Let’s begin our weekly wrap with another big scoop by DealStreetAsia that stirred the markets and our competition alike. Southeast Asia’s two largest tech giants, Nasdaq-listed Grab Holdings and Indonesia-listed GoTo, are reportedly back at the negotiating table. According to multiple sources aware of the development, this time, both parties are more determined to finalise a deal and conclude it in the calendar year 2025. Read more.
This week, we also published our latest report, Greater China Deal Review: Q4: 2024, which showed that startups headquartered in mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Macau scooped up nearly $18.8 billion in funding during the October-December period, up 47.7% quarter-over-quarter. As the deal value recovered, the deal volume also grew 16.8% from the previous quarter to 576.
In India, startup fundraising got off to a flying start in 2025 as risk capital investors poured $1.83 billion into 125 privately owned companies in January, a seven-month high. This represents an over 32% increase from December’s $1.38 billion secured from 98 transactions, according to proprietary data collated by DealStreetAsia.
Scroll down for the other headlines of the week.
LP-GP news
Swiss impact investor responsAbility Investments is looking to allocate as much as $180 million annually into South and Southeast Asia’s climate tech sector for the next three to four years, through credit-focused strategies from its climate funds.
The secondaries market in Asia is unlikely to see a quick recovery this year amid continuing geopolitical tensions and macroeconomic headwinds, according to Won Ha, head of Singapore and Korea and senior managing director at Ardian.
Affirma Capital managing director and head of Asean Winston Mandrawa is confident that exit environments in Southeast Asia will improve, drawing parallels to India’s market recovery.
Singapore wealth fund Temasek and real asset manager CenterSquare Investment Management have formed a co-investment vehicle to deploy up to $200 million into high-quality subordinate real estate loans.
Singapore’s CapitaLand Investment said it will invest more than $700 million to develop its first data centre in Osaka, Japan, expanding its global portfolio of digital infrastructure assets.
Limited partners are increasingly showing an appetite for co-investments, and Asia is poised to attract this interest. However, to fully capitalise on this growing trend, the region must first prove that it has a robust exit market.
Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC has announced key changes to its senior management team with effect from April 1, 2025. Bryan Yeo, currently deputy group chief investment officer, will take over from Dr Jeffrey Jaensubhakij as group CIO and oversee GIC’s total investment portfolio.
Major international funds including Macquarie Asset Management and Blackstone plan to introduce investment products for private infrastructure aimed at retail investors in Japan, cultivating the market with an eye on rising demand from the wealthy.
Alternative asset manager KKR & Co reported a fourth-quarter profit that beat Wall Street expectations, as a rebound in dealmaking activity boosted its income from asset sales.
Singapore-listed Keppel is expecting to make the first close of its third data centre fund soon and is currently finalising paperwork with its investors, according to its annual results announcement with analysts.
Malaysian sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional Bhd will further diversify its global portfolio but expects a difficult year in 2025, its managing director said after the fund posted a drop in profit for 2024.
TPG has emerged as a potential lead underwriter for SE Asia-focused private equity firm Navis Capital Partners’s latest continuation fund that could notch up as much as $150 million, according to sources familiar with the situation. The multi-asset vehicle is seeking more investors to join the syndicate, said the sources.
Private markets investment management firm Hamilton Lane has announced the final close of its inaugural Venture Access Fund with $615.3 million in commitments, surpassing its $500-million target by 23%.
Company updates
Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC Pte has injected an additional sum of $135 million into Vietnam-based paediatric and maternity clinic chain operator Nhi Dong 315, DealStreetAsia has learnt. This additional investment brings GIC’s total capital invested in the clinic chain operator so far to $194 million.
Southeast Asian unicorn Carro is said to be preparing for an imminent initial public offering that could offer a glimmer of hope for venture capital funds scrambling for liquidity in one of the bleakest exit environments in the region.
The founders of Ula, which was last valued at over $500 million, are offering to return about 30% of the total capital raised to investors as they liquidate the Indonesian warung-tech company and launch a new venture.
Singapore-based, beauty-focused social commerce startup Raena — which had raised $21 million in funding from investors including BEENEXT, Alpha JWC Ventures, and AC Ventures — has decided to fold up after six years of operations, founder and CEO Sreejita Deb confirmed to DealStreetAsia.
Singapore-headquartered venture capital firm TRIREC, one of Southeast Asia’s earliest investors in the climate sector, is now looking at a “paradigm-shifting” technology that will drive decarbonisation, even as it looks at a private credit strategy to close the gap in climate tech funding.
Singapore’s fileAI has racked up $14 million in a Series A extension round as it aspires to become the top artificial intelligence-automated file processor in the Asia Pacific.
Reliance Retail has launched an app in India to sell fashionwear from China’s Shein under a licensing deal, almost five years since Shein‘s app was banned in the country after getting caught up in a diplomatic tussle.
Captain Fresh has raised Rs 250 crore ($29 million) in a pre-IPO funding round led by Prosus Ventures, Accel, and Tiger Global, as the seafood supplier gears up to list on the Indian bourses this year.
Indonesian startup eFishery’s shareholders have appointed business advisory firm FTI Consulting to take over as acting management of the aquatech company. The startup. which is reeling from allegations of fraud and financial irregularities, had laid off approximately 300 employees last month. Indonesian police have also received complaints against eFishery co-founders Gibran Huzaifah and Chrisna Aditya.
