Fundraising continues to be a formidable challenge for female entrepreneurs in Southeast Asia. At DealStreetAsia, we have been quantifying the extent of this funding gap for four years now.
Our latest report, Women Founders in SE Asia: 2024 Funding Review, finds that companies with all-women founding teams secured 33 equity funding rounds in 2024, raising a total of $94.5 million. This accounted for a meagre 5.2% of total deal volume and 2.1% of total capital raised in the year.
Last week, we released the Female Founders in India 2024 report. This week we brought you perspectives from women founders on their entrepreneurial and fundraising journey.
Conditions have improved for female founders in the last few years thanks to the emergence of more women-led venture capital firms and angel investors, says Sunita Sahney, who founded Indian NBFC Finova Capital.
Shreya Mishra, Co-Founder & CEO of rooftop solar startup SolarSquare, said in an interview, “Whether male or female, founders will face the same challenges or opportunities based on the strength of their business and leadership, not their gender.”
D2C skincare brand Foxtale founder and CEO Romita Mazumdar says, “Investors tend to approach women-led businesses with more caution, sometimes unconsciously. Questions about long-term commitment, risk appetite, or leadership style come up in ways they don’t for male founders.”
Feb funding scorecard
This week we tracked the February startup fundraising data from our core markets – India, Greater China, and Southeast Asia.
Investors have slowed capital deployment in Chinese startups. Fundraising in China was down 30.6% month-over-month in February, while deal value was down by 7.2%. There were five transactions worth over $100 million, but no cheque size crossed the billion-dollar threshold.
Vietnamese paediatric and maternity clinic chain Nhi Dong 315’s $135-million funding from GIC lifted overall startup funding in SE Asia in February. Unsurprisingly, Vietnam secured the lion’s share (62%) of the month’s funding, while Singapore led in deal count (20 transactions).
Startup fundraising in India hit a snag again in February this year after showing signs of recovery in the second half of 2024. Compared to January, the funding value was down 48.4%, while the deal volume fell nearly 13.6%.
Deal news
Even as Indonesia’s agritech sector has been fraught with multiple challenges, startup Eratani is raising fresh capital while Elevarm closed pre-Series A funding.
China’s TowardPi Medical Technology, which is planning an IPO on Shanghai’s Nasdaq-style STAR Market, has raised $68.9 million in a Series E funding round.
BII has committed a $75-million financial facility to Pakistani bank HBL. The new facility will target the country’s agriculture sector.
Singapore-based Chitose Bio Evolution has raised $49 million from a group of Japanese investors. It will use the funds to prepare for an IPO on the Nasdaq planned for 2027.
MDI Ventures is looking to sell the startup portfolio held by its debut fund. Three more secondaries buyers have expressed interest in MDI’s portfolio.
Malaysian SWF Khazanah has invested in Yinson GreenTech’s EV charging business, chargEV. The investment was made through Khazanah’s $1.36-billion Dana Impak programme.
Warburg Pincus, along with SK D&D and its subsidiary D&D Investment, will be investing in South Korea’s senior housing market.
Mekong Capital has picked a 13.74% stake in listed healthcare company TNH Hospital. The investment was made through Mekong Enterprise Fund IV.
Excelsior Capital Vietnam Partners has invested in local restaurant operator Aladdin.
LP-GP quarters
The global PE industry is in a consolidation phase rather than a growth phase, with tighter compliance regulations making global operations more complex, Partners Group‘s Urs Wietlisbach said in an interview.
The IFC is considering investing $75 million in ISQ Growth Markets Infrastructure Fund II, a $3 billion fund managed by I Squared Capital.
Vietnam’s Do Ventures has roped in former Pavilion Capital executive Archer Goh as General Partner. Goh was part of Temasek-owned Pavilion’s SE Asia investment team.
Consumer brands-focused Indian VC Fireside Ventures is on the road to raise its fourth fund. Fireside, known for backing unicorn Mamaearth, had raised $118 million for its second fund in January 2021.
Indian early-stage VC firm 3one4 Capital has fully returned capital from its first fund to its LPs, in around seven years from its final close, ahead of the typical eight-to-ten-year venture cycle. Darwinbox was among the standout performers from the portfolio—3one4 scored a 58.07x return from the unicorn. 3one4 plans to launch its next fund in 2026.
The latest edition of Beyond the Buyout, our weekly PE newsletter, dives into the decline in deal value in China in 2024 and its fallout across the region and the rise of thematic funds in India.
Analyses and interviews
Global and pan-Asian VCs investing in SE Asia closed just nine funds in 2024, down from 10 in 2023. Total capital raised also dipped marginally to $2.93 billion from $3.12 billion in the previous year. The contrast is even more significant if one considers the peak years of 2021 and 2022 when 20 and 14 funds closed, respectively. Tighter liquidity, economic headwinds, and a decline in investor confidence have been weighing on fundraising.
Steps to rein in costs—marketing expenses, operating expenses, product development expenditure, and general & administration costs—are paying off for GoTo, per this analysis on the group’s Q4 and full-year 2024 earnings. The Indonesian tech giant managed to narrow its annual losses by a significant 94% in 2024. This is despite the group’s annual GTV falling by 11% and revenue growing only by a modest 8% last year.
After nearly 25 years of deflation—when households preferred to stash their wealth in cash or low-yield bank deposits—Japan is now witnessing a shift to risk assets such as equities and mutual funds. Among those looking to expedite Japan’s shift from a country of savers to investors is LUCA Japan, a digital platform for alternative investments.
While Hong Kong acts as a bridge connecting Chinese liquidity to the international markets, the city needs to bring in more liquidity if it wants to become a global crypto hub. Meanwhile, there is competition from the US where the Trump administration has pushed several significant steps including the establishment of a crypto task force.
Around six major borrowers of Indonesian fintech firm Akseleran have defaulted on loans totaling over $11 million. Following the loan default, the board of directors and commissioners have decided to restrict co-founder Christopher Gultom’s powers. Akseleran has also halted all new ongoing financing on its website.
Techcoop‘s recent $70 million Series A is proof that, despite the recent scandal at eFishery, investors have not abandoned the agritech sector altogether. The Vietnamese startup’s successful fundraising is a sign that agritech startups can still command venture capital even though investors have set the bar higher.
