At a time when news headlines are most often dominated by conflicts and economic gloom and doom, we have some encouraging news this week. Despite the Israel-Iran conflict and looming Trump tariffs, fundraising by Indian and Chinese startups rebounded significantly in June, powered by a handful of big-ticket transactions.
India’s startup fundraising jumped 40% month-on-month to $1.4 billion in June, largely driven by a few high-value transactions that closed during the month, according to proprietary data compiled by DealStreetAsia. The volume of venture capital and private equity transactions continued to decline, with only 87 deals recorded in June compared with 96 in May. There were at least five megadeals, or transactions worth at least $100 million, in June 2025 that accounted for nearly 49% of the month’s total deal value.
In Greater China, startups raised over $5.6 billion in June, the highest-ever monthly deal value recorded so far this year. The deal value in June more than tripled from $1.7 billion in May. The aggregate 198 transactions recorded in the month was up 15.8% over May, according to proprietary data compiled by DealStreetAsia. Megadeals emerged as a major contributor, accounting for over $4 billion via eight transactions, or 71.6% of the total deal value.
This week, DealStreetAsia DATA VANTAGE also released its latest report titled “Semiconductors: Southeast Asia’s strategic ascent”, a deep dive into how the region is poised to move up the value stack as geopolitical rivalry redraws the lines in the global semiconductor supply chain. Policymakers across the region, particularly in Malaysia, Vietnam and Singapore, are stepping up with bold initiatives aimed at capturing this unique opportunity, even as structural gaps remain across capital formation, upstream capability, and long-term ecosystem depth, the report finds.
Moving onto the other headlines of the week.
LP-GP updates
British International Investment (BII), the UK government’s development finance institution, committed £626 million (approximately $853 million) to businesses across Asia in 2024, significantly up from £245 million the previous year.
Cathay Capital is launching its second Cathay Smart Energy Fund targeting a fund size of 1 billion yuan ($139.6 million), with French energy giant TotalEnergies serving as a cornerstone investor.
Neo Asset Management has closed its flagship Neo Infrastructure Income Opportunities Fund (NIIOF) with commitments totalling $268 million (Rs 2,300 crore), surpassing its original target of Rs 2,000 crore by 15%.
Future Fund Oman, an Oman Investment Authority (OIA) fund, and pan-Asia alternative asset manager Templewater have partnered to launch the Energy Transition Fund, the first of its kind in Oman, will have an initial capital base of $200 million.
Mizuho Financial Group, one of the largest financial institutions in Japan, has announced the launch of a new, 14.3 billion yen ($97 million) debt fund for startups, with backing from seven financial institutions.
Deal bytes
Manipal Hospitals, one of India’s largest healthcare providers backed by Singapore’s Temasek Holdings, has agreed to acquire a majority stake in Sahyadri Hospitals from Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board. The announcement confirms DealStreetAsia’s report in February that said Manipal Hospitals was among the frontrunners in the race to pick up Ontario Teachers’ stake in Sahyadri.
Temasek‑backed Indian dairy and fresh essentials brand Country Delight is in talks with a host of investors, including Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC and US private equity giant TPG, as it looks to raise funding to expand its operations.
Global private markets firm Partners Group has agreed to acquire a majority stake in Infinity Fincorp Solutions for $230 million, buying out True North’s controlling stake in the non-bank lender, in one of the largest recent control deals in the sector.
HighLight Capital has joined a list of global investors in backing clinical-stage radiopharmaceutical company NUCLIDIUM AG’s Series B funding round that raised 79 million Swiss Francs ($99.5 million).
Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC has partnered with US private equity firm Linden Capital Partners to acquire a minority stake in Canada’s Klick Group, one of the world’s largest healthcare marketing agencies.
A consortium led by ICBC Financial Asset Management and China CITIC Financial Asset Management has made an equity investment of a whopping 4.916 billion yuan ($686.1 million) in Yongxiang, a Chinese manufacturer of polysilicon for solar applications.
