Asia tech funding was down 52% in January 2020

 

ABOUT

Asia’s tech funding in January 2020 plunged by 52% compared to the same period in 2019. China saw massive cuts, with funding just 30% of the year before.

Southeast Asia is affected too, with Singapore and Indonesia falling out of the top five.

A bright spot is India, which saw 50% growth from the preceding year. The country no doubt has the second-most robust tech ecosystem after China.

While late-stage funding has been hit, early-stage funding has scaled down as well, indicating that the bubble may be bursting across both startups and mature tech firms.

WHY IT MATTERS

We might be seeing a severe reduction of dumb capital. Of course, one caveat is that it’s hard to extrapolate too much from one month’s worth of data.

But January’s trends seem to echo what we observed last quarter. Late-stage funding is down as a result of WeWork, and that could have knock-on effects on earlier-stage capital.

Investors have become more cautious and are preaching sustainable growth.

Is the novel coronavirus dampening dealmaking? Probably not in January, as deals reported in the media during that period had been sealed weeks earlier. We may get a better indication in the coming months.

SOURCE

Data: Tech in Asia
Infographics: Susi Susanti
Analysis: Terence Lee and Queena Wadyanti. Editing: Eileen C. Ang