<article>Southeast Asia saw 61 Series B to C investments in its startups in the first half of 2018, twice the number registered in the same period last year and more than the 2017 total, according to a Google-Temasek report.</article>

Southeast Asia saw 61 Series B to C investments in its startups in the first half of 2018, twice the number registered in the same period last year and more than the 2017 total, according to a Google-Temasek report.
The growth trend appears to allay fears of a mid-series funding crunch in the region, said a Temasek executive.
<a href="https://media.dealstreetasia.com/uploads/2018/11/seriesb.png"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-111405" src="https://media.dealstreetasia.com/uploads/2018/11/seriesb.png?resize=640,348" alt="" srcset="https://media.dealstreetasia.com/uploads/2018/11/seriesb.png?w=948 948w, https://media.dealstreetasia.com/uploads/2018/11/seriesb.png?resize=300,163 300w, https://media.dealstreetasia.com/uploads/2018/11/seriesb.png?resize=768,417 768w" sizes="(max-width: 948px) 100vw, 948px" data-recalc-dims="1" /></a>
Temasek attributed the bump in Series B to C deals to growing attention from global investors such as Sequoia Capital, B Capital and Eight Roads that have been channelling funds into this space. 
&#8220;These may not be funds that are dedicated to Southeast Asia, but they have people here scouting for opportunities as part of their regional or global funds. With that sort of commitment and the opportunity that is already here, I think the money will flow in,&#8221; said Rohit Sipahimalani, Joint Head, Investment Group at Temasek.
A Preqin-SVCA report, which tracked fundraising until 2017-end by Southeast Asian startups that raised seed financing from 2008 to 2014, found that less than a third of Series A-funded startups successfully raised Series B funding. In comparison, about 50 per cent of Series A funded startups in the US and UK had secured Series B financing by the end of 2017.
Temasek views the H1 2018 data as an indication that things are changing.
&#8220;I’m not saying it will solve the problem, but I think it’s clearly moving in the right direction,&#8221; said Sipahimalani. &#8220;Our VC arm, Vertex Ventures, used to play primarily in Series A. They’ve now set up a growth fund looking at Series B and C for follow-on activity. This is an area I find most interesting and I think will be very important for the ecosystem going forward.&#8221;
<h3>Focus on Series B-C misplaced, says GREE&#8217;s Nikhil Kapur</h3>
In an email response to DealStreetAsia, Nikhil Kapur, Principal and Investments Head for South Asia at GREE Ventures said that the ecosystem&#8217;s focus on the Series B to C gap is misplaced. According to Kapur, the real funding gap is at the seed stage.
&#8220;The data shows that there are just too few rounds happening in the very early stage. It&#8217;s sad that the (Google-Temasek) report doesn&#8217;t give a breakdown between Seed and Series A. But regardless, even combined, the number of seed and Series A rounds are too few for a region that consists of a 600 million population, 300 million smartphone addressable users and the world&#8217;s fourth largest internet ecosystem with one of the most active social media regions.
&#8220;In my opinion, we should see at least 10x the number of early-stage rounds in order to have enough experimentation to lead to more healthy and sound late stage companies. This is based on comparing the number of early-stage rounds between SEA, India, China and the US,&#8221; said Kapur.
Kapur added that VCs are merely taking the easier &#8220;wait-and-watch&#8221; route and that a strong breed of VCs is what the SEA ecosystem really needs today.
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<a style="color: #ff0000;" href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/eight-roads-southeast-asia-106436/">Eight Roads opens first SEA office in SG, sees opportunity for $200m fund</a>
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SE Asia saw 61 Series B to C investments in startups in 1st half of 2018, twice the number registered in the same period last year and more than the 2017 total.

What funding gap? Series B-C deals in Southeast Asia double in H1

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What funding gap? Series B-C deals in Southeast Asia double in H1

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