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The next customer for a software company may not be a person scrolling through a pricing page. It may be an AI coding agent, asked by a developer to choose a database, install an SDK, connect an API, or fix a broken integration.

That shift is still early, but it is already changing how software is discovered and adopted. Tools such as Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, GitHub Copilot and OpenCode can now search for products, compare options, read documentation and write implementation code on behalf of users. In that world, a company’s website is no longer the only front door. Its documentation, APIs, SDKs, command-line tools and machine-readable interfaces become part of the sales funnel.

Also Read: The app worked, the product didn’t: Can we install judgement into AI agents?

Lightsage, a San Francisco-based startup founded by Singaporean founders Jun Liang Lee (CEO) and Sean Er (CTO), wants to build the analytics layer for this new behaviour. The company has raised US$4 million in funding led by Nexus Venture Partners to develop what it calls an Agent-Led Growth platform.

The round also includes operators from the developer tools and AI ecosystem, including former Salesforce CTO Steven Tamm, Postman CEO Abhinav Asthana, Apollo CEO Matt Curl, DocuSign President and GM of Growth Robert Chatwani, Resend CEO Zeno, Firecrawl co-founder Eric, Daytona CEO Ivan, Tinyfish COO Shuhao, and others.

From product-led to agent-led growth

For the past decade, many software companies have optimised around product-led growth, a model in which users discover, try and pay for products with limited involvement from sales teams. The playbook was built around human behaviour: search rankings, landing pages, onboarding flows, product analytics, emails and conversion funnels.

AI agents disrupt that pattern because they may compress discovery, evaluation and implementation into a single workflow. A developer might ask an agent to “add payments to this app” or “find the best OCR API for invoices”, and the agent could decide which vendor to use before the human ever sees a shortlist.

That matters for Southeast Asia, where many startups run lean engineering teams and rely heavily on global developer infrastructure. A fintech in Jakarta, a logistics startup in Ho Chi Minh City or a SaaS company in Singapore may increasingly use AI coding tools to speed up product work. If those agents default to familiar global vendors, newer or regional software companies could struggle to be discovered, even if their products are technically strong.

Lightsage’s core argument is that visibility in AI-generated answers is only one part of the problem. A product may be mentioned by an AI assistant, but still lose the “agent customer” if its documentation is confusing, its SDK fails, its authentication flow is unclear, or its API examples cannot be executed reliably.

“We are moving from an internet where AI tells people which software to use to one where AI increasingly uses the software itself,” said Lee. “Visibility still matters, but the real test is whether an agent can understand your product and get to a successful outcome.”

How the platform works

Lightsage allows software companies to see their product through an agent’s perspective. Its platform runs simulations across answer engines and coding agents, checking not only whether a company appears against competitors, but what happens after that.

Agents are assigned real tasks that require them to navigate documentation, pick the right tools and use APIs, SDKs, CLIs, Model Context Protocol servers and agent skills. MCP, an emerging standard popularised in the AI developer ecosystem, allows AI systems to connect more easily with external tools and data sources.

Also Read: AI agents could help Southeast Asian firms untangle cross-border payment costs

When the agent fails, Lightsage identifies where the workflow broke. The issue could be poor discoverability, missing examples, inconsistent documentation, authentication problems, an API endpoint, an SDK implementation, or an incompatible MCP server. Teams can then fix the issue, rerun the test and measure whether the agent completes the task more successfully.

The company also tracks real agent traffic, showing when agents visit a customer’s website or documentation, what they interact with, and whether those journeys lead to product usage. Over time, Lightsage wants to feed those insights back into development and deployment workflows so products can continuously improve for both agents and humans.

The platform currently supports Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, OpenCode and other coding agents.

Early users and a new analytics gap

Lightsage is beginning with developer software, where the behaviour of coding agents is easiest to observe. Its early customers include Firecrawl, Reducto, Daytona, Rime and Tinyfish. These companies use the platform to understand why agents recommend certain products, where integrations fail and whether changes to documentation or product flows improve outcomes.

A typical case may start with a company discovering that a coding agent keeps recommending a rival. Lightsage then recreates the same task across multiple products and agents to determine whether the problem is awareness, documentation quality, or the actual product experience.

This is an analytics gap that traditional software tools were not designed to handle. Human acquisition is usually tracked through search terms, ad clicks, referral links, sign-ups and sales calls. Agents may not follow those paths. They can discover a product through generated answers, inspect documentation directly, call an API and influence a purchase without producing the same trail of clicks.

Their behaviour is also unstable. Different coding agents can approach the same task differently, and their preferences may shift as models are updated. A workflow that works for one agent may fail in another.

Abhishek Sharma, partner at Nexus, framed this as a wider change in online commerce. “AI is now shifting that agency from humans to agents, which can discover, evaluate and act on a customer’s behalf,” he said. “Lightsage is building the intelligence infrastructure for this new era of autonomous browsing, helping companies optimise for agent conversion, not just awareness.”

Competitive landscape

Lightsage sits at the intersection of AI search optimisation, developer experience testing and product analytics. Its closest rivals are likely to come from several directions rather than one neat category. Generative engine optimisation startups such as Profound, AthenaHQ, Scrunch AI and Peec AI help brands understand how they appear in AI answers, while developer observability and AI infrastructure tools such as LangSmith, Helicone and Langfuse focus on monitoring AI applications and model behaviour.

Traditional product analytics companies, including Amplitude, Mixpanel and PostHog, already help software teams understand human users. Lightsage is betting that agent behaviour will become distinct enough to need its own system of record.

The challenge is whether “agent-led growth” becomes a durable software category or remains a feature added by existing analytics and developer tools platforms. Large incumbents already own parts of the workflow, from code assistants to API platforms and observability stacks. Lightsage will have to show that agent discovery, agent experience and agent attribution are not just interesting signals, but commercial levers that affect revenue.

Why it matters for Southeast Asia

For Southeast Asian startups, the rise of agent-led software adoption cuts both ways. On one hand, small teams can use AI agents to build faster, integrate complex tools and compete more effectively with better-funded rivals. On the other, if agents concentrate attention on a narrow set of familiar vendors, local or emerging software companies may find it harder to break into global workflows.

This could be especially relevant in areas where the region is producing more infrastructure and B2B software, from fintech APIs and compliance tools to logistics software and vertical SaaS. Winning a human developer’s trust may no longer be enough. Products will also need to be legible to machines.

Also Read: When AI agents start acting on our behalf, security gets more complicated

Lightsage plans to use the new funding to expand its agent evaluation, analytics, attribution and optimisation capabilities across APIs, SDKs, CLIs, MCP servers and agent skills. Developer tools are the starting point, but the company expects agent behaviour to spread into B2B software, infrastructure and payments.

If that happens, the old growth funnel may not disappear, but it will have a new participant. The buyer may still be human. The first user may increasingly be an agent.

The post Singaporean founders’ Lightsage bags US$4M to decode how AI agents choose software appeared first on e27.

It was not.

Our HR team wanted employees to share more about company culture, hiring updates, internal events, and project wins on LinkedIn. We were not trying to turn everyone into corporate influencers. We only wanted people to feel more comfortable writing about work when there was something worth sharing.

The usual problem was the blank page. Someone attended a company event, joined a volunteer activity, completed a project, or had a good team moment. They were willing to post, but they did not know how to start. Some people worried about sounding too formal. Some worried about saying the wrong thing. Some simply did not have time to turn a rough thought into a clean post.

So we set up a ChatGPT Project for it.

The idea was simple. Instead of every employee prompting from scratch, HR would condition the project with shared context: company tone, basic social media guidelines, examples of acceptable employee posts, phrases to avoid, and reminders about confidential information. Anyone using that project would start from the same set of instructions.

At first, it worked well.

Employees could paste in a few rough notes and ask for a LinkedIn draft. Someone could write, “We had a team volunteering event last Friday, I helped with registration, make this sound natural.” Another person could ask for a short post about joining the company, a project milestone, or a hiring announcement. The drafts came out cleaner than what most people would write from scratch.

For HR, this looked like progress. More people were willing to share. The posts were more readable. The tone was more consistent. Employees were not staring at a blank page anymore.

Also Read: Quantum’s ChatGPT moment is coming — and it’s worth trillions

Then we noticed the issue. Some drafts sounded a little too official.

An employee might only want to say they enjoyed a team event, but the draft would turn it into a polished statement about company values. A hiring post might sound like it came from the corporate page instead of a person. A project post might imply that the employee was speaking on behalf of the company, even when they were only sharing a personal reflection.

That was the friction point. The ChatGPT Project had made drafting easier, but it had also made company-sounding posts easier to produce.

This mattered because employee advocacy sits in an awkward middle ground. A personal LinkedIn post is not the same as an official company announcement. But when the post is about work, people can easily blur the line. A sentence that sounds harmless inside a draft can still create confusion outside the company.

The issue was not that the project was bad. The shared context helped. It reduced blank-page writing and gave employees a safer starting point. The problem was that our instructions focused too much on writing style and not enough on posting boundaries.

So we changed the project instructions.

We added a simple rule: before drafting, ChatGPT had to identify what kind of post it was preparing. Was it a personal reflection, a hiring-related post, an event recap, a project update, or a repost of official company news?

That small step changed the output.

Also Read: OpenAI’s Astra aims to turn AI from chatbot into digital worker

If the post was a personal reflection, the draft had to sound like the employee. It could mention what they experienced, what they appreciated, and what they learned, but it should not make broad claims on behalf of the company. If the draft crossed that line, ChatGPT had to flag it to the user.

If the post was about hiring, it had to stay close to the approved hiring message. It could make the post warmer or more personal, but it should not invent role details, benefits, salary hints, or promises about career progression.

If the post was about a project, it had to avoid confidential details, client names, unreleased work, internal numbers, or claims that had not already been cleared.

We also asked the project to show a short “check before posting” note under each draft. Not a long policy lecture. Just a few practical checks: remove confidential details, confirm that this is your personal view, check whether the role or event information is current, and get approval if the post sounds like an official company statement and not personal.

