A list of SEA’s soonicorns and their early backers (Updated)

This is the latest version of the article that was previously published on December 30, 2021.

Southeast Asia in 2021 saw 24 startups join the unicorn club, which refers to firms with a valuation of at least US$1 billion. This is the highest number of unicorns that the region has produced in a year – a feat it achieved despite the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. To put that figure into context, there were more Southeast Asian startups that entered the unicorn club in 2021 compared with the total number of new entrants in the seven years prior.

Right now, there are 15 startups across the region that are already lined up to join the exclusive list, with valuations hovering at above US$500 million already. Around half of these soon-to-be unicorns – or soonicorns – have valuations that are less than US$300 million away from reaching unicorn status, according to Tech in Asia‘s analysis.

These soonicorns come from various countries as well. However, as with the current list of unicorns in the region, most of these startups hail from Singapore and Indonesia.

See also: A list of SEA’s unicorns and their early investors

A lot of these soonicorns also share the same investors. Similar to Tech in Asia‘s list of Southeast Asian unicorns, the investors backing the most number of soonicorns are Sequoia Capital, Venturra Capital, East Ventures, and Jungle Ventures, among others.

About half of the region’s soonicorns appear in at least one of the portfolios of the VC firms listed below. So far, Venturra Capital has backed the most soonicorns in the region, with four investments in such startups.