Tech M&A activity in Southeast Asia continued its downward trajectory in 2024, with deal volume falling to 99 transactions, a 12% year-on-year decline and 43% below the 2022 peak.
This marks the second consecutive year of contraction, underscoring the broader shift in investor sentiment amid rising interest rates, valuation resets, and a heightened focus on capital efficiency.
The retreat was further reinforced by semesterly figures, with volumes sliding steadily from 109 deals in H1 2022 to just 48 in H2 2024, according to DealStreetAsia DATA VANTAGE‘s latest report SE Asia Tech M&A Review: 2025.
While current levels remain broadly in line with pre-pandemic norms, the surge in activity seen during the post-COVID rebound has clearly dissipated. Strategic acquirers, once active in roll-up plays and growth-driven bets, have pulled back to prioritise balance sheet resilience and disciplined execution.
Strategic acquirers have pulled back to prioritise balance sheet resilience and disciplined execution.
This moderation echoes trends across Southeast Asia’s private capital landscape, where dealmaking has slowed in the face of macroeconomic uncertainty, tighter credit conditions, and increased scrutiny of growth-stage businesses. Regional challenges—including market fragmentation, regulatory friction, and uneven digital maturity—have compounded the impact of global headwinds.
Early signals from 2025 suggest the market has yet to stabilise. Only 41 tech M&A deals were recorded in the first five months of the year, trailing behind the same period in 2024, which saw 49 deals. Though the drop may seem incremental, the absence of any marked reacceleration points to a continued lull in deal velocity. Buyers remain selective, favouring targets with clear profitability pathways and strategic alignment over rapid expansion.
Singapore-founded companies continue to anchor tech M&A activity in Southeast Asia, though volumes have moderated since peaking in 2022. The Philippines stands out as a rare outlier to the regional slowdown, with acquisition volume rising from 10 in 2023 to 14 in 2024, and early signs of momentum carrying into 2025. Growing interest in fintech, green tech and marketing tech is drawing attention from both domestic and global acquirers.
Malaysia, meanwhile, has stabilised following a softer 2023, maintaining a steady flow of mid-sized transactions. In contrast, Thailand and Vietnam remain low-activity markets, constrained by the early-stage nature of their ecosystems and the limited scale of deal opportunities.
Herston Elton Powers, co-founder and managing partner at 1982 Ventures, believes Southeast Asia is poised for a sharp rebound in Tech M&A.
“We expect M&A activity to rocket back in the second half of 2025. Any pause you’re seeing now is just the market taking a breath after the shock of US tariff policies,” said Powers.
Expect more Chinese buyers
Foreign acquirers were dominant in Southeast Asia’s tech M&A landscape in 2024, accounting for nearly 60% of deals. Of the 99 recorded transactions, 59 involved overseas buyers—down from 74 in 2023 but still well above pre-pandemic levels. Domestic buyers closed just 40 deals, nearly half their 2022 peak, reflecting ongoing capital discipline and subdued appetite for expansion.
The United States continued to lead foreign activity, logging 17 deals in 2024, only slightly below the previous year. Since 2020, US firms have completed 88 tech M&A transactions in the region, supported by deep capital pools, a focus on digital infrastructure, and steady interest from both corporates and investors despite global headwinds.
Singapore ranked second overall with 68 deals since 2020, but activity has cooled sharply since its 2022 peak of 32. It recorded just 5 deals in 2023 and 8 in 2024, likely reflecting a slowdown among Singapore-domiciled funds and holding entities amid a broader VC pullback.
Other key foreign players, including Greater China, the UK, and Japan, also saw fewer deals in 2024. Greater China dipped to just 3 from 7 in 2023, while India—active in 2023—registered no transactions this year. South Korea and Malaysia also pulled back, underscoring a wider retreat among Asia-based buyers.
Tin Men Capital co-founder and partner Jeremy Tan expects stronger Chinese activity going forward, driven by a need to diversify amid limited access to Western markets, with Southeast Asia becoming a strategic focus, aligned with China’s Belt and Road ambitions.
“In the past, these [Chinese] have tried to build organically. That experience is a mixed one at best. They adopted an approach that worked for their homogenous home market in a diverse and fragmented market in Southeast Asia. Given the impetus to tap into growth now in a world that is ‘slowing’ down and together with their poor experience in growing organically, the calculus shifts in favour of buying a platform,” Tan said.
Eyes on fintech, green tech and AI
Fintech retained its position as Southeast Asia’s most active tech M&A vertical in 2024. It was followed by e-commerce (mostly B2B solutions) and green tech—each showing varying levels of resilience.
Fintech M&A rebounded to 22 deals in 2024, up from 15 the year before, bringing volumes back to pre-downturn levels. The pickup reflects ongoing consolidation in payments, lending, and digital infrastructure, with strategic interest fuelled by underbanked populations, regulatory digitisation and the rise of embedded finance.
New demand drivers are also emerging. Acquirers are increasingly targeting blockchain-based fintech platforms, particularly those focused on decentralised lending, wallets, and crypto infrastructure.
Early 2025 data show 12 fintech M&A deals in the first five months, putting it on track to exceed 20 deals for a second straight year and reinforcing its position as the region’s most consistently active vertical.
Green tech remains early in its M&A cycle but is gathering strength. Deal activity rose to eight transactions in 2024, up from just three in 2023, marking the highest annual total on record. Most of these deals focused on renewable energy solutions and waste management or recycling technologies, segments with more immediate commercial application and growing regulatory tailwinds.
The pickup reflects a shift toward pragmatic climate solutions that can be deployed at scale, particularly in sectors under pressure to decarbonise or meet extended producer responsibility (EPR) rules. Rather than deep-tech moonshots, acquirers are prioritising startups with proven models, operational assets, or integration potential within existing infrastructure. While the overall pipeline remains shallow, the 2024 momentum suggests that green tech M&A is beginning to take shape around clearer commercial logic and policy-driven demand.
In contrast, M&A in data analytics and AI/ML remained stable but subdued. Four deals were recorded in 2024, up slightly from three in 2023 but still below the 2022 peak. The modest uptick suggests a slow recovery, with three additional deals already logged in early 2025.
The focus within this segment, however, is shifting. While earlier deals centred on data infrastructure and BI platforms. More recently, buyers have targeted applied AI–spanning agentic systems and generative models–used in customer operations, logistics, and decision automation. This reflects a pivot toward embedded intelligence and IP-led solutions that integrate directly into enterprise workflows.
Read the SE Asia Tech M&A Review: 2025 report for insights into:
- The volume of tech M&A deals in Southeast Asia since 2020
- Tech M&As broken down by country in the last five years
- Tech M&As broken down by sector
- Top M&A deals with disclosed deal value in 2024