That helped because employees did not need to remember the whole social media policy every time. The reminder appeared where the work happened.

It also showed us the limitation of using a ChatGPT Project alone. The project could draft and warn, but it could not route approvals by itself. Right now, we are moving beyond the project setup so the workflow can become more agentic. When approval is needed, the workflow should route the draft to the right person, such as Marcom, Legal, or HR. That person can adjust it, send it back to the writer and it will automatically be posted.

This was more useful than writing a long rulebook. The workflow became less about generating perfect posts and more about helping employees stay inside the right lane.

We did not need employees to become marketing people. We needed them to have a safer way to share real work moments without accidentally sounding like the corporate communications team.

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Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing views from the community. You can also share your perspective by submitting an article, video, podcast, or infographic.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of e27.

Join us on WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, X, and LinkedIn to stay connected.

The post I used to think the hard part of employee advocacy was getting people to post appeared first on e27.

The crypto market is working through a sharp pullback. In the last 24 hours, total market cap fell 1.74 per cent to US$2.62T. Bitcoin led the decline. The largest digital asset dropped 1.87 per cent to US$76,796.54. This move did not happen alone. It tracked a broader sell-off across traditional finance. The 91 per cent correlation with the S&P 500 shows macro forces are driving price action. That link matters because crypto is trading as a risk asset, not as a safe haven.

The US PPI for August arrived on September 10 and served as the main trigger. Annual inflation reached 5.4 per cent. That result came in above expectations. The data revived fears that the Federal Reserve will raise rates or keep policy tight. Treasury yields moved higher. Stocks, gold, and crypto all fell at the same time. Bitcoin sold off as liquidity concerns and weaker investor appetite hit risk markets. The next test is the CPI report on September 11. That print will shape the odds of a rate hike before the Fed meeting on September 15-16.

Market structure made the drop worse. A wave of long liquidations hit the derivatives market. Over 24 hours, forced liquidations closed US$96.53M in BTC positions. Long bets made up 90 per cent of that total. Total open interest had risen 10.84 per cent before the move. New leverage had entered the system. When prices turned lower, forced selling created a feedback loop. That loop added downward pressure beyond what the inflation report alone would suggest. The same pattern appeared across the wider market. BTC liquidations totalled US$96.53M over 24 hours, up 16.35 per cent. Open interest across derivatives rose 9.11 per cent to US$462.13B. High leverage remains a clear risk.

Sentiment has cooled. The Fear & Greed Index fell from 75 last week to 67. That shift moved the mood from extreme greed to caution. The total market cap broke below its pivot point of US$2.61T. It also fell under its seven-day moving average of US$2.67T. The August rally has lost momentum. The sector is now in a corrective phase as speculative heat leaves the market. The RSI(7) sits at 30.02. That reading suggests the market is nearing oversold territory. If buyers return, the decline could slow.

Also Read: Will Bitcoin hold US$77,000 or drag the market to US$2.51T? The September 10 answer

For Bitcoin, the immediate test is the US$76,000 to US$76,350 range. This zone reflects the average cost basis for active investors. Buyers have defended it many times. If the price holds above this support, Bitcoin could stabilise and trade between US$76,000 and US$79,400 before the CPI release. A decisive break below US$76,000 would open a path toward US$73,000. A close above US$79,400 would signal a return to the uptrend.

For the total market, the path depends on the US$2.59T level. That level matches the 23.6 per cent Fibonacci support. A hold there could lead to range-bound trading between US$2.59T and US$2.67T. A daily close below US$2.59T would target the next support at US$2.51T, the 38.2 per cent Fibonacci level. A US$2.67T reclaim would indicate stabilisation. The market remains in a corrective phase within a larger uptrend. It is still up 19.65 per cent over 30 days. The key question is whether support attracts buyers or whether liquidations drive a deeper flush.

Macro data will likely decide the next move. The CPI release is the major cue. A hot reading could extend the risk-off mood and trigger another leg down. A cooler reading could give buyers a reason to step in. The correlation with the S&P 500 reached 91 per cent and 92 per cent in two readings. The link with gold reached 87 per cent. This highlights how sensitive crypto has become to macro liquidity sentiment. This is not a market-moving story on its own. It is moving with the broader financial system.

On the regulatory front, Senate Republicans released a revised CLARITY Act. The bill runs 630 pages. It aims to establish a federal framework for digital assets while tightening regulations on non-decentralised DeFi and stablecoins. Senator Cynthia Lummis led the effort. The text includes more than 100 changes requested by Democrats. It rebrands Title I as the Lummis-Gillibrand Responsible Financial Innovation Act of 2026. Lawmakers designed the bill as a broad federal framework rather than a narrow crypto adjustment.

The revised bill would split oversight between the SEC and CFTC. It would formalise how regulators would oversee exchanges, brokers, and protocols. It introduces detailed language for non-decentralised finance protocols that people or groups can control or materially alter. Those protocols would have to register with the CFTC. The text narrows DeFi rules to spot and cash digital commodities. For DeFi, the bill draws a line between genuinely decentralised protocols and those that are decentralised in name only. Participating in governance or security councils does not, by itself, constitute control. Protocols that identifiable actors can steer would be subject to CFTC registration and rulemaking. That rulemaking would focus on spot and cash digital commodity markets and address concerns about prediction markets and similar products.

Also Read: Asia has not opened yet: What will the first bell reveal about Bitcoin and oil?

Payment stablecoins would face a ban on passive interest or yield on idle balances. The bill would still allow activity-based rewards under negotiated language in Section 404. The White House and industry regard this compromise as settled. Bank lobbying continues. Developer protections remain. They aim to shield non-controlling software authors from being treated as money transmitters simply for publishing code.

If Congress enacts it, major DeFi and stablecoin projects operating in the United States would need clearer compliance strategies. Many pure-protocol developers could gain a safer legal footing. This mix could reshape compliance planning for large platforms while offering greater protection for developers who do not control user funds or protocol decisions.

The next step is a cloture vote on 15 September 2026. The motion requires 60 senators to agree to proceed. Republicans hold 53 seats. At least seven Democrats or independents must support it. Some Democratic aides call unresolved ethics disputes the biggest stumbling block. Law enforcement and banking groups push competing changes to ethics and stablecoin language. Prediction markets and research desks assign relatively low odds that the bill will become law in 2026. Failure at this stage could push comprehensive US crypto legislation back several years. That outcome would leave SEC and CFTC rulemaking as the main path for crypto regulation. Confidence in the text and vote timing is moderate because multiple independent reports agree. Political outcomes remain uncertain.

Also Read: Why a strong jobs report hit Bitcoin and Ethereum harder than the stock market

The revised CLARITY Act is the most concrete attempt so far to give US crypto markets a formal federal rulebook, especially for DeFi, exchanges, and stablecoins. Whether it advances on 15 September will shape how quickly US based projects can plan around stable rules rather than piecemeal regulation. Crypto users should watch that vote and any follow-up agency rulemaking as key signals for the regulatory regime they will face.

In my view, the current dip is a natural cooldown after a strong monthly rally, which a leverage unwind sharpened. The high correlation with traditional markets shows that crypto remains sensitive to macro liquidity sentiment. The near-term outlook is cautiously bearish. Momentum has shifted to sellers. Stability depends on holding the key support zone. Bitcoin must defend US$76,000 in the hours leading up to the CPI release. If it fails, macro fears could trigger another leg down. If it holds, the market may find room to consolidate and wait for clearer data.

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Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing views from the community. You can also share your perspective by submitting an article, video, podcast, or infographic.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of e27.

Join us on WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, X, and LinkedIn to stay connected.

The post Bitcoin drops to US$76,796.54 as 91% S&P 500 correlation exposes crypto’s macro trap appeared first on e27.

The Philippines’s electric vehicle (EV) market is expected to keep growing in 2026 even as the broader car industry contracts, underscoring how fuel costs, government incentives and cheaper Chinese models are beginning to shift buyer behaviour in one of Southeast Asia’s more difficult markets for electrification.

BMI Country Risk and Industry Research forecasts electric vehicle sales in the Philippines to rise 11.2 per cent year-on-year in 2026, from 29,479 units to 32,776 units. Its definition of EVs includes battery electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids, but excludes conventional hybrids that cannot be charged externally.

Also Read: Southeast Asia’s EV startups draw US$622M as clean mobility shifts from pitch to pilot

That growth is notable because BMI expects total vehicle sales in the country to fall 8.7 per cent to 423,750 units next year. As a result, EV penetration is projected to climb from 6.4 per cent in 2025 to 7.7 per cent in 2026.

The numbers point to a familiar pattern across Southeast Asia: EV adoption is rising, but not evenly. In wealthier urban centres, buyers are increasingly open to electrified vehicles, particularly as fuel prices climb and more models enter showrooms. Outside those areas, charging access, road conditions and affordability continue to slow the transition.

Fuel prices cut both ways

BMI said higher fuel prices linked to the US-Iran conflict are producing two opposing effects in the Philippine auto market. On one hand, they are weakening overall demand by raising transport and ownership costs. On the other, they make electrified vehicles more attractive to buyers who can still afford a new car.

“Consumers able to purchase a new vehicle have a stronger incentive to consider models that can reduce fuel expenditure. This will benefit BEVs, PHEVs and HEVs, particularly among higher-mileage drivers and urban consumers,” BMI said.

That matters in the Philippines, where traffic congestion, long commute times and frequent stop-start driving can make fuel spending a major concern for households and small businesses. For fleet operators, ride-hailing drivers and urban professionals, the economics of electrification can become more compelling when petrol prices are volatile.

Still, the shift is not a simple move from petrol cars to fully electric ones. BMI expects hybrids and plug-in hybrids to remain important because they offer lower fuel use without forcing drivers to depend fully on public charging networks. This is especially relevant in a market where many consumers do not have reliable access to home charging.

