Asia’s climate-health crisis is no longer a looming threat; it’s a lived reality. As the region grapples with record-breaking heatwaves, floods, and rising disease burdens, the intersection between planetary and human health has become impossible to ignore. Yet, as the Unlocking Capital for Climate x Health report highlights, the financial response remains perilously out of sync with the scale of the problem.
The data is damning: while trillions flow into global climate finance, a mere 0.5 per cent supports health adaptation. The imbalance between mitigation and adaptation reveals a dangerous blind spot–one that leaves communities unprotected against the very impacts already unfolding.
To bridge this divide, Asia needs a reimagined investment framework that places health resilience at the centre of climate strategy. This means mobilising catalytic capital, incentivising private participation, and building blended-finance models that can unlock systemic change. The rise of innovations–from AI-driven disease monitoring to cooling solutions–shows promise, but these require patient capital to reach scale.
Ultimately, Asia’s ability to withstand the climate era depends not just on cutting emissions, but on fortifying human systems. Health must move from the sidelines of climate finance to its beating heart, where lives and livelihoods truly intersect.
REGIONAL
Iterative tops Southeast Asia VC rounds as startups raise US$1.4B:
VC investment in the regional startups hit US$1.4B in over 110 rounds in 2025, according to Tracxn. More than 200 VC firms participated, with Iterative leading 14 rounds, surpassing Antler as the region’s most active investor.
Qapita secures US$26.5M Series B, enters US with Schwab partnership: The Singaporean fintech firm builds digital infrastructure for private markets across Asia and beyond. Its full-stack digital platform and service offerings seek to transform how ownership is managed, reported, and unlocked in private market ecosystems.
SGInnovate backs Vycarb’s US$5M seed round to accelerate water-based carbon capture: Vycarb aims to accelerate commercialisation and expand its deployments globally, positioning its water-based CCS system as a critical enabler of industrial decarbonisation and a meaningful step toward a low-carbon future.
HSBC launches cross-border tokenised deposit service in Singapore: The service enables real-time, 24/7 settlement and was used by Ant for instant SGD and USD payments between corporate wallets at HSBC Singapore. In September, HSBC completed its first USD cross-border digital token transaction for Ant between Hong Kong and Singapore.
Green GSM to deploy 2,000 EVs in Philippines with local partner: It will supply the vehicles to AMRC Renewable Corporation/Xentro Motors, with the first 1,000 units already secured and the remaining to be delivered over two years. Xentro plans to use its nationwide network for pick-up zones, EV charging stations, and parking areas.
REPORTS, FEATURES & INTERVIEWS
Asia’s climate-health crisis deepens amid massive funding gaps: As per an AVPN study, climate-driven disasters resulted in US$253B in damages globally in 2021 alone, largely uninsured in low-income regions, and 470B work hours were lost due to heat-related impacts.
Transparency, accuracy and validation key to building Singapore consumers’ trust in AI agents: According to Salesforce’s latest Connected Financial Services report, 65 per cent of Singapore consumers somewhat trust AI agents in financial services, yet only 12 per cent express full confidence. 60 per cent expect AI to play a more significant role in financial services than in other industries.
Report: AI adoption fuels record growth in Singapore’s digital economy: The Singapore Digital Economy Report 2025 highlights a striking surge in AI adoption across both firms and workers in 2024. Among non-SMEs, AI adoption jumped from 44 per cent in 2023 to 62.5 per cent in 2024.
The illusion of intelligence: Why LLMs are not the thinking machines we hope for: LLMs like GPT-4 are trained on trillions of words and can generate human-like text in response to prompts. Their outputs are fluent, coherent, and at times insightful. But this is not intelligence. It is sophisticated pattern completion.
INTERNATIONAL
AI expert Yao Shunyu leaves Anthropic over anti-China stance: Yao Shunyu’s move comes as Anthropic’s position on China aligns with a broader trend among US AI firms, while DeepMind’s leadership has advocated for US-China collaboration in AI safety.
Bank of England warns of market risk from AI bubble: Its financial policy committee said equity market valuations, especially for AI-focused firms, appear stretched and could be exposed if optimism around AI dims. OpenAI’s value jumped from US$157B last October to US$500B, while Anthropic soared from US$60B in March to US$170B last month.
Musk’s xAI team reportedly worked on adult content for Grok: Grok drew criticism after launching avatars that users flagged for generating sexually explicit, not safe for work content. The company is said to have recruited workers willing to review semi-pornographic scripts and those with experience in adult content.
India’s NPCI tests ChatGPT payments with Razorpay: The new service, still in testing, lets users make purchases on ChatGPT using Unified Payments Interface (UPI), India’s digital payments network. The pilot will assess if UPI can be used to let AI agents handle payments for users while maintaining security and user control.
