About this episode

Kristie Neo discusses the structural challenges facing Southeast Asia's venture capital market and potential solutions to restart funding.

Southeast Asia's venture market is not in a downturn. It is in a structural winter, and mid-2026 is when that distinction stopped being academic. Kristie Neo returns to break down what is actually happening across the region: Singapore's IPO revival is real but is being carried by data centres and REITs rather than homegrown tech; allocators now rank Southeast Asia at the bottom of Asia behind China, India, Japan, Korea and ANZ; and a generation of growth-stage companies is being kept alive past the point where a merger or a wind-down would have served everyone better. Jeremy Au and Kristie also work through what could actually restart the funding ladder, from encouraging tech M&A and fixing university IP commercialisation, to tax incentives for angels and support for syndicate leads who can assemble the $1 million to $5 million rounds that Singapore currently cannot fill. If you are a founder raising in Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines, Thailand or Malaysia, or an LP trying to work out where capital goes next in Asia, this is the honest state of the market. Watch, listen or read the full insight at…

People in this episode

Host: Jeremy Au

Guest: Kristie Neo

Topics covered

• venture capital
• Southeast Asia
• funding challenges
• tech startups
• market analysis
• M&A
• investment strategies

Keywords

• zombie unicorns
• venture market
• funding ladder
• tech M&A
• university IP
• investment
• Southeast Asia startups

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Southeast Asia, Singapore, China, India, Japan, Korea, ANZ, REITs, M&A, IP

Places: Vietnam, Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia

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