It is time to reflect and look back at some of the most significant events that defined the course of private capital in Asia.
In December 2024, we brought you a scoop that shook Indonesia’s and Southeast Asia’s startup scene: The board of Indonesian aquaculture startup eFishery had suspended its co-founders, Gibran Huzaifah and Chrisna Aditya, following an investigation into alleged financial irregularities.
That story set off months of agenda-setting coverage through 2025. To date, our newsroom has published more than 20 exclusives tracking the company’s unravelling. Here’s the entire coverage to read.
DealStreetAsia’s extensive coverage of the eFishery saga also bagged the WAN-IFRA Asian Digital Media Awards 2025 under the Best Business & Financial News Story category.
The eFishery revelations triggered one of the most significant reckonings in Southeast Asia’s private capital markets as investor confidence, especially in late-stage, high-valuation deals, was visibly shaken.
For DealStreetAsia, this series reinforces our role as a market-moving publication. It has consistently ranked among our most-read and most-shared content of the year, drawing significant engagement from GPs, LPs, founders and policymakers across the region.
In 2025, we continued to break stories on fundraising milestones and deal scoops, often ahead of official announcements.
Northstar-Ares Management merger, Vietnamese e-commerce Tiki’s plunge in valuation from near-unicorn status to sub-$10million and the twists in the Grab-GoTo on-off merger saga, were among the standout stories in the year.
From LP perspectives, people moves, business pivots and closures, startup funding rounds and earnings analyses, the year saw us deliver the most comprehensive coverage of the private capital ecosystem in Asia’s core markets of India, Greater China and Southeast Asia.
In 2025, we also intensified our coverage of the asset allocator community, the private equity exit landscape, and the climate tech and ESG vertical.
In Greater China, our reporters captured the rise of deep tech and AI investments while the healthcare theme and consolidation plays continued to dominate private equity deal trends in India.
Here are the top stories that our readers and subscribers loved in 2025
Southeast Asia
The unravelling of a unicorn: What went wrong at eFishery
Initial findings reveal a complex scheme of alleged financial manipulation involving dual financial reporting, the setting up of nominee companies, and fabricated transactions.
Northstar Group said to be in merger talks with Ares Management
Following this January exclusive, DealStreetAsia reported in August that Ares Management had finalised an agreement to combine Northstar Group’s funds and its employees with its $546-billion alternative asset empire.
Tiki’s plunge from soonicorn to sub-$10m valuation stuns investors, highlights harsh reset
Today, its core business has shrunk so sharply that it no longer registers in market share charts. A recent funding round has left most earlier investors wiped out.
How Vietnam’s Tiki burned $670m and lost the e-commerce race
Tiki has raised more money than Carro, SE Asia’s biggest used car platform, and Indonesian e-commerce peer Bukalapak, and more than double the funding raised by eFishery.
General Atlantic nears $250m Sociolla deal to provide partial exit to early backers
There have been several recent instances of secondary-led deal talks in Indonesia that appear to be driven more by investor liquidity needs than by the company’s fresh capital requirements.
Fake projects, shell vendors: How CROWDE allegedly funnelled $50m in loans
The crisis unfolds even as the fallout from the alleged fraud at eFishery continues to reverberate across Indonesia’s startup sector.
Private equity merger signals watershed moment in SE Asia
SE Asia’s oldest PE firms may be edging towards consolidation, as a tough fundraising environment pushes local GPs to consider mergers with global platforms.
Grab and GoTo said to have revived merger talks
The on-and-off merger discussions between SE Asia’s two largest tech giants, Nasdaq-listed Grab Holdings and Indonesia-listed GoTo, have resurfaced and gained momentum.
Walujo to step down as Patuwo to take helm at GoTo, lifting Grab merger prospects
Major investors, including SoftBank, Provident Capital Partners, and Peak XV have been pushing for a change at the top as talks over a potential Grab-GoTo combination resurface.
NUS shortlisting buyers for secondhand fund stakes
The process signals growing demand from limited partners seeking exits from their holdings to unlock tied-up capital as they actively manage their portfolios.
Mid-market PE maintains edge in returns and value creation in Asia
The differentiated benefits of smaller transactions, ranging from growth potential to operational upside, make the segment compelling enough to stay focused.
GIC invests $135m more in Vietnamese paediatric chain Nhi Dong 315
This additional investment brings GIC’s total capital invested in the clinic chain operator so far to $194 million.
Everstone, MAP sell their entire stake in Domino’s Pizza Indonesia
Asia Partners acquired Everstone’s stake, along with an additional 33.52% held by Indonesian retail giant Mitra Adiperkasa, as well as several smaller stakes held by angel investors.
Greater China
VCs remain bullish on China’s deeptech despite LLM bubble bursting
AI investments have heated up as the country rapidly narrows the gap with the US in producing cutting-edge AI models, thanks to the rapid strides made by firms like DeepSeek.
Chinese AI players move to seize DeepSeek-induced IPO window
But not all will bear fruit, investors say, as the fast-evolving market landscape will weed out slow runners, driving their venture backers to explore alternative exit paths.
India
KKR-HCG deal highlights healthcare’s edge in India’s PE-VC exit market
The KKR-HCG deal was the biggest among the five healthcare exits recorded in India so far this year, and also the third-largest exit overall.
Global PE giants take over top Indian hospitals — who will pay the price?
The worry is that the incessant, often insensitive, drive for profits that PE firms are notorious for could price out nearly a third of the country’s burgeoning middle class from accessing quality healthcare.