Japan Consumer Credit Service, part of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, is betting on Southeast Asia’s booming used-car market, acquiring a 49% stake in the financing arm of Carsome Group.
Indonesia’s sovereign wealth fund, Indonesia Investment Authority (INA), and Japan’s Mitsui & Co are among prospective buyers of CVC Capital Partners’s 25% stake in Indonesian toll road operator RKE International, valued at up to $300 million, Reuters reported.
Chinese bubble tea drinks company Guming Holdings is aiming to raise up to $202 million in a Hong Kong initial public offering, Reuters reported. The company is selling 158.6 million shares in a price range of HK$8.68 to HK$9.94 each, the filings showed.
KKR-backed Avendus Capital has made its first bet from its third private equity fund, acquiring a minority stake in Indian pharmaceutical company La Renon Healthcare from two existing investors for $18.3 million.
Dubai-based AI-driven e-commerce platform qeen.ai has raised $10 million in seed funding, led by Prosus Ventures.
Syfe, a robo adviser and digital wealth platform operator based in Singapore, has offered to acquire Australia-listed investment platform Selfwealth for A$65 million (about $41 million) in cash.
Investment banking advisory firm Evercore’s head of private capital for Asia-Pacific, Shane Gong, has ended a five-year tenure to join $14-billion mid-market manager Inflexion Private Equity.
Indian food delivery giant Swiggy reported wider losses for the December quarter, as continued investments in the competitive quick commerce segment, dampened growth in its biggest segment — food delivery.
Indian food and grocery delivery platform Zomato said it will rename the company to “Eternal” and unveiled a new logo, a move that comes more than two years after it began using the new name internally.
India’s digital payments firm Cashfree has announced that it has raised $53 million in a funding round led by South Korea’s Krafton Inc. and UK-based private equity firm Apis Partners.
Singapore Telecommunications has secured a S$643-million ($476.16 million) green loan to finance the development of a new 58 megawatt (MW) data centre in the city-state.
IFC and Indonesian lender PT Bank OCBC NISP have extended a $53-million sustainability-linked loan with an 11-year tenure to Warburg Pincus-backed retail and logistics property platform PT Nirvana Wastu Pratama Property.
Claypond Capital, the family investment office of Manipal Group chairman Ranjan Pai, is in talks to acquire a significant stake in Panacea Medical Technologies, a maker of medical equipment focused on cancer care and mammography.
India’s Multiples Alternate Asset Management, led by former ICICI Venture veteran Renuka Ramnath, has signed an agreement, along with its co-investors, to buy a controlling stake in QBurst, a full-service software development company, for $200 million.
A unit of IHH Healthcare has sought up to Rs 10,930 crore ($1.25 billion) in compensation from Japan’s Daiichi Sankyo for preventing the Malaysian firm from owning a majority stake in India’s Fortis Healthcare.
Online fast-fashion retailer Shein is set to cut its valuation in a potential London listing to around $50 billion, said three people with knowledge of the matter, nearly a quarter less than the company’s 2023 fundraising value amid growing headwinds.
The International Finance Corporation is considering extending a senior unsecured loan to the tune of $500 million to Indian lender Axis Bank, according to a disclosure.
India’s top electric two-wheeler maker Ola Electric reported a wider quarterly loss, hurt by heavy discounts it offered to fend off rising competition. The SoftBank-backed firm reported a loss of 5.64 billion rupees ($64.51 million) in the October-to-December quarter, compared with a loss of 3.76 billion rupees a year earlier.
TrueFoundry, a US-based AI deployment and scaling platform, has raised $19 million in Series A funding led by Intel Capital, Eniac Ventures, and Peak XV’s Surge.
US private equity firm Bain Capital has bought Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma in a deal worth 510 billion yen ($3.4 billion), saying it was encouraged by prospects of regulatory change for Japan’s drug industry.
India budget bytes
The budget introduces several measures to significantly support India’s fast-growing economy. It emphasises enhancing the spending power of the middle class, promoting inclusive growth, and encouraging private investment, writes Pranav Pai, founding partner at early-stage investment firm 3one4 Capital.
India’s startup ecosystem remains highly dependent on foreign capital for late-stage funding. The Fund of Funds for Startups should create a dedicated late-stage pool, offering exits to early-stage VC funds after 8 years, thus accelerating reinvestment and liquidity from smaller domestic pools of HNIs and family offices that support GPs in their first steps, writes Anup Jain, co-founder of BlueGreen Ventures.
The budget presents a fascinating study in policy evolution, marking a pivotal inflection point in India’s journey towards technological leadership, writes Arpit Agarwal, an investment partner at Blume Ventures.
Budget 2025 aims to keep India on the growth path while not neglecting fiscal prudence. As expected, the focus is on where to spend, writes Vishal Agarwal and Priyanka Duggal, partners at Grant Thornton Bharat.
The emphasis on the PPP model to finance and execute the development of the infrastructure sector—atomic energy, civil aviation, telecommunications, renewable energy, power, roads, rural development, ports, housing & urban affairs and railways — will create new avenues for companies to raise funds through equity, M&As, and public listings, writes Shivam Bajaj, founded Avener Capital.
