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Singapore dominates SEA fintech funding with $839m raised in 2025
Southeast Asia’s fintech startups raised US$839 million in the first nine months of 2025, down 39% year-on-year, according to Tracxn.
Seed-stage funding dropped 63% to US$62.3 million, while early-stage funding fell 66% to US$219 million. Late-stage funding stayed flat at US$558 million, unchanged from 2024 but 45% lower than 2023.
The region saw three funding rounds above US$100 million—Thunes, Airwallex, and Bolttech—while Antalpha and TCBS went public during the period.
Singapore accounted for 84% of all fintech funding in Southeast Asia, with Jakarta at 4%.
There were 13 acquisitions in the sector, a 43% drop from 2024, with KFin Technologies’ US$34.7 million acquisition of ASCENT as the largest deal.
Investor participation remained active, led by Iterative and 500 Global at seed stage, Peak XV Partners and OSK Ventures at early stage, and DST Global Partners at late stage.
🔗 Source: Tracxn
🧠 Food for thought
Implications, context, and why it matters.
Payments and infrastructure led late-stage funding. Lending and wealthtech lagged.
- Three $100M+ deals went to Thunes, Airwallex, and Bolttech 1. Each focuses on cross-border payments or embedded finance infrastructure (software and application programming interfaces (APIs) that let non-financial apps offer payments, insurance, or lending). Investors backed transaction volume with clearer profit paths over asset-heavy lending.
- Enterprise infrastructure funding across Southeast Asia tech jumped 621% year over year to $857 million 2.
- Seed funding fell 72% overall 2. FinTech seed dropped 63% per Tracxn’s FinTech 9M report, which leaves early consumer lending, wealthtech, and insurtech in a funding desert.
- Singapore took 84% of FinTech funding, near its 88% share of all Southeast Asia tech money 2. Capital concentration also skews to payments infrastructure.
Alternative financing can fill the venture debt gap for FinTech growth-stage companies
- Early-stage FinTech funding fell 66%. Series A teams from 2023 to 2024 face a bridge financing gap before late-stage readiness, which lifts demand for non-dilutive capital.
- Late-stage funding held at $558 million while seed and early collapsed. Revenue-based financing and venture debt can serve the mid-stage gap.
- Singapore expanded VC tax benefits 3, which draws alternative lenders to set up. Malaysia hit a multi-year high for IPOs 3, which supports venture debt.
- Only 13 FinTech acquisitions closed in 9M 2025 per Tracxn’s FinTech 9M report, down 43% year over year. Growth-stage teams need runway financing to reach IPO scale rather than wait for M&A.
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