Chinese brands push prices lower

A broader model line-up is also helping the market. BMI pointed to brands such as BYD, Chery, MG, VinFast and Tesla as supporting the local battery EV segment through more competitive pricing and a wider choice of vehicles.

Chinese automakers are likely to be particularly important. BYD, MG, GAC Aion and Chery are bringing more affordable electric SUVs and crossovers into the market, which could help reduce the price gap between EVs and comparable internal combustion engine vehicles.

“We contend that the expansion of Chinese brands will be particularly important because it will reduce the price gap between EVs and comparable internal combustion engine vehicles while increasing consumer awareness of electrified technology,” BMI said.

This mirrors developments elsewhere in Southeast Asia. Chinese EV makers have moved aggressively into Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia, often using price, financing and high-spec models to challenge Japanese incumbents. The Philippines has been slower to electrify at scale, but the entry of more Chinese brands could alter expectations among buyers who previously saw EVs as niche or luxury products.

Also Read: Datakrew’s US$2.6M raise is a bet on the EV problem nobody wants to own: battery failures

The popularity of SUVs, crossovers and pickup trucks adds another layer. These are important segments in the Philippine market, but electric versions tend to carry higher sticker prices and require larger batteries. More competitively priced Chinese models could therefore play a decisive role in pushing EVs beyond early adopters.

Policy helps, but charging remains the bottleneck

Government policy is another tailwind. Battery EVs are exempt from import tariffs and excise taxes until 2028, while hybrids and plug-in hybrids benefit from tariff exemptions and lower excise tax rates. These measures are narrowing the price gap with petrol and diesel vehicles.

The Electric Vehicle Industry Development Act also provides a policy framework for charging infrastructure, regulatory support and the use of EVs in public-sector fleets. It sets a target for EVs to make up at least 10 per cent of government vehicle fleets, a move that could create demand while making the technology more visible to the public.

But charging infrastructure remains the clearest obstacle. The Philippines currently has around 1,600 charging points, according to the Electric Vehicle Association of the Philippines. These include 781 alternating current chargers, 291 direct current chargers and 528 battery-swapping stations.

“Although the network is expanding, charging facilities remain concentrated in major urban areas,” BMI said.

That concentration limits the practicality of battery EV ownership for people without home charging and for drivers who travel between cities or through less-developed areas. The dominance of alternating current chargers also means charging can be slow, making plug-in hybrids a more comfortable compromise for many consumers.

Range anxiety is not only about how many chargers exist. Buyers also need confidence that chargers are in the right places, working when needed, compatible with their vehicle and not already occupied. In a market with uneven road quality and heavy congestion, those concerns become more pronounced.

This is why the Philippine market may not follow the same path as countries that built dense charging networks early. Instead, electrification could advance through a mix of battery EVs in cities, plug-in hybrids for flexibility and conventional hybrids for buyers who want lower fuel costs without changing refuelling habits.

A stronger second half of the decade

BMI expects EV sales growth to accelerate after 2026. It forecasts sales to reach 51,666 units in 2027, 65,432 units in 2028, 78,781 units in 2029 and 91,730 units in 2030. That implies average annual growth of 29.3 per cent between 2026 and 2030.

EV penetration is forecast to rise from 7.7 per cent in 2026 to 11.4 per cent in 2027, 13.7 per cent in 2028, 15.6 per cent in 2029 and 17.3 per cent in 2030. Internal combustion engine vehicle sales, by contrast, are expected to recover more slowly, from 390,974 units in 2026 to 438,106 units in 2030.

Also Read: Inside Thailand’s EV and battery push: Balancing growth with sustainability

The outlook suggests electrified vehicles will account for a growing share of industry expansion in the second half of the decade. But two risks stand out: slow charging infrastructure rollout and possible changes to incentives after 2028. Either could weaken affordability and consumer confidence.

The upside case is equally clear. If Chinese automakers intensify competition, battery costs continue to fall and public and private investment in charging accelerates, EV adoption could move faster than BMI currently expects. For the Philippines, the question is no longer whether electrification will happen, but whether infrastructure and policy can keep pace with the market’s growing interest.

The post EVs gain ground in the Philippines as fuel costs squeeze drivers appeared first on e27.

Southeast Asia’s venture boom has left behind a very large graveyard. Between January 2020 and July 2026, 7,538 startups across the region deadpooled, according to Tracxn data examined in a new e27 analysis of 76 notable venture-backed failures.

The pattern is unmistakable: 2021 and 2022 alone account for 57.3% of all closures, as founders who raised at peak 2019–2020 valuations ran out of runway once cheap capital vanished and investors began demanding proof of unit economics rather than growth alone.

E-commerce, social commerce, proptech, co-working, fintech, Web3 and logistics absorbed the heaviest losses — sectors where scale depended on constant cash injections rather than durable margins. Indonesian fashion platform Sorabel, Vietnamese proptech Propzy and enterprise AI firm Taiger all raised meaningful capital before folding. A second, smaller wave hit in 2024, when companies that had survived on bridge financing ran out of options as Series B and C capital failed to arrive.

Closures have since slowed sharply, to just 308 across 2025 and the first seven months of 2026, suggesting the most indiscriminate phase of the correction has passed. The lessons for founders: funding timing matters, GMV is not profit, and premature regional expansion punishes more than it rewards in a market that is really a patchwork of many.

Read the full article here:

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REGIONAL

Grab in talks to acquire SoftBank-backed Atome: Grab is in discussions to buy buy-now-pay-later firm Atome, which counts SoftBank among its backers. A deal would significantly expand Grab’s fintech footprint across Southeast Asia’s fast-growing consumer credit market.

TikTok affiliate to sink US$980M into Vietnam logistics: The investment marks one of the largest single logistics commitments tied to e-commerce in Ho Chi Minh City, deepening TikTok’s Vietnam supply-chain footprint.

Circle to acquire Tazapay, expanding USDC’s SEA reach: The deal pulls Singapore-based cross-border payments infrastructure into Circle’s stablecoin ecosystem, signalling stablecoin rails moving deeper into SEA trade flows.

BillEase doubles credit facility with RCBC to US$16M: Philippine BNPL platform BillEase has doubled its credit facility with Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation to US$16M, boosting its lending capacity to serve more underbanked Filipino consumers.

Indonesia lawmakers grill Tokopedia, TikTok Shop over frozen funds: Parliamentarians are pressing the e-commerce platforms for answers on seller funds that remain frozen, raising fresh questions over merchant protections.

Malaysia ranks second to Singapore in GSMA digital index: The ranking cites Malaysia’s digital infrastructure and AI policy progress, with Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines close behind in the region-wide assessment.

Philippine EV adoption set to accelerate despite charging gaps: BMI forecasts faster uptake even as charging infrastructure lags demand, pointing to policy and import incentives as key swing factors.

Singapore tops Southeast Asia in 2026 Best Workplaces list: The ranking places Singapore ahead of regional peerson workplace culture metrics, reinforcing its pull for regional talent.

Malaysia targets US$5B in annual GDP gains from AI: The communications minister linked the target to national AI strategy execution, part of a broader push to position Malaysia as a regional AI hub.

Singapore data centre investment to hit US$19.2B by 2050: PwC’s projection reflects sustained capacity build-out as demand for AI compute keeps climbing in the city-state.

N&E Innovations nets US$1.6M to fight cashew waste: The funding backs tech that converts husk waste into produce-protection material, tapping agritech’s growing climate angle.

Try Everything 2026 puts AI, robotics, capital centre stage: The event convenes cross-border investors and founders around emerging-tech themes shaping the region’s next funding cycle.

Toku expands into UAE, Talabat, eight Middle East markets: The SEA-founded fintech is pushing beyond its home region, following a broader pattern of SEA startups chasing Gulf expansion.

INTERVIEWS AND FEATURES

Over 7,500 SEA startups have shut down since 2020: New tracking shows a sustained capital drought has wiped out thousands of Southeast Asian startups over six years, underscoring how tight venture funding remains across the region.

SEA’s AI boom has a water problem it cannot offset away: The piece argues data centre cooling demands pose a resource strain that carbon-style offsets cannot easily solve for the region.

INTERNATIONAL

Massachusetts hits data centres with new clean power rules: Facilities over 25MW must now source their own clean energy or pay into a ratepayer fund, making Massachusetts the third US state in as many months to restrict data centre growth.

DOJ seeks more answers on Fox’s US$22B Roku deal: Regulators are pressing for further detail on the proposed acquisition, adding a layer of scrutiny to one of the year’s largest media-tech tie-ups.

Apple’s new CEO revives a Steve Jobs-era iPhone strategy: John Ternus used his first keynote as CEO to position the iPhone as Apple’s AI hub, echoing Jobs’ 2001 “digital hub” pitch for the Mac.

Apple unveils its first foldable, the iPhone Duo: The launch marks Apple’s entry into foldables, a category rivals have shipped for years, as the company leans harder into hardware differentiation.

Uber invests US$10M in Indian fleet operator Carrum: The Series B values Carrum at roughly US$168M post-money; the startup runs about 5,100 vehicles and is Uber’s largest fleet partner for its premium Black tier in India.

Google DeepMind alumni build tools to accelerate fusion power: The founders are applying AI-driven modelling to fusion reactor design, part of a wider wave of AI-for-energy startups chasing grid-scale power breakthroughs.

Travis Kalanick’s Atoms eyes a move into robotaxis: The Uber co-founder’s new venture is reportedly exploring autonomous ride-hailing, pitting Kalanick against the industry he helped build a decade earlier.

Students who avoid AI for schoolwork outscore peers: OECD: The finding holds true in science specifically, with one notable use-case exception, raising fresh questions for education policy as AI tools spread in classrooms.

Finvolve backs Indian cybersecurity startup AllSecureX: Singapore-based Finvolve has invested in AllSecureX, an Indian cybersecurity startup, signalling growing cross-border venture activity between Southeast Asia and South Asia’s expanding infosec sector.