Ninja, a Saudi Arabia-based quick-commerce platform, has raised about $254 million in a pre-IPO funding round that valued it at $1.5 billion. The round was anchored by Riyad Capital through the Riyad Pre-IPO Opportunities Fund.
Augmentus, a Singapore-based robotics startup for manufacturers, has announced raising $11 million in a Series A+ funding round anchored by Korean investment firm Woori Venture Partners. The round also saw the participation of new investor EDBI and existing backers Sierra Ventures and Cocoon Capital.
XPANCEO, the Dubai-headquartered deep tech company behind the world’s first smart contact lenses, has raised a $250-million Series A funding anchored by Hong Kong-based Opportunity Venture (Asia). The funding round values the company at $1.35 billion, officially minting it as a unicorn.
CalmCar, a Chinese startup that specialises in developing vision systems for intelligent driving vehicles, has raised 500 million yuan ($69.7 million) in a Series D funding round.
World Bank Group member International Finance Corporation (IFC) has proposed to provide a $20-million senior loan to Laxmi Sunrise Bank Limited, a private commercial bank in Nepal. IFC has also proposed to invest nearly $50 million (Rs 425 crore) in Chennai-based TVS Emerald Limited.
DEEP Robotics and RobotEra have become the latest embodied intelligence startups in China to attract sizable financing in the venture market amid Beijing’s policy tailwinds and artificial intelligence advancements. The first five months of 2025 recorded 114 investments in embodied intelligence and robotics startups in China, versus last year’s total deal count of 77, according to Chinese data provider IT Juzi.
Interviews & analyses
Vietnam is recreating an economic flywheel that has propelled growth in bigger markets, despite the volatile global economic backdrop, according to Warburg Pincus CEO Jeffrey Perlman. “I don’t think the impact of tariffs will slow down [the Vietnamese economy],” Perlman said during an investment conference hosted by its portfolio company Techcombank.
Taiwan is pulling out all stops to attract innovative companies from overseas, especially Southeast Asia and Silicon Valley, to list on the Eastern Asian Island. Taiwan Stock Exchange Corporation, the operator of Taiwan’s stock exchange, has planned multiple trips to Southeast Asia, including Singapore and Malaysia, as well as the US west coast, to enhance the global visibility of its stock market.
The Philippine IPO market has been rather subdued in the last two years, with only three listings materialising annually. The Capital Market Efficiency Promotion Act, a long-awaited reform enacted last week to slash trading taxes and modernise market rules, is seen as a welcome move to revive the markets but challenges remain.
Indonesia’s push to make e-commerce platforms liable for withholding income tax directly from sellers has sparked concerns ranging from implementation hurdles to seller readiness and unintended market disruptions.
In an exclusive interview with DealStreetAsia, Nishant Kumar, Head of Coverage (Asia) at the Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG), said “We help countries which have the most challenging situations to raise capital for infrastructure. We make projects which are unbankable, bankable; projects which are unfinanceable, financeable; build a framework and make it open source and replicable.”
While Indian PE/VC funds have traditionally relied on global LPs, pension funds, endowments, and sovereign wealth funds to raise capital, recent macro shocks and a weakening rupee may be driving some GPs to weigh the advantages of having a stronger domestic capital base.
Vietnam’s fintech landscape has received a major boost with the government’s long-awaited regulatory sandbox for the sector going live on July 1, 2025. However, its limited scope and tangled web of regulations raises several questions.
Indonesia’s proposed ride-hailing fare hike has sparked a fierce backlash from driver groups, who say it sidesteps the real issue—excessive platform commissions, especially in the case of food and parcel deliveries, that eat into their earnings and thereby offset any benefit from higher fares.
Ridzki Kramadibrata, former president and commissioner at Grab Indonesia, has launched two B2B climate tech ventures focused on methane emission reduction and food waste prevention. The companies—Planet Carbon and carbonZAP—are now operating in Indonesia with plans to scale regionally.
