SE Asia Deals Barometer Report: At $1.3b, startup fundraising in Oct stays put at Sept levels

After plunging to its lowest value this year in September, fundraising by Southeast Asian startups inched up in October but only by a tad.

Venture capital (VC) and private equity (PE) investors pumped a total of about $1.29 billion into startups last month, compared with $1.27 billion in September, proprietary data compiled by DealStreetAsia show.

The number of deals — which includes venture capital, private equity, debt financing, and corporate rounds — however, dropped to the lowest of this year to just 74 in October, compared with 87 in September and 121 deals in August.

Of the 74 transactions in October, the values of 12 deals were undisclosed.

Even as investors remained slightly cautious amid the ongoing global economic slowdown, October saw five megadeals, defined as deals where the funding size is at least $100 million. In September, only two firms had made it to the megadeals table.

October’s mega deals were raised by the Singapore-based digital general insurance platform Oona Insurance; FinAccel, the parent of Indonesian buy now, pay later player Kredivo; Vietnamese carmaker VinFast; Singapore-based immersive entertainment firm Cityneon Holdings; and fintech startup Mineplex, which is also based in Singapore.

Oona Insurance secured a $350-million equity commitment from global private equity firm Warburg Pincus while FinAccel raised nearly $140 million in Series D funding led by Mirae Asset.

Vinfast received $135 million in financing led by the Asian Development Bank while Singapore-based Cityneon raised $106 million from Temasek’s wholly-owned investment firm 65 Equity Partners. MinePlex also secured up to $100 million in funding from digital asset investment firm GEM Digital Limited.

Three of the five megadeals were in the fintech sector.

The five megadeals of October 2022

Singapore corners 64% of total funding

Data compiled by DealStreetAsia showed that Singapore’s 42 funding deals raised more than $822 million, or about 64% of the total funds raised in October, compared with just $261 million that startups in the city-state raised from 34 transactions in September.

Three of the megadeals that took place last month were sealed in Singapore — Oona Insurance, Mineplex, and CityNeon.

Indonesia continued to trail Singapore with 20 deals that raised about $289 million, lower than the $511 million that Indonesian startups secured from 26 deals in the prior month. FinAccel’s $140 million Series D funding was the largest in the country.

Vietnam saw five deals that cumulatively raked in $146 million, with Vinfast taking the bulk of the money. Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines saw a total of 7 deals that raised about $40 million cumulatively.

Fintech tops deal volume, value

Investors continued to bet big on the region’s financial technology (fintech) startups in October, with startups in this sector raising $679 million from 18 transactions. By comparison, fintech raised over $230 million from 22 transactions in September.

Oona Insurance’s $350-million private equity funding was the largest fintech deal recorded last month. This was followed by FinAccel’s $140-million Series D funding and Mineplex’s Series C fundraising.

E-commerce resurfaced from just seven deals that cumulatively secured $66.2 million in September to the same number of transactions that raised over $163 million in October. This sector dominated the deals table in terms of value and volume at the onset of the pandemic last year.

The largest e-commerce deals during the month included ShopBack’s $80-million Series F from 65 Equity Partners and Sociolla’s $60-million funding from PE firm L Catterton Asia and Singapore state investor Temasek Holdings.

Greentech, also known as clean technology, crawled its way up to the funding leaderboard after startups operating in this space raised $147 million from four transactions. Media & Entertainment also managed to secure substantial funding, with two firms cornering $106 million or investors’ money.

SE Asia investors continue to favour Seed, Series A stages

DealStreetAsia’s compilation showed that early-stage fundings continued to dominate the region’s dealmaking activities in October in terms of deal volume, with seed taking the lead at 21 deals, lower than the 23 seed rounds in September.

The largest seed funding deal was Singapore-based crypto custody platform Rakkar Digital’s $10-million funding from SCB 10X, the corporate venture capital arm of Thailand’s SCBX Group.

There were also 12 Series A rounds last month, lower than the 15 deals registered in September. Crypto platform Pillow’s $18-million funding was the largest in this funding series, followed by digital payroll platform Skuad’s $15-million investment.

During the month, there were also nine pre-Seed rounds, six pre-Series A rounds, four PE deals, 1 pre-Series B, 2 Series C, 1 Series D, 1 Series F, 2 debt financing, 1 corporate round, and 8 deals with unknown series.

“In early-stage financings, we see continued activity and even an influx of new investors. We remain optimistic that the rest of the year will look the same, with a slowdown towards the holiday season as usual,” Helen Wong, Managing Partner, AC Ventures, had told DealStreetAsia in a recent interview.

Most active investors

Indonesia-focused venture capital firm East Ventures emerged as the most active lead investor in October, anchoring six investments in the region — Cariuma, AWSt, Runchise, FitHappy, and Pocket.

Altara Ventures, Susquehanna International Group (SIG), 65 Equity Partners, and AC Ventures also actively invested in Southeast Asian startups last month.