Southeast Asia Tech Investment 2023–2024 (Cento Ventures)

Summary

• A total of $8.1B was invested across 1,186 deals in Southeast Asia during 2023–2024, effectively setting the ecosystem back eight years to 2016 investment levels.p.8
• By H2 2024, digital financial services (DFS) emerged as the dominant growth driver, absorbing 74% of all venture capital deployed in the region.p.14
• Mega-deals ($100M+) dropped to a historical low of $2.1B in 2023–2024, less than half of the $5.3B peak reached in H2 2021 alone.p.10
• The Philippines has re-emerged as a primary investment destination, benefiting from the digital banking boom and capital shifting away from consumer-led theses in Indonesia.p.13
• Non-venture financing events, including non-fiat investments, project financing, and corporate subsidiary investments, added $2.88B outside the core framework in 2023–2024.p.7
• Core payments remained the largest sub-sector within DFS, attracting $1,541M (46%) of capital invested in financial services across 2023–2024.p.16

Key insights

1. The rising use of debt instruments and convertible notes kept the number of priced equity rounds low, cushioning valuation drops but obscuring the true pace of market correction.p.4
2. Early-stage deals experienced a sudden collapse in mid-2024, with seed and pre-Series A capital dropping to new lows from their H1 2023 peak.p.12
3. Companies focused on digital financial services achieved the highest capital efficiency ratios (valuation at exit divided by funds raised) among top tech exits over the last decade.p.23
4. Core payments generated 61% ($2,852M) of all digital financial services exit proceeds in Southeast Asia from 2020 through 2024.p.24
5. Government fund-of-funds initiatives in Malaysia provided liquidity that helped drive up Series A valuations in the local market.p.17
6. Consumer lending and digital banking investment remained resilient through 2024, whereas business lending dropped due to high-profile SME platform failures.p.16
7. Liquidity from IPOs has largely dried up, forcing liquidity events toward trade sales, secondaries, and take-private transactions.p.22