This week, we ran a packed slate—exclusive scoops, deep-dive analyses, interviews, and our latest report on VC fundraising in Southeast Asia. Among the stories that resonated most with readers were a feature on startup founders chasing their second act, and a scoop on what could be eFishery’s final chapter.
In entrepreneurship, the first shot rarely tells the whole story. Some founders stumble in their debut attempt, but—if their intentions were noble—they return with battle scars, better networks, and bolder visions, sometimes backed by the same investors. Wound-down Indonesian startup Ula’s Nipun Mehra, for instance, is swapping warung-tech for AI, and failed Vietnamese startup Telio’s Sy Phong Bui is trading e-commerce for gaming. There are several other instances of serial entrepreneurship growing in Southeast Asia, as my colleague Quynh Nguyen wrote..
Yet, not every story is about redemption. Indonesia’s eFishery—once the region’s aquaculture darling and most-funded startup in the sector—is untangling a financial scandal and drafting a liquidation plan that could leave many investors high and dry. Meanwhile, three former senior executives of eFishery, including Gibran Huzaifah, the company’s co-founder and former CEO, have been detained by the local law enforcement agency. At the same time, Northstar Group and its founders have agreed to indemnify Ares Management against future losses tied to eFishery, under a deal in which the US PE giant acquired three of the Southeast Asian firm’s funds and staff.
Two tales, one reminder: in entrepreneurship, the second act is a privilege, not a promise.
A reminder that our flagship event, the Asia PE-VC Summit is only a month away. Take a look at the speakers this year and be sure to lock in your seats.
For fast scrollers, here’s a recap of our other top headlines of the week.
LP-GP news
For this week’s LP View column, we spoke to Sunil Mishra, partner at Adams Street Partners. The private equity ecosystem is evolving, with the emergence of scaled GPs. With the right capitalisation, these managers are well-positioned to deliver the alpha expected of them, says Mishra. Adams Street is now in the “third innings” of backing emerging GPs in Asia, having refined its playbook for this region based on its experience of backing emerging managers in the US and Europe.
In another interview, Gulf Capital’s co-founder and CEO Karim El Solh said that global investors are increasingly drawn to the Middle East. The Abu Dhabi-based asset manager is entering a robust exit cycle from its $750-million third fund. The firm recently divested from ART Fertility Clinics’ Middle East unit. Earlier, it sold its stake in Egypt-listed Middle East Glass S.A.E., as well as its remaining holding in UAE-based Kuiper Group. “Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, and Dubai are attracting a lot of FDI, global buyout funds, as well as strategic investors, which aligns perfectly for private equity and exits,” said El Solh.
Tokyo-based GREE Ventures, a subsidiary of Japanese gaming and metaverse firm GREE Holdings, has reached the first close of its second fund of funds (FoF) at $29.8 million. The GREE LP Fund JP 2, Limited Partnership (JP2) is targeting a final close of 6 billion yen ($40.7 million), compared with the 12 billion yen size of its debut fund.
CITIC Capital’s private equity affiliate, Trustar Capital, has closed its new RMB-denominated M&A fund at over 4.5 billion yuan ($626.4 million). Insurance companies contributed to over 70% of the fund’s dry powder.
World Bank Group member IFC has committed up to $150 million as an anchor equity investor in a new $1-billion fund launched by HDFC Capital Advisors to finance green, affordable, and mid-income housing across urban India.
Scoops and funding news
Our India desk picked up on several deals that may be in the works.
Men’s health and wellness brand Bold Care, which operates under Oddity Healthcare, is in discussions to raise debt funding from RevX Capital. Bold Care is backed by Rainmatter and CaratLane’s Sacheti family, among others.
Emergent, an AI coding startup founded by Mukund Jha, cofounder and former CTO of Dunzo, is in talks to raise a Series A round from Lightspeed.
The IFC is considering investing up to $107 million in GreenCell Mobility to help the Indian electric bus operator expand its fleet across multiple states, according to a disclosure.
A report and a data-led story
We released our bi-annual report on VC fundraising in Southeast Asia. The first half of 2025 marked the weakest fundraising period for the region’s VC managers in more than seven years, according to the SE Asia VC Funds: H1 2025 Review. Only eight VC funds reported fundraising milestones in the first six months of this year, whether first, interim or final close, down from 17 in the prior semester and 14 in the same period last year.
Separately, fundraising in Greater China continued its upward trajectory in July as startups in the region collectively raised over $6.6 billion, the highest-ever monthly deal value recorded this year. A shift in sentiment towards China has been underway — a recent report published by US-based asset manager Invesco shows that a significant majority of SWFs (59%) are expected to increase their China allocations over the next five years.
Analyses and deep dives
This week, we took a look at the business of Singapore-founded eSIM provider Airalo, which entered the coveted unicorn club a month ago. We spoke to its co-founder and CEO Ahmet Bahadir Ozdemir on the company’s origins. Airalo has become the proof-of-scale case in the eSIM industry—growing from an early adopter service into the largest eSIM marketplace globally.
Losses are narrowing for the Philippine digital banking sector, with the industry preparing to face fresh competition as the central bank reopens the market for new players. Aggregate data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) showed that industry-wide losses halved at the opening quarter of this year to P1.04 billion ($18 million). This is a significant turn from being P2.07 billion in the red a year earlier.
Indonesia’s digital banking sector, too, posted strong gains in the first half of 2025, with several players reporting sharp improvements in profitability and loan disbursements. GoTo-backed Bank Jago, one of the country’s leading digital banks, reported a net profit of 127 billion rupiah ($8.2 million) for H1 2025, while Bank Neo Commerce (BNC) swung to a profit of 276.05 billion rupiah in H1 2025, reversing a loss of 6.16 billion rupiah a year earlier. Bank Amar also put up a solid performance, with net profit rising 20.6% YoY to 117.99 billion rupiah. Superbank, backed by Grab, Emtek, Singtel, and KakaoBank, reported a net profit of 20.06 billion rupiah in H1 2025, compared with a loss of 188.46 billion rupiah a year earlier.
In contrast, Indonesian digital lender JULO has seen a flurry of senior-level departures in recent quarters, as the company trims headcount while streamlining parts of its business. At least three executives from the top management — chief business officer Nimish Dwivedi, chief product officer Shreenivas Joshi, and chief technology officer (CTO) Manoj Awasthi — are said to have left the company.
In another analysis, we observed how private credit is likely to become one of the first semi-liquid fund strategies offered to everyday investors in Asia’s financial hubs as money managers and regulators seek ways to bridge private markets with public access in the region. The search for stable risk-return profiles and portfolio diversification is driving this demand.
We’ll be back next week with more scoops, sharp analysis, and the stories shaping Asia’s dealmaking landscape. See you then.
