Tokyo, March 7 -- Fundraising by Southeast Asian startups remained subdued last year, with more businesses forced to shut down operations or reduced to "zombie" companies surviving without fresh capital.
According to research by DealStreetAsia, the region's startups raised 1.16 billion USD in October-December 2025, slightly down from the same quarter a year earlier. For the full year, funding increased 18% to 5.4 billion USD, but that was still about a fourth of the level seen in the peak year of 2021.
Crunchbase data shows that global startup funding rose about 30% in 2025, highlighting that Southeast Asia has lagged in the recovery from what has been called a "funding winter".
Takahiro Suzuki, general partner at venture capital firm Ge...