SEMICONDUCTOR

OpenAI deepens Samsung tie-up on next-generation chips: The expanded partnership points to tighter supply-chain coordination between frontier AI labs and Korean chipmakers as compute demand accelerates.

Synopsys, A*STAR team up on AI chip packaging: The Singapore collaboration targets advanced packaging bottlenecks that increasingly constrain AI chip performance and supply.

China’s Longsys slips on Hong Kong debut: The memory chipmaker’s listing fell short of expectations, a reminder that not every chip-sector IPO is riding the AI hardware boom smoothly.

CYBERSECURITY

Hacker steals US$340M in crypto heist, returns most of it: The Liquid Network exploit ranks among the largest crypto thefts on record; roughly 85% of the stolen bitcoin has since been returned.

Google flags threat actors weaponising agentic AI: The warning covers attackers automating intrusion chains with autonomous AI agents, a growing concern for enterprise security teams across Asia.

AI

OpenAI adds AI doomer Paul Christiano to its board: Christiano, an alignment researcher who helped pioneer RLHF, joins OpenAI’s Safety and Security Committee following a string of AI agent security incidents.

Anthropic researcher quits, warns on self-improving AI: Jacob Coxon resigned publicly, accusing frontier labs of racing toward recursive self-improvement without adequate safeguards against loss of control.

OpenAI confirms wiki breach, pledges disclosure framework: The lab is working on transparency measures after a security incident, amid mounting scrutiny of how AI labs report agent misbehaviour.

Singapore firms race to adopt AI despite system gaps: A new report finds adoption is outpacing readiness, with many organisations lacking the underlying data and governance systems to support it.

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

The cheapest way to stop your AI product from regressing: A contributor argues disciplined evaluation practicescost far less than the reputational damage of shipping AI features that silently degrade over time.

Quantum’s ChatGPT moment is coming, and it’s worth trillions: The piece contends quantum computing is nearing an inflection point comparable to generative AI’s breakout, with major economic stakes attached.

I built a 21-role AI workforce; management was the hard part: The founder’s account centres on orchestrating AI agents, arguing coordination — not capability — is the real bottleneck in agentic setups.

The missing layer in AI innovation: human verification: The essay makes the case that unchecked AI outputs need structured human review before they can be trusted in production systems.

When a slot opens, let the AI agent act within limits: The contributor argues for bounded autonomy — giving AI agents room to act inside clearly defined guardrails rather than full or no autonomy.

The most valuable part of AI may not be the model: The essay suggests the surrounding infrastructure — data, workflows, and integration — may capture more long-term value than the models themselves.

Gen Z doesn’t need more AI courses, it needs unreplicable skills: The argument centres on judgement and creativityas the skills that will differentiate young professionals once AI commoditises technical execution.

SEA’s SMEs don’t have an AI problem, they have a record problem: The piece argues poor data hygiene, not AI access, is the real barrier holding small businesses back from useful automation.

Singapore learnt to measure cooling; ASEAN should follow: The contributor argues Singapore’s cooling metrics offer a template the rest of ASEAN should adopt as data centre density rises regionally.

Thailand’s mobility future will be decided by data, not vehicles: The essay argues data infrastructure, not fleet electrification alone, will determine how Thailand’s transport systems evolve.

Will Bitcoin hold US$77,000, or slide toward US$2.51T market cap?: The analysis lays out scenarios for bitcoin’s trajectory heading into 10 September, weighing support levels against broader market pressure.

Asia hasn’t opened yet: what the first bell may reveal: The piece previews how Asian markets might react to overnight moves in bitcoin and oil prices as trading begins.

Future-proofing the past: smart engineering for ageing condos: The essay explores how retrofitted infrastructurecan bring Singapore’s older condominiums up to speed for EV charging demand.

The post Ecosystem Roundup: What failed startups reveal about SEA’s next tech cycle appeared first on e27.

The global cryptocurrency sector experienced a slight contraction today, with total digital asset valuation down 0.75 per cent to US$2.66T. This downward movement primarily stems from investors taking profits after a robust multi-week upward trend. Market participants actively shifted their capital back toward the leading virtual coin.

Interestingly, this crypto consolidation exhibits no direct correlation with traditional macroeconomic indicators. Traditional financial markets face their own distinct set of pressures today. I view this current token behaviour as a highly specific internal consolidation rather than a broader financial panic. Traders simply decided to lock in their profits after an extended period of uninterrupted price appreciation.

This deliberate action highlights a mature ecosystem where participants rationally manage their risk exposure without succumbing to blind fear. The blockchain environment currently operates on its own internal mechanics while external equity markets grapple with entirely different fundamental challenges.

External financial markets indeed suffered significant setbacks today. Global equities and government bonds declined sharply as energy prices surged and borrowing costs increased. Brent crude oil prices climbed past the US$100 mark to top US$101 per barrel. Escalating geopolitical tensions in the Middle East directly fuelled fears of energy disruptions.

Simultaneously, the United States government executed a US$6 billion debt buyback plan that disappointed institutional investors. This disappointment pushed the 10-year US Treasury yield to its highest level since 2023. The benchmark S&P 500 index consequently fell for three consecutive sessions as inflation anxieties and interest rate concerns mounted heavily across Wall Street.

Financial derivatives markets currently price in a 62 per cent probability that the Federal Reserve will implement a 0.25 interest rate increase on September 16. Asian equity markets followed this negative trajectory and were positioned for substantial declines as regional investors reacted to energy-driven inflation fears.

Returning to the virtual coin sector, the primary catalyst for the current valuation correction involves routine profit-taking following a remarkable 20 per cent monthly rally. The total crypto capitalisation successfully gained 20.23 per cent over the past 30 days before hitting a recent local peak. Such a substantial and rapid increase in valuation naturally incentivises early buyers to sell their holdings and realise their gains.

We witnessed this exact behaviour materialise in real time as the 24-hour spot trading volume jumped exactly 18 per cent to reach a massive US$86.96B. This heightened selling activity clearly signals that traders actively chose to secure their capital rather than hold through a potential correction. I consider this specific volume spike a completely normal and healthy reaction to a sustained advance. The ecosystem simply requires time to digest these recent gains and establish a solid foundation for any future upward movements.

Also Read: Asia has not opened yet: What will the first bell reveal about Bitcoin and oil?

This modest pullback represents a typical phase in the cycle rather than a fundamental structural breakdown. Buyers and sellers are currently negotiating fair value following an aggressive upward move. Observers now closely monitor whether the broader crypto landscape maintains its position above the crucial 30-day simple moving average, which sits precisely at US$2.51T. Holding above this specific technical level would strongly indicate that buyers still control the broader narrative despite the short-term profit-taking.

A failure to defend this moving average might invite additional sellers and accelerate the current downward momentum. The current structure remains entirely intact as long as valuations respect these key historical support zones. The ongoing action merely reflects a necessary cooling-off period after weeks of relentless buying pressure and speculative enthusiasm. Participants now wait for fresh capital injections to drive the next major valuation expansion across the entire digital asset space.

A secondary but equally important factor driving the current dynamics is a clear rotation of capital away from altcoins and back toward the premier cryptocurrency. The dominance metric for the leading virtual coin remains at an impressive 59.03 per cent. This high dominance figure clearly illustrates that institutional and retail investors actively prefer the relative safety of the largest crypto during periods of uncertainty.

Concurrently, the Altcoin Season Index plunged exactly 23.53 per cent over the last 24 hours. This dramatic drop in the index perfectly captures the widespread abandonment of smaller speculative assets. Investors currently rotate their funds defensively into the premier digital asset to protect their capital from extreme volatility. I observe this defensive rotation as a classic risk-management strategy that typically occurs when participants anticipate broader economic turbulence or sector-specific corrections. A sustained rise in dominance above 60 per cent would confirm a prolonged period of outperformance for the largest asset.

Also Read: Why a strong jobs report hit Bitcoin and Ethereum harder than the stock market

The derivatives arena simultaneously underwent a significant deleveraging event, further contributing to the spot valuation decline. Total open interest across major perpetual futures contracts declined by 3.93 per cent as leveraged speculators rapidly unwound their overly optimistic positions. This reduction in open interest indicates that traders actively closed out their borrowed positions to avoid potential liquidation cascades.

Furthermore, perpetual funding rates fell sharply by 38 per cent. Lower funding rates mean that buyers no longer pay a massive premium to maintain their long positions. This derivatives reset significantly reduces systemic risk within the broader financial ecosystem. This deleveraging process is an incredibly positive development for long-term health.

Excessive leverage often triggers violent swings and unnecessary crashes. The current unwinding of these leveraged positions creates a much cleaner and more stable environment for genuine spot buyers to accumulate assets at fair valuations without facing artificial price suppression from forced liquidations.

The near-term outlook hinges on the premier digital asset’s ability to defend the crucial US$77,000 to US$78,000 zone. A decisive break below this support level could trigger algorithmic selling and push the total valuation down toward the 38.2 per cent Fibonacci retracement at US$2.51T.

Conversely, a strong bounce from this support zone would likely initiate another aggressive upward leg. Market participants also eagerly await the upcoming United States Consumer Price Index data release and the next major spot exchange-traded fund flow report arriving on September 10.

These specific macroeconomic and institutional data points will serve as the primary catalysts for the next major directional move. I expect the environment to remain in a short-term consolidation phase within a much broader macroeconomic uptrend until these crucial data points provide clear guidance to institutional investors looking to deploy fresh capital into the digital asset ecosystem.

—

Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing views from the community. You can also share your perspective by submitting an article, video, podcast, or infographic.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of e27.

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The post Will Bitcoin hold US$77,000 or drag the market to US$2.51T? The September 10 answer appeared first on e27.

TikTok’s ambitions in Vietnam are moving beyond short videos and livestream shopping into the less glamorous, but more decisive, world of logistics.

Tokgistic Pte. Ltd., a Singapore-registered affiliate of TikTok, will invest US$980 million in a new logistics project in Ho Chi Minh City, according to a statement from the city’s Department of Finance. The agency said it granted the investment certificate to Tokgistic on September 7.

