The 10th edition of DealStreetAsia’s flagship Asia PE-VC Summit is taking place in Singapore on Sept 10-11.
We have put together 30+ sessions across 5 different summit tracks, featuring 120+ top speakers who represent the region’s active LPs, PE and VC fund managers, entrepreneurs, and leaders.
The Limited Partners Summit and the Private Equity and Investment Summit track will touch upon core geographies, strategies, appetite for secondaries, private credit, infrastructure and more.
This year’s edition marks the launch of a focused track on AI and Deep Tech, which is at an inflection point across Asia. The Climate Tech and ESG Summit track will focus on sustainability-based investing, balancing impact with returns, energy transition and cross-border collaboration. The Venture Capital and Founders Summit will focus on deployment strategies, fundraising and exits, business pivots, and profitability metrics, and more.
Moving on to the headlines that dominated last week.
LP-GP news
Private equity fundraising by Southeast Asia-focused funds slowed in the first half of 2025, even as global and pan-Asian funds with minority allocations to the region continued to attract sizeable commitments, per DealStreetAsia’s latest report, Southeast Asia Private Equity Funds: H2 2024 Review.
Impact investing in Asia continues to trail other regions, held back by the poor quality of data science, multiple frameworks, and less-than-straightforward measurement standards over long time spans. “Reporting returns is straightforward—just one number—but reporting impact is far more complex,” Bryan Goh, CEO and CIO of Tsao Family Office, said in an interview.
ZQ Capital is nearing the final close of its first blind-pool fund, aiming for a hard cap of $300 million to invest in developed-market companies with potential upside by leveraging value from Asia.
Peak XV Partners has seen another senior-level exit, with managing director Harshjit Sethi stepping down after a decade at the firm. His departure adds to a series of senior-level exits from Peak XV in the past two years.
Venturi Partners has announced raising $150 million in the first close of its second fund. Fund II will invest in about 10 companies across India and Southeast Asia.
Deal scoops
Travel ticketing platform GlobalTix is said to have secured fresh funding. The company previously raised S$6.5 million in its Series B funding round last October, anchored by Tin Men Capital.
Sunho Biotech Group Ltd, a Chinese clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, has acquired a Singapore-based company specialising in organic waste management. The deal strengthens Sunho Biotech’s presence in Southeast Asia’s environmental technology sector.
Singapore’s Temasek is in advanced talks to invest in an Indian space technology company as investors double down on new space technologies and India makes rapid strides in the sector.
Singapore-based direct-to-consumer brand creator Dachin Etech Global has secured $16.7 million in funding through the issuance of preference shares.
Hyderabad-based oncology chain Omega Hospitals, backed by a fund managed by Morgan Stanley Private Equity Asia, is in talks to acquire a majority stake in a smaller rival as part of its strategy to deepen its presence in southern India.
Bangkok-based full-stack insurtech firm Sunday Ins Holdings is said to be finalising a new financing round. The potential fundraising comes as Sunday looks to consolidate its position in Southeast Asia’s insurtech market.
Earnings and financials
Singapore-based Coda Payments, which operates in-game content marketplace Codashop and payments platform Codapay and its subsidiaries, reported a narrower loss for the year ended December 31, 2024. Coda’s top shareholders include Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC, Apis Partners, Insight Partners, and GMO Venture Partners.
Indonesian digital identity startup VIDA’s revenue plunged sharply in the financial year ended March 31, 2024, while losses continued to widen amid the company’s ongoing investments in business expansion. The firm’s last announced funding was in May 2022, raising at least $47.67 million in a Series A round led by Hedosophia.
M&A and funding updates
Japan’s Gakken Holdings and Vietnam’s ABB have acquired a 54.5% majority stake in Hanoi-based Quang Ich Technology Group, which provides learning management systems to schools in Vietnam.
A.P. Moller Capital has invested in ALS Cargo Terminal, a logistics operator at Hanoi’s Noi Bai International Airport, through its Emerging Markets Infrastructure Fund II.
KKR has acquired South Korean cosmetics packaging maker Samhwa from TPG at a $528 million valuation. TPG, which invested in 2023, is exiting after helping the family-owned firm transform into a premium-focused supplier.
Smart mobility startup RushOwl has raised $10 million in a Series A funding round led by Gobi Partners as the ride-sharing startup looks to scale its AI-driven shuttle network across Asia and ready its fleet technology for vehicles.
Shanghai-based Lightelligence has raised over $210 million in a Series C round of financing to fuel the commercialisation of its optical computing solutions.
Quick commerce platform FirstClub has raised $23 million in a Series A round led by returning investors Accel and RTP Global.
Analyses and deep dives
Geopolitical conflicts have created a global demand for cheaper, autonomous defence systems, and India is responding with a surge of homegrown startups. Early-stage funds are also emerging for aerospace and deep tech startups. However, questions over exit pathways remain for these startups.
Hong Kong’s biotech ambitions are gaining momentum through government initiatives like InnoHK and growing university spinoffs, but rigid licensing policies are holding startups back. Without stronger access to exclusive IP rights, many promising biotech innovations risk stalling before they can scale.
