Number of ecommerce deals fall behind fintech in Southeast Asia

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Ecommerce in Southeast Asia continues to attract investors, though there’s been a noticeable slowdown in the number of deals, while fintech is picking up smartly.

According to the Tech in Asia database, capital worth US$123.2 million flowed into ecommerce across 9 deals in the last quarter of 2016. That’s down from 21 deals in the same time span the year before.

Looking back on the entire year 2016, ecommerce attracted a total of 56 investments. For the first time, fintech overtook its older sister ecommerce with a total of 73 deals.

Still the most capital-intensive sector

Despite the lower number of deals, the amount of capital flowing into ecommerce remained higher than in other sectors, totaling US$420.9 million that year. Fintech, by comparison, only saw US$194.6 million in capital.

In 2015, ecommerce led both in terms of the number of deals as well as total amount raised, with USS$734.61 million across 84 deals, while fintech pocketed US$126.63 million across 60.

Later-stage ecommerce is in a tough spot

Of the total of 56 ecommerce deals in 2016, we recorded 20 seed rounds and 12 series A rounds, with only 5 series Bs and one C round.

It’s the same pattern as in 2015, where ecommerce funding also tended to be early stage, with 38 seed rounds and 23 series A rounds.

It’s mostly young companies who get funded, while money doesn’t come as easy for more mature companies looking to raise bigger follow-on rounds.

This correlates with an observation made by Stefan Jung of venture capital firm Venturra, who concluded that Southeast Asia lacks series B and later-stage investors who can write bigger checks for companies in this category.

Quarterly trends