Also Read: Why TikTok Shop wants Singapore merchants to think like content teams

The project, called Swift Logistics, is scheduled to run for 50 years and begin operations in November. Tokgistic will initially contribute US$196 million, equal to 20 per cent of the registered capital, and raise the remaining amount later.

On paper, Swift Logistics is registered for postal, delivery, market-research and management-consulting services. In practice, the structure suggests TikTok is laying the groundwork for a deeper role in Vietnam’s e-commerce infrastructure without necessarily building every part of the delivery network itself. For postal services, Swift Logistics will contract directly with customers but pass the actual delivery and logistics work to third-party providers.

That distinction matters. It points to a model where TikTok can sit closer to merchants, shoppers and transaction data while relying on external logistics operators for physical fulfilment. For a platform whose shopping business depends heavily on impulse purchases, livestream selling and high order volumes, tighter control over the customer journey can be as important as owning warehouses or fleets.

From content platform to commerce infrastructure

The investment is part of a wider plan TikTok discussed with Ho Chi Minh City authorities in November 2025. At the time, the company proposed establishing three businesses in logistics, digital payments and digital commerce, with links to the city’s Vietnam International Financial Center.

The financial centre is a government-backed effort to position Ho Chi Minh City as a regional financial hub. For Vietnam, attracting a global technology platform into logistics, payments and commerce fits neatly into a broader push to deepen the country’s digital economy and draw higher-value foreign investment.

For TikTok, the logic is also clear. Vietnam has become one of Southeast Asia’s most important consumer internet markets, with a young population, high social media usage and a fast-growing online retail sector. It is also a market where entertainment and commerce increasingly overlap. A product can go from viral video to checkout page in minutes, particularly on platforms that combine creators, livestreams and in-app shopping.

TikTok said last year that its planned logistics operations in Vietnam could handle 1 billion to 2 billion orders annually. It also said a payments arm could serve about 45 million users in the country, while its digital-commerce activity could support more than US$10 billion in annual transaction value.

Those numbers underline the scale of the company’s Vietnam ambitions. They also show why logistics is not a side activity for TikTok Shop. In e-commerce, especially in Southeast Asia, growth is often constrained not by demand but by fulfilment: delivery speed, failed orders, returns, cash-on-delivery handling, and the reliability of third-party couriers outside major cities.

Vietnam’s FDI pull strengthens

Swift Logistics follows another sizeable TikTok-linked commitment earlier this year. In April, TikTok Shop Vietnam announced a foreign investment of US$125 million in Ho Chi Minh City. With the new Swift Logistics project, the two projects have combined registered capital of about US$1.1 billion.

Also Read: Shopee, TikTok, Lazada: Three ways to win and no easy way in

The timing is notable. Ho Chi Minh City attracted more than US$10.06 billion in foreign direct investment in the first eight months of 2026, up 167.3 per cent from a year earlier, according to the Department of Finance. That figure was already equal to 91.5 per cent of the city’s annual target.

For the city, a large project tied to TikTok helps reinforce its position as Vietnam’s commercial and digital hub. Ho Chi Minh City already acts as the country’s startup centre, home to many local technology companies, digital lenders, e-commerce sellers, SaaS startups and cross-border trade businesses. The addition of a major logistics-linked investment from a ByteDance affiliate could strengthen the city’s role in regional digital trade, particularly if TikTok’s commerce, payments and fulfilment plans become more integrated over time.

The investment also reflects a broader shift in Southeast Asian e-commerce. The first phase of the sector was about acquiring users and subsidising transactions. The current phase is about operational discipline: who can deliver cheaply, quickly and reliably while keeping merchants and consumers inside one ecosystem.

That is why logistics has become a strategic battleground. Shopee, owned by Singapore’s Sea Group, has built out SPX Express across several markets. Lazada, backed by Alibaba, has long invested in Lazada Logistics. Independent operators such as J&T Express and Ninja Van have also scaled across the region by serving multiple platforms and merchants. TikTok’s Swift Logistics does not appear to replace these kinds of providers immediately, but it could give the company more leverage over delivery standards, data flows and merchant relationships.

Rivals will be watching

TikTok’s move will be closely watched by competitors across both e-commerce and logistics. In Vietnam and the wider region, its most direct commerce rivals include Shopee and Lazada, both of which have spent years building seller networks, payments tools and fulfilment capabilities. Local and regional delivery players such as J&T Express, Ninja Van, GHN, Giao Hang Tiet Kiem, SPX Express and Lazada Logistics already compete fiercely on cost, speed and coverage.

The challenge for TikTok is that logistics is a very different business from content. Viral videos scale with software. Delivery networks scale with people, depots, service-level agreements and thin margins. Even if Swift Logistics outsources physical delivery, TikTok will still need to manage customer expectations in a market where late parcels, failed delivery attempts and difficult returns can quickly erode trust.

There is also the regulatory dimension. TikTok, owned by China’s ByteDance, has faced scrutiny in several markets over data, content moderation and platform influence. In Southeast Asia, governments have generally taken a pragmatic approach, welcoming digital investment while keeping a closer eye on consumer protection, payments, tax and the impact of foreign platforms on local merchants.

Also Read: The next meal in Southeast Asia starts on TikTok, not in an app

Vietnam is likely to be no different. A US$980 million logistics project signals long-term commitment, but it also places TikTok more squarely inside the country’s digital economy infrastructure.

For now, Swift Logistics marks another step in TikTok’s evolution from a social media app into a commerce machine. The bet is that whoever controls attention, transactions and fulfilment will have the strongest hand in Southeast Asia’s next phase of online retail. In Vietnam, TikTok appears ready to pay heavily for that position.

The post TikTok deepens Vietnam commerce bet with US$980M logistics project in Ho Chi Minh City appeared first on e27.

Between January 2020 and mid-2026, the Southeast Asian technology ecosystem underwent a profound transformation. What began as a high-flying venture boom turned into an unprecedented “funding winter.” Tracxn data reveals that a total of 7,538 tech startups across the region deadpooled, driven by high global interest rates, macroeconomic friction, and shifting investor demands toward path-to-profitability.

While peak closures occurred during 2021 (2,260 shutdowns) and 2022 (2,059 shutdowns), attrition persisted through 2023 (1,121), rebounded in 2024 (1,378), and claimed another 308 ventures in 2025.

Also Read: From shutdown to surge: How macro relief is lifting crypto and equities

Below is a detailed retrospective examining 76 notable Southeast Asian startups that ceased operations between 2020 and 2026, complete with their business descriptions, latest funding amounts, and final fundraising dates.

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E-commerce, fashion & quick-commerce

1. Sorabel
   • Description: Indonesian fashion e-commerce platform offering a signature “try-first-pay-later” model, delivering affordable, trend-driven proprietary apparel directly to women across tier-2 and tier-3 Indonesian cities.
   • Latest Funded Amount: Undisclosed
   • Latest Funded Date: Aug 27, 2019
2. Fabelio
   • Description: Indonesian online furniture and home decor e-commerce brand that combined an online storefront with physical experience centers to design and sell custom, locally manufactured furniture.
   • Latest Funded Amount: US$9M
   • Latest Funded Date: Jun 17, 2020
3. Dropezy
   • Description: Indonesian quick-commerce startup that operated a network of dark stores delivering groceries, household essentials, and fresh produce to urban consumers in under 20 minutes.
   • Latest Funded Amount: US$2.5M
   • Latest Funded Date: Sep 23, 2021
4. Shox Fashion
   • Description: Indonesian social commerce platform empowering community resellers in rural and non-tier-1 regions to aggregate demand and sell affordable apparel via WhatsApp and social channels.
   • Latest Funded Amount: US$5.5M
   • Latest Funded Date: Apr 18, 2022
5. BlinQ
   • Description: Singaporean luxury fashion-tech platform utilizing augmented reality and virtual try-on software to allow shoppers to preview and purchase high-end apparel and designer accessories online.
   • Latest Funded Amount: US$2.0M
   • Latest Funded Date: Mar 01, 2019
6. MadThread
   • Description: Singapore-based luxury fashion rental subscription platform providing women with unlimited monthly access to designer dresses, workwear, and occasion outfits through a circular wardrobe app.
   • Latest Funded Amount: US$500.0K
   • Latest Funded Date: Jul 24, 2019
7. The Shonet
   • Description: Indonesian social commerce and beauty recommendation community where content creators and consumers shared peer reviews, style advice, and directly purchased curated lifestyle products.
   • Latest Funded Amount: Undisclosed
   • Latest Funded Date: Mar 05, 2019
8. WOWBID
   • Description: Indonesian interactive live-streaming auction marketplace enabling merchants and brands to host real-time video bidding events and sell electronics, apparel, and collectibles directly to viewers.
   • Latest Funded Amount: US$5.0M
   • Latest Funded Date: Apr 25, 2019
9. PriceArea.com
   • Description: Pioneer Indonesian shopping search engine and price comparison portal that aggregated product listings across major online merchants to help consumers find the best deals online.
   • Latest Funded Amount: Undisclosed
   • Latest Funded Date: Jun 17, 2012
10. Kotoko
    • Description: Indonesian retail-as-a-service pop-up platform enabling online direct-to-consumer digital brands to test physical storefronts, offline retail distribution, and interactive customer touchpoints.
    • Latest Funded Amount: Undisclosed
    • Latest Funded Date: Jan 09, 2020
11. Kasosio
    • Description: Regional social commerce platform enabling micro-influencers and small merchants to launch social storefronts, curate product catalogs, and earn sales commissions across social media channels.
    • Latest Funded Amount: Undisclosed
    • Latest Funded Date: Dec 2020

Also Read: ‘Companies shut down not because of crises but only when founders give up’: Joseph Phua of M17

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Proptech, co-working & co-living

