of the total, reflecting both the size of its funding market and the depth of its AI ecosystem.
We asked Alice Zhu, director at VC firm Empyrean Sky Partners how investors should price the next generation of AI startups growing from China? “That’s a very tricky question,” Zhu said. “The valuation multiples vary by sector. We’ve seen crazy numbers for AI applications… For the older generation of investment theses, some of the numbers may look expensive. But if the stock market accepts it, that becomes the fair market value. Every one of us is still learning the new way of evaluating these companies, especially the ones that don’t have established revenue models yet.”
In a major funding round this week, Temasek and QIA, among others, backed the Dutch firm Nearfield in a sign that capital is moving deeper into the chip supply chain. Nearfield makes equipment used by semiconductor manufacturers to measure and control the production of advanced chips. The $380 million Series D round points to a broader shift in how global investors are approaching the AI infrastructure theme. While much of the market focus has been on chip demand and data-centre capacity, companies such as Nearfield are betting that the next constraint will be manufacturability: whether advanced chips can be produced with sufficient yield, reliability, and precision.
LP-GP news
Nate Walton of Ares Management spoke to us this week about the secondary market grappling with raising new capital to meet growing demand. “Now it’s just a question of whether there is enough capital in the secondary market to supply the needs—and that’s a challenge which we wrestle with, because the supply is quite large,” said Walton who also spoke about the structural—rather than cyclical—nature of GP-led continuation funds; the dynamics of pricing power in the secondaries market; and why LP rollover rates are not a reliable indicator of asset quality in a free-wheeling interview.
Allianz Global Investors has gathered $744 million in commitments for the first close of its Allianz Asia Pacific Secured Lending Fund III, which will target high-growth companies across Southeast Asia, South Asia, Oceania and selected Asia Pacific markets (excluding China).
PIDG is committing $41 million to the Infrastructure Resilience Development Fund, a blended finance vehicle aimed at shoring up climate resilience in emerging markets and developing economies across Africa and Asia. The Fund is managed by GIP, which is part of BlackRock and is also backed by AXA, Generali, Swiss Re, Zurich Insurance Group, and IFC.
Swedfund, Sweden’s development finance institution, has committed $15 million to Navegar Fund III, a Philippines-focused private equity fund that backs mid-sized companies, as it seeks to support private sector expansion and job creation in the country.
Deep dives and interviews
Infrastructure debt is emerging as an attractive opportunity in Asia. From Allianz Global and BlackRock to Neo Alternative Asset Managers, several asset managers have raised large infra funds lately even as infrastructure private credit remains a relatively niche concept in Asia’s rapidly expanding private debt market. For investors navigating today’s macroeconomic environment, many infra assets are better positioned to withstand inflation than traditional corporate businesses.
Green SM, the electric taxi operator backed by Vingroup’s chairman, is accelerating its international expansion after launching services in India and Kazakhstan in a span of less than one month. Green SM may help drive the Vietnamese conglomerate’s international ambitions. In India, Green SM is differentiating itself from rivals such as Uber and Ola by operating a fully owned electric fleet rather than relying on independent driver-partners. The model offers tighter control over service quality and vehicle standards.
Startups, fundraisings and other corporate news
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has joined the cap table of Singapore-incorporated PVX Partners, marking its first major disclosed startup investment in Southeast Asia. The university last invested in the region in November 2018, when it backed Singapore-based Engine Biosciences with $227,800 in a seed round.
EQT is exploring exits from two of its Southeast Asia portfolio companies held via EQT Mid Market Asia III, its third mid-market fund for Asia. The portfolios include a food ingredients maker, and a Singapore healthcare firm.
One of the largest private equity-backed tech transactions in Vietnam maybe taking shape as financial and strategic investors are said to be conducting due diligence to invest in Vietnamese fintech unicorn MoMo, sources told DealStreetAsia.
Private equity major CVC Capital Partners has agreed to sell its entire stake in Philippine logistics company Fast Logistics Group back to the founding Chiongbian family.
Libeara, a digital asset infrastructure startup backed by Standard Chartered’s venture arm SC Ventures, has announced raising $14 million in its latest strategic funding round.
Southeast Asia premium coffee chain Harlan + Holden is close to finalising a fresh $12-million funding round to expand its footprint across the region.
Digital wealth management platform StashAway and its subsidiaries cut their cash burn in 2024 as revenue increased 44.1% and annual loss dropped 22.7%. The results suggest StashAway is beginning to benefit from operating leverage, with revenue growth far outpacing expense growth.
Vinpearl, the hospitality subsidiary of Vietnamese juggernaut Vingroup, has secured a $225-million strategic investment from SeaTown’s private credit arm; and Vietnam Oman Investment (VOI), the local joint venture of the Oman Investment Authority.
