Using insights from Tech in Asia's database, this report delves into how tech venture investment is doing in Southeast Asia, and where it might go to next.

1. Q1 2017
State of tech venture
investments in
Southeast Asia
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2. About this report
Tech in Asia tracks tech venture funding across Asia. Our data, comprising over 37,000 companies, goes back
to 2012.
This quarterly report looks at the most recent developments in Southeast Asia’s tech scene in terms of
funding activity - and how it fits into the bigger picture.
In this report, Southeast Asia encompasses the following countries: Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia,
Thailand, Vietnam, and Philippines.
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3. Key takeaways
Southeast Asia’s bleak streak continues in the first quarter of 2017. The number of investment deals as
well as the total amount put into startups continues to decline. It’s a trend that started in 2016 as tech
company valuations in Silicon Valley and India deflated, causing investors to scale back their optimism.
While 2017 is off to a rough start, it could still rebound as investors and governments continue to put
money into startups and startup-related initiatives. While fintech may carry the hype, we may see new
investment themes emerge once venture capitalists identify the next gold mine after ecommerce.
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4. Total deal volume from seed to series C
● Number of deals hits a 4-year low
and is back at 2014 levels.
● However, compared to 2014, the
mean deal value is still much
stronger.
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5. No. of early stage deals
● Number of seed stage deals in Q1
has more than halved from its
2015 peak.
● Series A funding saw two weak
quarters, bringing it back to 2014
levels.
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6. No. of late stage deals
● Exits peaked in 2015.
● No clear pattern for series B
funding and above.
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7. Page 7 of 31
“2016 was a reality check year for
everyone, but the strongest 10 to 15
percent of deals will still be funded.
Overall, it was a slow year for most sectors
so revenues are hit with same or more
marketing spend. Because of that and the
correction in India, Japan, and Korea,
investors are more cautious, hence
lengthening fund raising cycles. It kinda
brought the ecosystem through a quick gut
check and regrouping.”
Jeffrey Paine
Managing partner
Venture capitalists speak: reality check
“The downward funding trend in
Southeast Asia in general may be caused
by the market valuation adjustment from
Silicon Valley that we all saw at the
beginning of 2016. At the same time, this
circumstance marked the start of a more
rational market that motivated investors
to be more selective with their funding
decisions.”
Sebastian Togelang
Founding partner

8. Median seed stage funding amounts
● Median seed stage funding rounds
have increased in value
consistently.
● Remains to be seen of larger seed
rounds lead to more success for
startups.
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Year/quarter Median (US$)
2017/1 578,000
2016/4 888,000
2016/3 300,000
2016/2 498,000
2016/1 415,000
2015/4 710,000
2015/3 366,000
2015/2 119,500
2015/1 385,000

9. No. of seed to series C deals by country
● Singapore is experiencing a
decline in number of funding
deals.
● Indonesia seems stable.
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10. No. of seed to series C deals by country
● Malaysia’s number of deals
seems to have stabilized after
peaking in 2015.
● No clear pattern observed in
Vietnam.
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11. No. of seed to series C deals by country
● Rate of investments appear
unchanged for Thailand and the
Philippines.
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12. No. of seed to series C deals by country
● Singapore, Indonesia, and
Malaysia form the most active
funding markets, in that order.
● Q1 saw the least contributions
from countries other than
Singapore and Indonesia.
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13. Total value (US$m) of seed to series C deals by country
● Singapore saw a consistent
decline in total deal value in
2016.
● Indonesia remains consistent.
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14. Total value (US$m) of seed to series C deals by country
● Malaysia is seeing a sharp spike.
However it’s largely due to one
startup (Netflix competitor iFlix).
● The drastic changes from quarter
to quarter are caused by startups
not disclosing how much they’ve
raised, resulting in incomplete
data.
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15. Total value (US$m) of seed to series C deals by country
● Thailand saw a strong 2016.
● The drastic changes from quarter
to quarter are due to startups not
disclosing how much they’ve
raised, resulting in incomplete
data.
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16. Total value (US$m) of seed to series C deals by country
● Since 2016, Singapore has no
longer been dominating funding
rounds in terms of deal value.
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17. Page 17 of 31
The downward trend is to be expected in the next
quarter as the investment scene is looking for the
next flavour of the season. Fintech (payments),
marketplaces, SaaS, Uber-like startups are all
seeing possible consolidation in Asia. VCs at Series
A and beyond also have too many such portfolio
companies and see no need to invest further in the
same verticals.
It is not a matter of lack of funds from VCs. There
are is still a lot of funds available and even more
expected with the opening of new funds across
Southeast Asia. In Singapore, the new Monetary
Authority of Singapore regulations which reduces
the requirement to be a VC will likely see more
funds flowing in. The consolidation of the new SG
Startup funding grants scheme by SPRING
Singapore will likely push out another few seed
and Series A investments.
VCs speak: prospects for 2017
Once there is clarity in the investment scene (as to
which verticals are hot), you will find that the funding
dealflow will pick up across seed and series A stages in
the later part of the year to early 2018. Investment will
not likely be affected by external economic factors as
Southeast Asia is still a very nascent and large
opportunity.
A clue on possible sectors that’ll become hot is to
understand what Southeast Asia and Asia in general are
in dire need of disrupting. Media, agricultural,
infrastructural, energy, and smart cities are likely the
next themes.
Christopher Quek
Managing partner