12. Propzy
    • Description: Vietnamese proptech platform providing end-to-end real estate marketplace services, offline transaction hubs, digital mortgage financing, and property management tools for buyers and sellers.
    • Latest Funded Amount: US$25.0M
    • Latest Funded Date: Jun 09, 2020
13. CoHive
    • Description: One of Indonesia’s largest co-working space operators, providing shared office spaces, private desks, flexible corporate suites, and community events across major Indonesian urban centers.
    • Latest Funded Amount: US$13.5M
    • Latest Funded Date: Jun 19, 2019
14. Oxfordcaps
    • Description: Singapore-headquartered student housing technology startup that operated standardized, tech-enabled coliving residences and dormitories for university students across India and Southeast Asia.
    • Latest Funded Amount: US$994.5K
    • Latest Funded Date: May 29, 2020
15. YourRent
    • Description: Regional proptech startup providing landlords and property managers with digital tenant screening, automated lease agreement execution, maintenance tracking, and online rent collection software.
    • Latest Funded Amount: Undisclosed
    • Latest Funded Date: Jul 16, 2020

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Logistics, supply chain & transport

16. Ritase
    • Description: Indonesian B2B digital freight logistics platform connecting commercial shippers with trucking transporters through automated load matching, real-time GPS tracking, and electronic proof-of-delivery software.
    • Latest Funded Amount: US$8.5M
    • Latest Funded Date: May 03, 2019
17. CarPal
    • Description: Singapore-based on-demand urban logistics platform that utilized crowd-sourced drivers to provide same-day courier services, express parcel delivery, and localized distribution for businesses.
    • Latest Funded Amount: US$2.8M
    • Latest Funded Date: Apr 26, 2017
18. Catchthatbus
    • Description: Malaysian online travel booking platform enabling passengers to search, compare schedules, and purchase intercity bus and coach tickets across Malaysia and Singapore.
    • Latest Funded Amount: US$1.5M
    • Latest Funded Date: Aug 31, 2015
19. DedaaBox
    • Description: Myanmar parcel delivery startup that deployed automated smart parcel lockers across residential and commercial buildings to streamline last-mile e-commerce package pickups.
    • Latest Funded Amount: US$550.0K
    • Latest Funded Date: Dec 03, 2017
20. Hello Cabs
    • Description: Early Myanmar ride-hailing and taxi dispatch network providing urban passengers with phone hotline and mobile app bookings for metered taxi transport.
    • Latest Funded Amount: Undisclosed
    • Latest Funded Date: Apr 24, 2017

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Fintech, crypto, Web3 & insurtech

21. Cabital
    • Description: Singapore crypto wealth management platform that allowed retail and institutional users to buy, sell, transfer, and earn high-yield interest on digital assets and stablecoins.
    • Latest Funded Amount: US$4.0M
    • Latest Funded Date: Sep 03, 2021
22. Toast Me
    • Description: Singaporean mobile payments and fintech platform offering integrated point-of-sale solutions, peer-to-peer money transfers, and digital merchant loyalty programs for retail stores and restaurants.
    • Latest Funded Amount: US$1.5M
    • Latest Funded Date: Nov 10, 2016
23. SALPay
    • Description: Philippine fintech and payroll management platform connecting cloud HR software with employee prepaid debit cards to automate wage disbursements and offer micro-financial services.
    • Latest Funded Amount: US$7.1M
    • Latest Funded Date: Dec 28, 2017
24. Halofina
    • Description: Indonesian robo-advisory and personal wealthtech startup helping young professionals set financial goals, track personal budgets, and invest automatically in regulated mutual fund portfolios.
    • Latest Funded Amount: Undisclosed
    • Latest Funded Date: Nov 29, 2019
25. AgenKAN
    • Description: Indonesian micro-fintech platform empowering neighborhood mom-and-pop grocery stores (warungs) to sell financial products, process bill payments, and distribute digital micro-loans.
    • Latest Funded Amount: Undisclosed
    • Latest Funded Date: Jun 16, 2020
26. Pax Credit
    • Description: Singapore cross-border fintech startup offering international students transparent currency exchange, overseas tuition payment transfers, and digital student bank accounts worldwide.
    • Latest Funded Amount: Undisclosed
    • Latest Funded Date: Jan 24, 2021
27. AlgoBlocks
    • Description: Singaporean DeFi aggregator platform enabling Web3 users to discover, build, and execute complex multi-step decentralized finance investment strategies using a visual drag-and-drop workflow.
    • Latest Funded Amount: US$1.9M
    • Latest Funded Date: Apr 16, 2022
28. Qarbon
    • Description: Web3 sustainability protocol developing decentralized carbon offset verification software and tokenized environmental asset management tools for global corporate ESG compliance.
    • Latest Funded Amount: US$5.5M
    • Latest Funded Date: Jun 10, 2023
29. UexGlobal
    • Description: Singapore insurtech startup offering a paperless, digital health insurance platform that provided customizable international medical policies for expatriates, remote workers, and SMEs.
    • Latest Funded Amount: US$983.4K
    • Latest Funded Date: Feb 23, 2018
30. Seed Token
    • Description: Blockchain infrastructure project developing decentralized protocols for tracking clean energy generation, verifying carbon reductions, and trading renewable energy certificates transparently.
    • Latest Funded Amount: Undisclosed
    • Latest Funded Date: Mar 28, 2018

Also Read: Indonesian e-commerce platform Sorabel to shut down by end-July

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Enterprise SaaS, AI & deeptech

31. Taiger
    • Description: Singaporean artificial intelligence software company providing natural language processing and automated document extraction technology to streamline complex operations for banking and government clients.
    • Latest Funded Amount: US$25.0M
    • Latest Funded Date: Jul 09, 2019
32. FireVisor
    • Description: Singaporean industrial AI startup offering automated computer vision and predictive analytics software to detect product manufacturing defects in real time for semiconductor and solar factories.
    • Latest Funded Amount: US$739.7K
    • Latest Funded Date: Mar 19, 2019
33. Braiven
    • Description: Enterprise AI and operational decision intelligence software firm providing predictive analytics, workflow automation, and supply chain optimization tools for heavy industry and logistics operators.
    • Latest Funded Amount: US$3.7M
    • Latest Funded Date: May 27, 2019
34. Bonza
    • Description: Indonesian no-code big data analytics platform that helped enterprises ingest large data streams, build custom machine learning models, and generate real-time operational BI dashboards.
    • Latest Funded Amount: US$2.0M
    • Latest Funded Date: May 06, 2021
35. Omnilytics
    • Description: Malaysian fashion market intelligence platform offering fashion retailers real-time competitive pricing analysis, assortment benchmarks, and inventory trends across global e-commerce channels.
    • Latest Funded Amount: US$1.1M
    • Latest Funded Date: Sep 22, 2020
36. Botbot
    • Description: Singapore enterprise conversational AI startup building automated chatbots to optimize internal corporate workflows, HR employee onboarding, and customer support across enterprise chat channels.
    • Latest Funded Amount: Undisclosed
    • Latest Funded Date: Oct 22, 2018
37. Peoplewave
    • Description: Singapore HR technology startup providing data-driven performance management software, continuous feedback tools, and automated employee onboarding analytics for mid-sized corporate enterprises.
    • Latest Funded Amount: US$500.0K
    • Latest Funded Date: Nov 10, 2017
38. Synchronous
    • Description: AI productivity platform offering remote teams automated workflow synchronization, intelligent task extraction, and cross-platform communication summaries for distributed workforces.
    • Latest Funded Amount: US$55.0K
    • Latest Funded Date: Jan 23, 2019
39. IsItUp.com
    • Description: Malaysian cloud asset management SaaS platform enabling businesses to catalog, audit, track maintenance schedules, and manage physical equipment and office hardware assets.
    • Latest Funded Amount: Undisclosed
    • Latest Funded Date: Nov 14, 2016
40. Nook
    • Description: Virtual workplace SaaS platform that allowed remote and hybrid teams to create customizable digital offices, audio rooms, and collaborative screen-sharing spaces for spontaneous team meetings.
    • Latest Funded Amount: US$125.0K
    • Latest Funded Date: Jun 13, 2023
41. koinearth
    • Description: Blockchain and AI enterprise software firm specializing in digital supply chain provenance tracking, asset tokenization, and secure cross-company data sharing protocols.
    • Latest Funded Amount: US$1.8M
    • Latest Funded Date: Mar 05, 2021
42. NIS Solution
    • Description: Regional enterprise technology services provider offering specialized custom software engineering, system integration, cloud deployment, and cybersecurity management for corporate clients.
    • Latest Funded Amount: US$29.3K
    • Latest Funded Date: Jan 26, 2017

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Media, entertainment, gaming & audio

