SE Asia Deals Barometer Report: Single megadeal propels startup funding to $2.2b in Jan

Startup funding in Southeast Asia opened 2026 with a surge in deal value, powered entirely by a single $2-billion megadeal in the data centre space, even as overall deal activity remained subdued.

Startups in the region raised $2.18 billion across 25 equity deals in January, up 438.8% in value from $405.1 million raised through 41 deals in December 2025, show data compiled by DealStreetAsia.

Strip out the $2 billion Series C round raised by DayOne Data Centers, however, and the picture looks far from rosy—total fundraising would have shrunk 55% month-on-month to just $182.6 million.

Deal count in January was down 39% month-on-month to the lowest on record, in another sign of the oversized role of DayOne Data Centers’ round rather than a broad-based pickup in fundraising.

On a year-on-year basis, total funding jumped 865.1% from $226.2 million across 40 deals in January 2025, even as deal volume declined 37.5%, highlighting a market increasingly shaped by concentrated capital flows.

DealStreetAsia’s January dataset includes venture capital and corporate equity rounds, and excludes debt deals in line with our monthly scorecard methodology. Three transactions in the month did not disclose the amount raised.

The lone megadeal that dominated January

Singapore-headquartered DayOne was the only startup that sealed a megadeal, i.e a financing round worth at least $100 million, in January. That transaction—led by existing investor Coatue, with participation from new backers including the Indonesia Investment Authority (INA)—alone made up roughly 92% of January’s $2.18 billion total.

The latest raise comes after DayOne secured a combined $1.9 billion across its Series A and B rounds in 2024, and lined up as much as 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) in mezzanine financing from Brookfield and a sovereign investor in 2025.

The second-largest disclosed deal was far smaller. Malaysia’s Teleport, the logistics arm of Capital A Berhad, raised $50 million in a private equity round from funds managed by HPS Investment Partners.

Top five deals of January 2026

Based on deals with disclosed amounts, the average deal size in January surged to $99.2 million, from $12.6 million in the previous month. Without the DayOne round, the average deal size would have shrunk to $8.7 million.

For the full year 2025, startups in Southeast Asia raised $5.37 billion across 461 equity deals, according to a joint report by DealStreetAsia and Kickstart Ventures, underscoring a venture market still operating below prior-cycle highs and heavily dependent on sporadic large rounds for monthly uplifts.

Startup funding in the region stabilised in the second half of 2025 after hitting a cyclical low earlier in the year, with equity dealmaking ticking up modestly and signalling an end to the prolonged contraction in activity.

Deal volume edged up in H2 2025, with 233 equity transactions, compared with 228 deals in H1 2025. Quarterly data also point to stabilisation, with deal counts holding broadly steady over the past five quarters, reinforcing the view that activity has found a functional floor, said the report titled ‘Southeast Asia Startup Funding Report: Full Year 2025’ released to coincide with the Indonesia PE-VC Summit 2026.

Singapore continues lead

Fundraising remained heavily concentrated in Singapore, where startups raised about $2.11 billion across 19 deals, accounting for roughly 96.6% of Southeast Asia’s total deal value for the month.

The city-state’s largest transaction was DayOne’s $2 billion-plus Series C round, followed by SCI Ecommerce, which raised $31.87 million in fresh funding led by Asia Partners as it reportedly plans an initial public offering.

Malaysia ranked a distant second with $50 million from a single deal—Teleport’s private equity round, equivalent to about 2.3% of January’s total.

Indonesia recorded $18.6 million across three deals (about 0.9% of regional funding). The country’s largest transaction was secured by Green Rebel Foods, which raised about $10.5 million through a new preference share issuance alongside secondary share transfers among existing shareholders.

Green Rebel Foods and Singapore’s August Energy were the only two climate tech startups among the fundraisers in January. August Energy did not disclose the size of, nor the investors in, its financing round.

Vietnam logged two deals totalling $5.5 million (about 0.3% of the regional total). The largest was artificial intelligence startup Nami Technology (NamiTech), which raised $4 million from Japan’s Toho Gas and existing investor Thien Viet Securities (TVS), making it also the largest seed round in the month.

Data centres drive sector totals

By vertical, data centres dominated January’s funding landscape, pulling in over $2 billion from the megadeal transaction of DayOne and accounting for more than 90% of total capital deployed.

Outside the megadeal, funding was spread across a fragmented long tail. Logistics and supply chain raised $50 million, driven by Teleport’s private equity round. E-commerce attracted $42.9 million across two deals, including SCI Ecommerce’s round.

Fintech—the top sector by deal value and volume in full-year 2025—secured $18.2 million across three deals in January, while data analytics and AI raised about $14 million across four transactions, reflecting continued appetite for AI-adjacent models even as investors remained selective on cheque size.

Other sectors that saw activity included software and IT, foodtech, edtech, cybersecurity, and smaller rounds across consumer products, gaming, healthtech, and telecommunications.

Seed stage busiest by count

By stage, seed rounds were the busiest, accounting for seven deals, signalling that early-stage activity remained resilient by volume even as a single late-stage cheque dominated totals.

Series A followed with five deals totaling about $40.4 million, while venture rounds with undisclosed series accounted for four transactions raising nearly $50 million.

The remainder of January’s activity was spread across two pre-seed deals, two corporate rounds, and single transactions in Series B, private equity, and Series C, the last dominated by DayOne’s $2 billion-plus financing.

Debt deals

DealStreetAsia’s monthly scorecard excludes debt deals, and hence three debt transactions in January were not included in the funding total.

Among the notable debt deals during the month, Singapore-based digital finance firm Atome finalised the renewal of a syndicated debt facility, enlarged to $345 million to support its Southeast Asia expansion, up from the $200 million syndicated debt facility it secured in 2024.

In Indonesia, fintech lender UangCermat raised $20 million through a structured credit facility provided by SixPoint Capital Management, while jobs platform Pintarnya secured a $14 million credit facility from January Capital’s $130 million Growth Credit Fund, following the company’s $16.7 million Series A equity round announced in August 2025.