18. Page 18 of 31
B2B startups will stay strong, fintech is just
breaking out, and consumer-facing companies will
start to return.
Traditional businesses are still a strong foundation
for regional growth. They are now starting to
understand what technology can do for them.
Learning and experimenting, as well as business
spend in IT will continue to grow well in the next 5
to 10 years.
Looking at the last five years, 70 percent of the top
Southeast Asian startups are still in B2C. With the
growth of the region, increased mobile data usage,
entertainment on mobile will return with a force,
whether it’s music, videos, games or apps.
Jeffrey Paine
VCs speak: prospects for 2017
Fintech is still getting the most investments as it
grows quite significantly. Other sector that might
have a good interest including healthtech,
edutech, or more traditional sector that’s moving
online. Big data, IoT and other emerging
technologies are also candidates for seed
investment.
I believe companies with a strong revenue and
cashflow model will generate more interest from
investors as they will offer a better liquidity than
startups that focus on building a pure assets or
technologies.
Andi Boediman
Managing partner

19. Methodology
The Tech in Asia database comprises more than 37,000 tech ventures, with a focus on Southeast Asia, India, and China.
It grows daily. We scan international and local news, database entries, startup and VC firms’ websites for updates.
The report only includes funding deals from seed to series C as late stage rounds are usually in the hundreds of millions
of dollars. If included in the charts, they prevent viewers from observing the health of the startup ecosystem. Also,
most startup funding rounds occur below the series D stage.
Funding round stages are labelled based on what the startup or press coverage discloses. Rounds that don’t disclose
the stage are classified “seed” if below US$1m, and “undisclosed” if above US$1m.
● Page 4: Total deal value only includes funding rounds with disclosed deal values and disclosed funding stages.
● Pages 6, 9 to 16: Excludes rounds which did not explicitly state which round it belongs to. Includes
crowdfunding and grants.
● Page 7: Other rounds do not have sufficient sample sizes to draw good median values.
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Limitations
This report represents Tech in Asia’s best efforts at collecting and presenting data on the tech ecosystem. However,
there are limitations that we hope to address in future reports.
For example, some startups choose not disclose their fundraising activity, which means they do not factor into this
report. Startups often do not reveal the amount of funds raised nor the stage of a particular funding round.
Because of these reasons, our data for each market varies in completeness. Nonetheless, we believe this report
contains enough data to act as a guide.

21. Let’s work together
If you find the data in this report incomplete in some way, and if you possess information that could help make our
future efforts more complete, we’d love to work with you.
If you own a startup or have invested in a startup, search for it on our website. If there’s missing funding data, contact
the research team at data@techinasia.com to let her know what information is missing.
You can create a company profile here if your company’s missing from Tech in Asia.
We’d also love to explore a partnership if your organization publishes its own white papers or research reports, or if
you’re looking to license our data Contact us to start a conversation.
For media inquiries, reach out to editors@techinasia.com.
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22. About Tech in Asia
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Tech in Asia is a media, events, and jobs platform on a mission to build and serve Asia’s tech and startup community.
Tech in Asia counts East Ventures, Fenox Ventures, Marvelstone, Softbank, Walden International, Y Combinator, and
Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin amongst its list of investors.