43. Migo
    • Description: Content delivery network utilizing micro-server hardware in local corner stores across Indonesia and the Philippines to let low-income consumers download digital video and educational content data-free.
    • Latest Funded Amount: US$20.0M
    • Latest Funded Date: Feb 10, 2023
44. PicMix
    • Description: Indonesian photo-sharing mobile social platform allowing millions of users to apply artistic filters, share photo collages, interact in interest groups, and participate in brand contests.
    • Latest Funded Amount: US$3.0M
    • Latest Funded Date: Apr 12, 2016
45. Nooble
    • Description: Singaporean audio social platform enabling content creators and casual users to record short-form voice notes, host micro-podcasts, and hold asynchronous voice discussions around trending topics.
    • Latest Funded Amount: US$144.1K
    • Latest Funded Date: Aug 16, 2021
46. Momolay
    • Description: Myanmar digital media portal and entertainment news app delivering localized pop-culture news, celebrity gossip, viral articles, and lifestyle content to mobile readers.
    • Latest Funded Amount: US$200.0K
    • Latest Funded Date: Oct 27, 2015
47. Chate Sat
    • Description: Myanmar digital freelance portal matching local enterprises and agencies with vetted freelance graphic designers, content writers, translators, and web developers.
    • Latest Funded Amount: Undisclosed
    • Latest Funded Date: Oct 03, 2018
48. HaloHola
    • Description: Indonesian transit entertainment network that installed localized Wi-Fi servers on buses, trains, and planes to stream free movies, music, and games to passengers without mobile internet.
    • Latest Funded Amount: Undisclosed
    • Latest Funded Date: 2017
49. UpNext
    • Description: Web3 digital curation platform helping creators and web users aggregate digital links, monetize content streams, organize NFT collections, and engage audience communities.
    • Latest Funded Amount: US$150.0K
    • Latest Funded Date: May 05, 2022
50. i Digital Connect
    • Description: Thai online gaming platform and digital game publisher distributing massively multiplayer online games (MMORPGs) and localized gaming content across Thailand and Southeast Asia.
    • Latest Funded Amount: Undisclosed
    • Latest Funded Date: Oct 12, 2016
51. Playy.World
    • Description: Regional esports social hub enabling mobile gamers to host community tournaments, track player rankings, compete on leaderboards, and win digital gaming rewards.
    • Latest Funded Amount: Undisclosed
    • Latest Funded Date: Jan 08, 2020
52. Allwoman
    • Description: Malaysian digital lifestyle platform and online publisher creating empowerment content, wellness guides, career advice, and community events tailored for modern women.
    • Latest Funded Amount: US$100.0K
    • Latest Funded Date: Jan 10, 2019
53. Trustory
    • Description: Malaysian collaborative debate platform designed to combat online fake news by encouraging users to verify digital claims, cite evidence, and debate news stories.
    • Latest Funded Amount: US$3.0M
    • Latest Funded Date: May 24, 2018

Also Read: High-profile startup failures in Southeast Asia: What went wrong?

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Edutech, healthtech & cleantech

54. Taamkru
    • Description: Thai gamified edtech platform providing interactive preschool learning apps, developmental tracking, and competitive testing benchmarks for young children and parents across Southeast Asia.
    • Latest Funded Amount: US$620.0K
    • Latest Funded Date: Jul 30, 2014
55. EduReviews
    • Description: Malaysian educational review directory allowing parents and students to search, evaluate ratings, and compare private schools, enrichment centers, and tuition courses.
    • Latest Funded Amount: US$266.2K
    • Latest Funded Date: Feb 25, 2021
56. Impact Terra
    • Description: Myanmar agritech social enterprise operating a mobile app for smallholder farmers, delivering localized weather alerts, crop disease management tips, and agricultural market price data.
    • Latest Funded Amount: US$2.3M
    • Latest Funded Date: Mar 19, 2018
57. EcoWorth Tech
    • Description: Singapore cleantech company utilizing proprietary carbon fiber aerogel technology to convert industrial wastewater into reusable clean water while recovering valuable organic liquids.
    • Latest Funded Amount: Undisclosed
    • Latest Funded Date: May 25, 2022
58. NephTech
    • Description: Singapore MedTech startup developing non-invasive vascular access surveillance devices to help hemodialysis centers monitor blood vessel health in end-stage kidney failure patients.
    • Latest Funded Amount: Undisclosed
    • Latest Funded Date: Mar 19, 2020
59. Pesan Lab
    • Description: Indonesian healthtech platform providing on-demand home medical lab testing, permitting patients to book clinical blood tests and health checks delivered by visiting phlebotomists.
    • Latest Funded Amount: Undisclosed
    • Latest Funded Date: 2017
60. Thinkphi
    • Description: Sustainable clean-tech hardware startup engineering umbrella-like structures designed to harvest rainwater, generate solar power, and provide shaded green spaces for urban environments.
    • Latest Funded Amount: US$549.3K
    • Latest Funded Date: May 15, 2018
61. Tera
    • Description: Singapore advanced materials manufacturer producing eco-friendly, ultra-high-barrier protective films and biodegradable barrier packaging for electronics, solar panels, and food preservation.
    • Latest Funded Amount: Undisclosed
    • Latest Funded Date: Aug 24, 2009
62. Exora
    • Description: Philippine digital energy marketplace connecting commercial and industrial power buyers with renewable energy suppliers to facilitate open-market electricity bidding and procurement.
    • Latest Funded Amount: Undisclosed
    • Latest Funded Date: 2018

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Services, lifestyle, travel & on-demand apps

63. Kaodim
    • Description: Leading Malaysian services marketplace matching homeowners and businesses with vetted service professionals, including plumbers, electricians, air-con technicians, and home cleaners.
    • Latest Funded Amount: US$7.0M
    • Latest Funded Date: Nov 06, 2017
64. TokoTalk
    • Description: Indonesian e-commerce SaaS tool helping social sellers turn messaging chats into automated e-commerce web stores with integrated payment processing and delivery dispatch.
    • Latest Funded Amount: US$3.2M
    • Latest Funded Date: Apr 25, 2019
65. Flexible Pass
    • Description: Myanmar fitness and health marketplace providing gym-goers with flexible, multi-venue access to fitness centers, yoga classes, and sports activities through a single pass app.
    • Latest Funded Amount: Undisclosed
    • Latest Funded Date: Aug 13, 2019
66. Adventoro
    • Description: Malaysian travel tech platform providing online bookings for curated adventure tours, eco-tourism activities, outdoor excursions, and authentic local travel experiences in Southeast Asia.
    • Latest Funded Amount: Undisclosed
    • Latest Funded Date: 2017
67. Food2U
    • Description: Early Myanmar food delivery marketplace connecting urban diners with local restaurants for doorstep meal delivery via a mobile app platform.
    • Latest Funded Amount: Undisclosed
    • Latest Funded Date: Apr 23, 2018
68. become
    • Description: Malaysian personalized skincare and beauty marketplace utilizing digital diagnostic quizzes to match consumers with customized skincare routines and products.
    • Latest Funded Amount: US$150.0K
    • Latest Funded Date: Jun 01, 2020
69. Instawash
    • Description: Thailand-based on-demand doorstep mobile car wash service enabling vehicle owners to schedule eco-friendly auto cleaning and detailing at home or work.
    • Latest Funded Amount: Undisclosed
    • Latest Funded Date: Dec 14, 2018
70. JomPaw
    • Description: Malaysian pet services marketplace matching pet owners with reliable local pet sitters, dog walkers, home groomers, and pet trainers.
    • Latest Funded Amount: US$24.8K
    • Latest Funded Date: Jan 17, 2019
71. Globerekker Challenge
    • Description: Singapore corporate health and wellness platform engaging employees in gamified team fitness challenges, step-tracking competitions, and corporate wellness programs.
    • Latest Funded Amount: US$600.0K
    • Latest Funded Date: Sep 28, 2015
72. Box24
    • Description: Thai smart kiosk operator providing automated 24/7 parcel collection lockers, smart dry cleaning drop-offs, and urban laundry services.
    • Latest Funded Amount: Undisclosed
    • Latest Funded Date: 2017
73. Kerjadulu
    • Description: Indonesian social recruiting app linking job candidates directly with company hiring managers through social network connections and instant messaging.
    • Latest Funded Amount: Undisclosed
    • Latest Funded Date: Mar 01, 2016
74. Hoorah
    • Description: Mobile marketing engagement startup offering brands interactive digital loyalty cards, instant consumer reward promotions, and gamified customer retention tools.
    • Latest Funded Amount: US$358.0K
    • Latest Funded Date: Apr 23, 2017
75. Stubapp
    • Description: Regional digital event ticketing app enabling event organizers to create, market, sell mobile tickets, and manage event access control.
    • Latest Funded Amount: US$136.1K
    • Latest Funded Date: Jun 19, 2018
76. Resdi
    • Description: Hyperlocal social platform enabling neighbors to post local alerts, buy and sell second-hand goods, and share community recommendations within their residential zip codes.
    • Latest Funded Amount: US$25.0K
    • Latest Funded Date: Dec 23, 2019

The post The capital drought: Over 7,500 SEA startups extinguished since 2020 appeared first on e27.

Last quarter I reviewed the credit file for a mid-sized Indonesian manufacturer applying for a working capital facility. The numbers were healthy. The covenants were standard. The collateral was sufficient. What stopped me was the customer concentration disclosure: more than 60 per cent of the manufacturer’s annual revenue came from a single buyer in a sector currently subject to US export controls, with components sourced from a Chinese supplier whose parent company appeared on a US entity list earlier this year.

The credit risk, in conventional terms, was manageable. The geopolitical risk inside the credit risk was not, and the bank’s credit policy framework had no formal way of pricing it.

That kind of file is now arriving across ASEAN banking, multifinance, and trade finance functions in volumes the supervisory infrastructure designed for the older version of geopolitical risk has not caught up to.

The shift that happened

For most of the past two decades, geopolitical risk in ASEAN was a macro problem. It showed up as currency stress when capital flowed out, trade volume drops when major partners imposed tariffs, and cross-border funding stress during episodes of dollar tightness. The supervisory toolkit was correspondingly macro, capital adequacy buffers, reserve requirements, foreign exchange limits.

The decisions made in Washington, Beijing, and Moscow since 2024 have pushed risk down two layers, out of the macro statistics and into individual loan files, individual compliance reviews, and individual technology stacks. The macro toolkit has not stopped being useful. It has stopped being sufficient.

Where the imported risk now sits

Four transmission mechanisms deserve to be named.

Supply chain credit risk. ASEAN exporters are increasingly caught between US export controls and Chinese counter-measures. A borrower whose primary customer is now on a sanctions list, or whose primary supplier was added to an entity restriction, has experienced a material change in credit risk that conventional financial statements may not yet reflect.

Also Read: Code, power, and chaos: The geopolitics of cybersecurity

Sanctions compliance burden. The Russia sanctions architecture established since 2022 has been more durable and secondary-effect-heavy than ASEAN compliance teams initially modelled. Banks operating across multiple jurisdictions now face overlapping US, EU, and UK secondary sanctions regimes, with documentation requirements that exceed what regional supervisors require domestically.

