SE Asia Deals Barometer Report: Funding slips 23% in Dec as deal count drops to record low

Startup funding in Southeast Asia fell 23.3% month-on-month in December 2025, as deal count sank to its lowest level in 12 months, according to proprietary data compiled by DealStreetAsia.

Total fundraising last month fell to $302 million from 27 equity deals, dragged down by the absence of any $100 million-plus megadeal. By comparison, November saw $393.6 million raised across 36 equity deals, marking a 23% increase over the prior month.

On a year-on-year basis, the downturn was sharper. Startups in the region raised roughly $690 million in December 2024, implying a 56% decline in December 2025, while deal count eased by about 13% from a year earlier.

DealStreetAsia’s December dataset includes venture capital transactions and a corporate equity round, while excluding debt deals in line with our monthly scorecard methodology. Three transactions did not disclose the amount raised.

No megadeals in December

December recorded no megadeals, with the month’s biggest disclosed transaction being a $45 million round sealed by ChemLex, a Singapore-based AI-for-science startup, led by Granite Asia.

The average disclosed deal size in December, based on the number of disclosed deals, came in at $12.6 million, down from $13.6 million in November.

The top five deals of December 2025

The second-largest disclosed deal was cornered by Galatek.ai, a Singapore-based automation and AI startup, which raised $30 million in Series A funding. The company did not name investors or disclose valuation.

Other notable transactions in December included supply-chain lending startup Validus, which raised $30 million in Series D; trade finance platform Olea Global, which secured $30 million in Series A funding; and earned wage access platform Setlary, which raised about $24.6 million.

Notably, fundraising was less top-heavy than in the prior month. The top five disclosed deals raised a combined $159.56 million, accounting for about 53% of the month’s $302 million total, based on DealStreetAsia’s compilation.

That was lower than November, when the five largest rounds contributed a little over 60% of monthly fundraising, pointing to a more fragmented capital distribution even as overall deal value softened.

The December pullback comes after Southeast Asia posted its weakest quarter for equity funding in over six years in Q3 2025, when just 112 deals were sealed in the three months ended September, according to DealStreetAsia DATA VANTAGE’s Southeast Asia Deal Review: Q3 2025 report.

Singapore still dominates

Fundraising in December remained highly concentrated in Singapore, where startups raised about $251.6 million across 20 deals, accounting for roughly 83% of Southeast Asia’s total deal value for the month.

Singapore’s biggest round was ChemLex’s $45 million, also the largest deal regionwide in December. It was followed by Galatek.ai’s $30 million Series A.

Fintech firms Validus and Olea also raised $30 million each in Series D and Series A rounds, respectively, reinforcing Singapore’s continued pull for larger institutional cheques even as regional fundraising dipped.

Malaysia ranked second, recording $27.8 million across three deals, equivalent to about 9% of December’s total. The largest Malaysian round was secured by fintech startup Setlary, which raised $24.6 million.

The Philippines followed with $16.5 million from a single deal. Virtual credit card issuer Zed raised $16.5 million in Series A funding, making it the country’s largest disclosed equity round for the month.

Vietnam logged $5.55 million across two transactions, while Indonesia posted $0.5 million from one deal. No disclosed equity funding was recorded for Thailand in the December dataset.

Fintech most active

By vertical, fintech was the most active sector by both value and volume, with 11 deals raising a combined $146.6 million, or nearly half of all capital deployed in December.

The figures suggest investors continued to prioritise financial services models despite a cautious funding environment. Three of the top five deals in December involved fintech companies—Validus, Olea, and Setlary.

Data analytics and AI ranked second, attracting $84.6 million across six deals, accounting for about 28% of total fundraising, reflecting continued appetite for AI-adjacent business models even as the market remains selective.

Other disclosed funding was spread across a fragmented long tail of sectors. Industrial solutions contributed $30 million from one deal, while digital banking raised $12 million and mobility tech secured about $10.1 million, each from a single transaction.

Smaller amounts went to e-commerce ($6.2 million), green tech ($6 million), healthtech ($3.5 million across three deals), and gaming ($3 million). One logistics and supply-chain deal appeared in the dataset without a disclosed amount.

Series A busiest

DealStreetAsia’s compilations showed that, by stage, Series A rounds were the busiest, with eight deals, signalling continued early-growth activity despite the year-end slowdown.

Galatek.ai and Olea topped the Series A funding stage last month with $30 million each.

Venture-unclassified rounds followed with seven transactions, while seed funding accounted for five deals, indicating early-stage deal flow remained relatively resilient by count.

The remainder of December’s activity was spread across pre-Series A (two deals) and single transactions in Series D, Series C1, pre-Series C, pre-seed, and corporate rounds.

The spread points to a market still doing deals across the lifecycle, but with fewer large growth cheques driving headline totals.

Debt rounds

There were two debt deals in December that were not included in the monthly deals scorecard.

Among the notable debt deals during the month, Singapore’s DayOne, a data centre developer and operator, secured a mezzanine financing facility of about $538 million from global investment firm Brookfield and a global sovereign investor.

ABACUS Digital Company, the Thai parent of lending app MoneyThunder, also completed its first bond offering to institutional and high-net-worth investors. The Bangkok-based company’s $31-million issuance was oversubscribed. The bonds carry an annual interest rate of 4.60%.