Citi backs stablecoin firm as US banks expand into digital assets: BVNK provides payment tech that enables businesses to transact using stablecoins. The move comes as US regulation for digital assets becomes more defined, with the recent passage of the GENIUS Act aimed at regulating stablecoins.
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ECHELON
From bean to breakthrough: Chocolate Finance’s recipe for resilience: Today, Chocolate Finance reports a steady return of customers, drawn by consistent yields and a reputation for reliability. Walter Oude, founder and CEO of Chocolate Finance, shared the company’s journey of resilience in the face of early challenges.
SEMICONDUCTOR
Chinese subsidiaries of US chip firm face sanctions over Iran ties: The US government has sanctioned over two dozen companies in China, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates, including subsidiaries of US chip distributor Arrow Electronics, for allegedly supplying technology to Iran’s military or its proxies.
US approves some Nvidia chip exports to UAE: The approval follows an Emirati commitment to invest a matching amount in the US, with plans to invest US$1.4T over the next ten years. The initial batch of licenses does not cover G42, an AI firm from the UAE working with OpenAI, though a fifth of future shipments may go to them.
Chinese chip designer VeriSilicon’s Q3 revenue up 120 per cent on AI demand: The company said orders related to AI computing made up 65 per cent of new orders in Q3, with new order volume up 146 per cent year-on-year to nearly US$220M. VeriSilicon offers custom chip design and semiconductor IP licensing services.
AI
AI for everyone: 25 tools to automate, create, and innovate: Lovable simplifies app and website building. It’s like telling a robot what you want, and it builds the website for you. On the other hand, Napkin.ai simplifies idea mapping. You type an idea, and it draws the flowchart for you.
‘AI sees deep into your business, not just the surface’: NetSuite’s Evan Goldberg: “Transactions are the ‘atomic unit of business’,” he said, giving AI a clean, consistent starting point. “AI doesn’t just guess; it starts from the source because your data is unified. AI understands your full context… it sees deep into your business, not just the surface,”
How voice AI is revolutionising the fintech scene
Conversational technology offers the possibility of interactions that are more valuable, simple, intuitive and personalised for the customer, thanks to the data collection and analysis required for conversations.
Operational AI: The silent, yet, strategic revolution shaping modern business: Renowned for its capability to craft content, spanning images, text, and even music, akin to human-generated creations, Generative AI is exemplified by technologies such as OpenAI’s GPT-3, adept at generating human-like text, and DALL-E.
AI won’t replace influence — it will amplify it: The world of influence has changed more in the last two years than in the last two decades. Speakers, creators, and founders are no longer just voices; we’re systems. And those systems now run on AI.
THOUGHT LEADERSHIP
The real story behind AI project implementation: Why it’s not (just) about technology: There’s a cruel irony in many AI initiatives: the executives demanding “AI transformation NOW!” are often the furthest from the daily operational inefficiencies that AI could actually provide the best value.
Low-altitude economy hubs in the Indian Ocean: Nairobi, Madagascar, and Sri Lanka: In Nairobi, investors should focus on expansion county corridors, integrated e-commerce and health supply chains, and regulatory sandboxes for new payload types. Madagascar, on the other hand, focuses on heavy-lift airship cargo.
Scaling business growth and efficiency with embedded payments: Instead of managing the relationship and integration with the payments providers themselves, SMEs are now ready to use embedded payment services by their platforms – integrating payments into their full business process.
How travel apps are stirring up wanderlust among youngsters in Asia: It can be said that allowing young people to freely decide whether to travel freely or travel alone is a big contribution from convenient travel apps. Travel apps solve everything you need when travelling, and that’s why it’s more and more popular among young people.
Bridging the financial inclusion gap in Asia: The role of fintech: If fintechs are going to develop solutions that will help to narrow the bankable gap, they need to understand and meet the unique needs of Asian consumers and the commercial landscape more broadly. It also requires fintechs to be alive to the mega trends facing the region.
The future of payments is frictionless, orchestrated and agentic: A frictionless experience is one where the checkout anticipates user needs, where biometrics replace forgotten passwords, where currencies and taxes are handled seamlessly in the background, and where compliance doesn’t interrupt the flow but is embedded naturally into the journey.
Southeast Asia’s fintech can help set the standard for gender inclusion: The region makes for a promising case in female inclusion because its fintech ecosystem is still young. Unlike the more mature markets, there is still room to shape the rules of the game, set new norms.
The post Ecosystem Roundup: Asia’s climate-health crisis deepens as funding lags | SEA tech VC hits US$1.4B | Qapita raises US$26.5M Series B appeared first on e27.