USD funding fragmentation. The architecture for dollar funding in Asia has not broken, but it has become more conditional. Episodes of US monetary tightening now carry geopolitical signals attached, counter-China policy, sanctions enforcement, election-cycle volatility, that make dollar funding more expensive and more uncertain than the pre-2024 baseline.

Technology stack geopolitical risk. US export controls on semiconductors, cloud services, and AI infrastructure now reach into the technology stack of ASEAN financial institutions. The vendor a bank depends on for fraud detection, AI scoring, or core banking may itself be subject to restrictions on what it can sell or deploy in specific markets.

Why ASEAN risk teams are behind

Outsourced thinking. For most of the post-1997 period, ASEAN institutions could reasonably outsource geopolitical risk analysis to global research houses, ratings agencies, and the IMF. Since 2024, the gap between global frameworks and ASEAN-specific exposure has widened. The outsourced analysis is no longer applicable in the way it used to be.

Capacity gap. Few ASEAN financial institutions have an in-house geopolitical risk function with depth comparable to their credit, market, or operational risk teams. The volume of files now requiring that kind of analysis exceeds the capacity that exists.

Supervisory silence. ASEAN supervisors have updated frameworks for cyber risk, climate risk, and operational resilience over the past five years. Geopolitical risk frameworks remain conspicuously underdeveloped. The supervisory expectation is unclear, which produces uneven institutional responses.

What is starting to work

Geopolitical exposure mapping. Large ASEAN banks are mapping the geopolitical exposure inside their major credit relationships, which clients are sanctions-exposed, which supply chains run through controlled jurisdictions, which technology dependencies sit inside sanctions architecture.

Also Read: The shifting geopolitics of sustainability, energy, and climate

Geopolitical scenarios in stress testing. Some institutions have added explicit geopolitical scenarios to internal stress tests, a sustained US-China trade dislocation, a Taiwan escalation, a sanctions tightening event, and tested portfolio impact.

Cross-functional geopolitical desks. The institutions making the most progress have created small cross-functional teams including treasury, compliance, credit, and government relations, meeting frequently enough to translate breaking developments into specific portfolio decisions.

What needs to happen

Build in-house geopolitical capability. Outsourcing to global houses is no longer sufficient. ASEAN institutions need staff who can read the same primary sources as their compliance counterparts in New York or London, in real time, and translate them into local decisions.

Update credit policy to include geopolitical exposure. Credit committees should require explicit geopolitical exposure disclosure for material relationships, alongside traditional credit metrics.

Develop supervisory expectations. ASEAN regulators should publish frameworks for geopolitical risk in financial institutions, institution-level frameworks that match what cyber and climate already have.

The macro stakes

For most of my career, geopolitical risk was something ASEAN’s central banks worried about during crises and the rest of the financial sector worried about as background context. That arrangement worked because the geopolitical risks of the post-1997 era were episodic. The current era is not.

The decisions being made in Washington, Beijing, Moscow, and Brussels are now landing inside ASEAN balance sheets month after month, across loan files, vendor contracts, technology stacks, and compliance frameworks. The institutions that adapt their risk infrastructure to that reality will be the ones still functioning when the next material geopolitical shock arrives.

The imported risk is no longer arriving once a decade. It is arriving once a quarter. The risk function that absorbs it has to absorb it that often too.

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The post The imported risk: How geopolitics moved from ASEAN’s macro problem to ASEAN’s balance sheet appeared first on e27.

For much of the last decade, Southeast Asia’s startup story was told through funding milestones, rising valuations and the promise of a young, mobile-first population coming online. But beneath the optimism, another dataset was forming: the companies that did not make it.

Between January 1, 2020, and July 9, 2026, 7,538 technology startups in Southeast Asia deadpooled, according to the Tracxn dataset reviewed. The figure captures a sharp correction after years in which cheap global capital, rapid digital adoption and pandemic-era behaviour shifts encouraged companies to chase scale before proving whether their economics worked.

Also Read: When debt replaces equity: How SEA startups mask a funding winter

The correction was not evenly spread. A deeper look at 76 notable venture-backed startups that shut down shows where the pressure was most severe: e-commerce, social commerce, quick commerce, proptech, co-working, fintech, Web3, logistics, on-demand services, deeptech and media distribution.

Many of these businesses had raised institutional capital. Several had secured more than US$10 million. Yet their models depended on assumptions that stopped holding once interest rates rose and investors began asking harder questions about margins.

The delayed impact of the pandemic boom

The first year of the pandemic did not immediately produce the largest wave of failures. In 2020, 412 startups in the region shut down. Emergency government support, bridge rounds and aggressive cost-cutting helped many companies buy time. Founders also benefited from the belief that digital adoption had permanently accelerated.

The real reckoning came a year later. In 2021, 2,260 startups deadpooled, a 5.5-fold increase from 2020 and the highest annual number in the dataset. These closures reflected the hangover from 2019 and 2020, when valuations often assumed endless growth and abundant capital. Many companies had spent heavily to acquire users, subsidise transactions and enter new markets before demonstrating durable revenue.

In 2022, another 2,059 startups shut down as inflation rose and central banks tightened monetary policy. Together, 2021 and 2022 accounted for 57.3 per cent of all closures in the six-year period. By then, the venture funding winter had moved from boardroom discussion to operational reality.

Late-stage capital became harder to secure, down rounds carried stigma, and companies that had raised at peak valuations found themselves trapped between shrinking runways and difficult reset conversations.

The pace eased in 2023, with 1,121 closures, as many weaker companies had already liquidated and survivors slashed costs. But the pressure returned in 2024, when 1,378 startups shut down. This second wave was driven by companies that had survived on bridge financing in 2022 and 2023, only to run out of options when Series B and Series C capital failed to arrive.

By the latest period, covering 2025 to July 9, 2026, the number had dropped to 308. That does not mean Southeast Asia’s startup ecosystem has become risk-free. It suggests the most indiscriminate phase of the correction has passed, leaving behind fewer companies but, in many cases, more disciplined ones.

Where the business models broke

The highest-profile failures were concentrated in sectors where growth required constant cash injection.

E-commerce and social commerce were among the most exposed. Indonesian fashion platform Sorabel, known for its “try-first-pay-later” model, shut down after exhausting its runway. Direct-to-consumer furniture company Fabelio closed despite raising US$9 million in June 2020, weighed down by inventory, showroom costs and operational complexity.

Social commerce players such as Shox Fashion, which raised US$5.5 million in April 2022, and WOWBID, which secured US$5 million in April 2019, struggled as customer acquisition costs rose and reseller-driven growth became harder to sustain.

Also Read: The capital cost strategy: Why high initial investment is your strongest protection

Quick commerce faced a similar problem. Dropezy, a dark-store grocery delivery startup, collapsed after raising US$2.5 million in September 2021. The thesis was familiar across the region: use dense urban demand and neighbourhood fulfilment centres to deliver daily goods quickly. The challenge was that speed did not automatically translate into healthy margins. Rent, labour, stock management and last-mile delivery costs proved difficult to absorb without subsidies.

Proptech and shared-space companies were hit by another weakness: fixed obligations. Vietnam’s Propzy shut down despite raising US$25 million in Series A funding in June 2020. Indonesia’s CoHive, once one of the country’s largest co-working operators, closed after raising US$13.5 million in June 2019. Student housing platform Oxfordcaps also folded after securing nearly US$1 million in May 2020. These businesses were especially vulnerable because they carried real-world liabilities while trying to deliver venture-style growth.

Fintech and crypto companies faced a different combination of pressures. Liquidity tightened, regulators became more cautious, and investor appetite for speculative models weakened. Crypto wealth manager Cabital closed after a US$4 million raise in September 2021. Web3 protocol Qarbon failed despite raising US$5.5 million in June 2023. Philippine payroll fintech SALPay, which had raised US$7.1 million in December 2017, and DeFi aggregator AlgoBlocks, which secured US$1.9 million in April 2022, also ceased operations.

Logistics and on-demand services were squeezed by thin margins. Freight marketplace Ritase shut down after raising US$8.5 million in May 2019, while Malaysian services marketplace Kaodim folded despite raising US$7.0 million in November 2017. Delivery app CarPal also closed after securing US$2.8 million in April 2017. In these categories, scale was supposed to improve utilisation and reduce costs. In practice, fragmented demand, driver supply issues and price competition often kept profitability out of reach.

Even deeptech and media infrastructure were not spared. Enterprise AI company Taiger shut down after raising US$25 million in July 2019. Migo, which raised US$20 million in February 2023 to distribute digital content through offline hardware in Indonesian corner stores, also ceased operations after its capital needs overtook revenue generation.

Three lessons from the deadpool

The first lesson is that timing matters. More than 60 per cent of the 76 notable companies raised their final funding rounds between 2019 and 2021. Many built teams, operations and market plans for a world where capital would remain cheap. When that world disappeared in 2022, cutting fast enough became almost impossible.

The second lesson is that gross merchandise value can mislead. For years, startups reported transaction volumes and user growth as proof of momentum. But GMV does not pay salaries, rent or delivery costs. Once subsidies stopped, companies with weak contribution margins had little room to manoeuvre.

Also Read: The capital drought: Over 7,500 SEA startups extinguished since 2020

The third lesson is that Southeast Asia punishes premature expansion. The region is often discussed as one market, but it is a patchwork of different languages, regulations, payment behaviours, logistics networks and consumer expectations. Expanding across ASEAN before winning at home multiplied burn without necessarily building a moat.

The shakeout is painful, but it is not only a story of failure. It marks the end of a cycle in which capital often substituted for product-market fit. The next generation of founders will still pursue large markets, but they will be expected to show clearer paths to cash flow, stronger unit economics and more careful capital allocation.

For Southeast Asia, that may be the healthier reality. The ecosystem is smaller than the boom years promised, but it is also becoming harder to fool.

The post Anatomy of a shakeout: what 7K+ deadpooled startups reveal about Southeast Asia’s new tech reality appeared first on e27.