BRAVE Southeast Asia Tech: Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines, Thailand & Malaysia Startups, Founders & Venture Capital VC (English)
Southeast Asia's venture market is not in a downturn. It is in a structural winter, and mid-2026 is when that distinction stopped being academic.
Kristie Neo returns to break down what is actually happening across the region: Singapore's IPO revival is real but is being carried by data centres and REITs rather than homegrown tech; allocators now rank Southeast Asia at the bottom of Asia behind China, India, Japan, Korea and ANZ; and a generation of growth-stage companies is being kept alive past the point where a merger or a wind-down would have served everyone better. Jeremy Au and Kristie also work through what could actually restart the funding ladder, from encouraging tech M&A and fixing university IP commercialisation, to tax incentives for angels and support for syndicate leads who can assemble the $1 million to $5 million rounds that Singapore currently cannot fill. If you are a founder raising in Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines, Thailand or Malaysia, or an LP trying to work out where capital goes next in Asia, this is the honest state of the market.
Watch, listen or read the full insight at https://www.bravesea.com/blog/kristie-neo-southeast-asia-zombie-unicorns
BRAVE is Southeast Asia's leading tech podcast, hosted by Jeremy Au. Honest conversations with the region's top founders, investors, and operators on building startups in Southeast Asia.
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#SoutheastAsia #VentureCapital #SingaporeIPO
00:00 Intro
01:00 Singapore's IPO revival and what is really lifting SGX
06:30 Safe haven status and the Indonesia allocation problem
09:34 Why Southeast Asia sits at the bottom of the allocator stack
14:58 A generation of zombie companies
18:07 The case for mergers, folds and consolidation
21:50 Fixing the funding ladder: who writes the first check
23:55 The IP commercialisation gap and university tech licensing
35:15 Rethinking how governments seed VC funds
41:24 Where can an LP put money today
45:00 Incentivising angels, syndicates and family offices
52:43 The information gap and parting thoughts