Southeast Asia (SEA) tech startups funding plunge 59 percent in the first nine months of 2024 amid global challenges, a report said Friday.
Tracxn, a global software as a service (SaaS)-based market intelligence platform, said in latest report that 2024 has been a difficult year for SEA tech startups, with the ongoing funding winter, geopolitical headwinds, and global economic challenges.
The SEA Tech space secured $2.3 billion in funding in the first nine months of 2024, less than half of the $5.7 billion raised in the same period in 2023.
This is also an 80 percent plummet from the $11.6 billion raised by SEA-based tech startups in the first nine months of 2022.
SEA’s tech startup ecosystem witnessed early-stage investments worth $1.2 billion in the first nine months of 2024, a 30 percent decline from $1.7 billion raised in the first nine months of 2023.
Late-stage funding in the first three quarters of this year tumbled 79 percent to $721 million, from $3.4 billion in the same period in 2023.
Seed-stage funding stood at $341 million in the first nine months of 2024, a 39 percent fall from $561 million raised a year earlier.
Only two $100M+ rounds were observed in the first nine months of 2024, lower than nine in the same period in 2023.
Ascend Money raised $195 million in a Series D round from Krungsri Finnovate, while ANEXT Bank raised $148 million in a Series D round from Ant Group.
FinTech, Enterprise Applications and Retail were the top-performing sectors in 2024 so far.
The FinTech sector secured total funding of $1.34 billion in the first nine months of 2024, a drop of 11 percent compared with $1.51 billion raised in the same period in 2023.
Companies in the Enterprise Applications segment raised a total of $606 million in funding in the first nine months of 2024, a decline of 30 percent from the $869 million garnered during the same period in 2023.
Retail companies received a total funding of $247 million in first nine months of 2024, a 91 percent decline from $2.82 billion raised a year ago.
The number of acquisitions observed in the entire ecosystem was 58 in the first nine months of 2024, similar to 57 recorded a year ago, but far lower than 79 in the first nine months of 2022.
Singlife was acquired by Sumitomo Life Insurance Company at a valuation of $3.5 billion, while PropertyGuru was acquired by EQT for an acquisition price of $1.1 billion.
The SEA tech startup landscape has witnessed four intiail public offerings (IPOs) in 2024 so far, as against ten and two in the first nine months of 2023 and 2022, respectively.
GoHub, MaNaDr, RYDE, and Topindoku are the four companies from this space that have gone public in 2024 so far.
Singapore retained its top position in terms of city-wise funding, with the city’s tech startups attracting investments worth $1.4 billion in 9M 2024.
Tech startups based in Jakarta and Bangkok raised $313 million and $265 million, respectively.
East Ventures, 500 Global and Wavemaker Partners are the all-time top investors in the SEA Tech space to date.
Antler, 500 Global and East Ventures were the lead investors in seed-stage rounds in 9M 2024, while SEEDS Capital, Peak XV Partners and Gobi Partners were the most active early-stage investors.
MUFG Innovation Partners and NewView Capital were the leading investors in terms of late-stage investments in the first nine months of this year.
Though a downward trend has been observed in startup funding in the region, the sector continues to be active, according to the report.
SEA’s tech startup landscape has raised more than $85 billion to date, and is home to 44 active unicorns, underscoring its potential for future growth.