Singapore tech startup ecosystem secured total funding of $397 million in the third quarter of 2024, which is a 26 percent decline from $536 million raised in the corresponding quarter last year, Tracxn said Monday.
The global software as a service (SaaS)-based market intelligence platform said in a statement that quarter on quarter showed the funding rose 9 percent from $363.6 million in the second quarter.
Overall, in Asia, Singapore’s tech startup ecosystem ranks fourth after China, India and Israel based on all-time funding to date.
Singapore witnessed its peak startup funding in the third quarter of 2021 ($4.1 billion), after which a downward trend was observed.
The decline can be attributed to a notable shift in investor interest due to global economic challenges, including macroeconomic conditions and geo-political issues.
According to Tracxn, late-stage funding in the country rose 48 percent to $80 million in the third quarter of 2024, from $53.9 million raised in the second quarter.
Early-stage investments worth $237 million were recorded in the third quarter of 2024, an 8 percent drop compared with $258 million raised in the second quarter.
Seed-stage funding, too, grew 56.5 percent to $80.3 million in the third quarter of 2024 from $51.3 million raised in the second quarter.
The funding was driven by small-ticket rounds, due to the lack of $100 million+ rounds in the third quarter of 2024.
Further, no new unicorns emerged during the period, similar to the scenario in the third quarter of 2023.
FinTech, enterprise applications, and retail were the top-performing sectors for the country in the third quarter of 2024.
FinTech companies raised a total of $208 million in funding in the third quarter of 2024, a 10 percent drop from $231 million raised in the third quarter of 2023.
Funding garnered by the Enterprise applications segment rose 55 percent to $157 million in the third quarter of 2024 from $101 million a year ago.
The retail sector raised a total of $97 million in the third quarter of 2024, a surge of 229 percent from $29.5 million in the corresponding quarter last year.
The number of acquisitions was mostly unchanged, with a minor drop to 13 in the third quarter of 2024 from 14 a year ago.
However, this is an upward move from six acquisitions in the second quarter of 2024.
It is noted that PropertyGuru was acquired by EQT for $1.1 billion, in the third quarter of 2024.
Only two Singapore tech startups have gone public this year so far, one each in the first quarter and second quarter of 2024.
The third quarter of the year did not witness any initial public offerings (IPOs) from Singapore’s startup landscape.
Wavemaker Partners, Antler and Entrepreneur First were the all-time top investors observed in the third quarter of 2024, while Antler, Orbit Startups, and East Ventures took the lead in seed-stage investments, while Peak XV Partners, SEEDS Capital, and Temasek were the top early-stage investors.
Tracxn : SEA tech startups funding plunges 59 percent in first nine months of 2024