How Fintech, DeFi and Applied AI Are Shaping Southeast Asia’s Next Venture Wave

Southeast Asia’s startup scene did not rebound in 2025; instead, it underwent a reorganization.

After years of capital chasing super‑app ambitions, consumer land grabs and speculative technology narratives, the region’s venture ecosystem has settled into a more sober phase. Funding has stabilised at a lower base, and investors now seek businesses that can demonstrate commercial urgency, cleaner unit economics and a shorter path from product to revenue.

“What we’re seeing at this point is stabilisation rather than a rebound,” said Minette Navarrete, President and Managing Partner of Kickstart Ventures, in the Southeast Asia Startup Funding Report 2025 by DealStreetAsia and Kickstart Ventures.

That distinction matters. A rebound would imply a return to the easy‑money cycle that defined much of the 2010s and the pandemic‑era boom. Stabilisation signals something different: a market learning to operate without excess liquidity. The outcome is a sharper sector‑by‑sector sorting of winners, with fintech, applied AI and defensible commerce models emerging as the clearest signs of where capital still holds conviction.

Fintech finds its floor

Fintech remained Southeast Asia’s most active and heavily funded startup vertical in 2025, even as overall activity reflected a cooler market. The sector raised US$1.3 billion across 111 equity deals—one of its quietest performances in six years. Yet the slowdown appears to be easing, suggesting fintech has found a workable funding floor.

This resilience is unsurprising. Financial services across Southeast Asia remain fragmented, underpenetrated and unevenly digitised. In markets such as Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines, large populations are still transitioning from cash‑based transactions to digital banking, payments, investments and insurance.

In Singapore, meanwhile, fintech has become more institutional, closely linked to wealth management, capital‑markets infrastructure and digital‑asset regulation.

The standout category was wealthtech, which recorded 39 deals worth US$375 million. Its growth reflects both demographic and market realities: a expanding middle class, higher mobile adoption and rising demand for digital investment products beyond basic payments.

Several of the year’s largest fintech rounds reinforced this shift. Cross‑border payments firm Thunes secured a US$150 million Series D round, valuing the company at US$1.42 billion. Digital wealth platform Endowus raised US$87.5 million, while Syfe collected US$53 million. Digital‑asset banking group Sygnum also closed an oversubscribed US$58 million strategic growth round.

These deals show that investors are not abandoning fintech. They are moving away from loosely defined financial‑inclusion narratives toward infrastructure, wealth platforms and regulated digital‑asset services that can serve both consumers and institutions.

DeFi moves inside the system

Perhaps the most notable change is how decentralised finance, or DeFi, has shifted from crypto speculation into mainstream financial plumbing.

In 2025, DeFi‑focused models accounted for 39.6 percent of all fintech equity deal volume—44 deals—and 29.6 percent of total fintech deal value, with US$380 million raised. This marks a significant maturation from the pre‑2021 period, when blockchain startups in the region were often viewed as high‑risk bets tied to token‑trading cycles.

The newer wave is more pragmatic. Blockchain infrastructure is being applied to lending, cross‑border settlement, custody and tokenisation—the process of representing real‑world assets such as funds, bonds or private equity on digital ledgers. In theory, tokenisation can cut settlement time, improve transparency and make some assets easier to access or trade. In practice, it only works if regulators and institutions trust the system.

That is why compliance has become central to the next phase of digital assets. “Trust is paramount — this is why we continue to operate with full regulatory compliance across all regions,” said Mathias Imbach, Co‑founder and Group CEO of Sygnum.

Sygnum’s work on tokenised money‑market and private‑equity funds with global names such as Fidelity International and Hamilton Lane illustrates how the sector is evolving. The goal is no longer to build parallel financial systems outside regulation, but to use blockchain architecture to remove inefficiencies within existing capital markets.

For Southeast Asia, this is especially relevant. The region has long struggled with fragmented payment rails, varying regulatory regimes and cross‑border settlement frictions. If digital‑asset infrastructure can ease those bottlenecks without increasing systemic risk, DeFi’s next chapter may look far more institutional than ideological.

AI grows up, painfully

Artificial intelligence underwent a similar reset.

The data‑analytics and AI/machine‑learning category recorded just 20 deals in 2025, with total funding of US$214 million. On the surface, that looks like a sharp fall from the excitement that followed the rise of generative AI. Yet it also signals a more disciplined market.

Investors are no longer rushing to fund expensive attempts to build foundation models, which demand enormous capital, specialised talent and computing power. Instead, money is flowing into applied AI: agents, document processing, customer‑service automation and enterprise software that can quickly reduce costs.

The year’s notable AI‑linked deals included Whale’s US$60 million Series C and Video Rebirth’s US$50 million transaction. Other funded companies were fileAI, which raised US$14 million for document processing; Pollo AI, which secured US$14 million for generative tools; and WIZ.AI, which raised US$12 million for conversational automation.

The common thread is immediate business utility. AI is being judged less by how futuristic it sounds and more by whether it can shorten workflows, improve service quality or protect margins.

This aligns with the mindset of Southeast Asian conglomerates, which remain important customers, partners and investors for startups. Carl Cruz, President and CEO of Globe, said inflation and shifting consumer behaviour have pushed large companies to optimise capital expenditure and prioritise technologies that “move the needle”. For Globe, that means embedding AI into customer engagement and network operations rather than treating it as a side experiment.

Cezar Consing, President and CEO of Ayala Corporation, likewise identified AI, fintech and renewable energy as strategic priorities. His comment that “the big bucks go to the mature platforms” captures the broader investor mindset: in this market, technology must attach itself to clear corporate needs.

E‑commerce splits in two

E‑commerce, once the region’s favourite consumer‑internet story, shows the harshest version of this reset.

Deal flow fell to a historic low of 26 transactions in 2025, largely because early‑stage funding dried up. Investors are wary of new platform models that require heavy spending on subsidies, logistics and customer acquisition before profitability becomes visible.

Yet e‑commerce was not written off entirely. Instead, capital clustered around a small group of scaled, de‑risked companies. Six late‑stage deals accounted for most of the vertical’s US$472 million in funding value.

Malaysia’s Ashita Group reached unicorn status after raising US$155 million in growth equity. Singapore‑based Carro secured US$60 million for its automotive transaction platform. Indonesia’s ASTRO raised US$51.9 million, while SIRCLO secured US$38.3 million to support e‑commerce tools for merchants and brands. Vietnam’s Coolmate raised US$22.3 million, showing that vertically integrated consumer brands with stronger economics can still attract capital.

The lesson is clear: generic consumer marketplaces are out of favour, but B2B and B2B2C models remain investable when they offer transparency, repeat transactions and clearer monetisation.

The new regional playbook

Across sectors, Southeast Asia’s 2025 funding pattern points to the same conclusion: capital is still available, but not for growth at any cost.

SaaS, B2B workflows, regulated fintech infrastructure and applied automation are benefiting because they promise predictable revenue and lower customer‑acquisition burdens. Startups are also placing more value on strategic investors that can open doors to procurement channels, regulated industries and overseas markets.

Logan Tan, Co‑founder and CEO of Eezee, summed up the lesson bluntly: “The collapse of several highly funded unicorns here is proof that raising large sums to chase hypergrowth without solid fundamentals is unsustainable.”

That is the region’s new venture reality. Southeast Asia is not short of opportunity. It is short of patience for weak business models. The startups best placed for the next cycle will be those that can sell into real pain points, survive slower fundraising windows and grow without depending on perpetual subsidy.

The reset may feel uncomfortable. But for an ecosystem built across diverse, fragmented and often difficult markets, this discipline could become a strength.

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