Overview
- The 10th e‑Conomy SEA report by Google, Temasek and Bain projects the region’s GMV to surpass US$300 billion in 2025, with US$299 billion recorded by June and about US$305 billion on a newly expanded 10‑country view.
- Private funding rose about 15% year on year to roughly US$7.7 billion in the 12 months to June 2025, still around 70% below the 2021 high, with a pronounced shift away from seed-to-Series B toward late-stage rounds.
- AI drew a large share of capital, accounting for about 32% of H1 2025 funding, as more than 680 AI startups secured over US$2.3 billion in the year to June.
- Singapore emerged as the regional AI hub, hosting nearly 500 of the startups and capturing about 55% of private AI investment from H2 2024 to H1 2025, or roughly US$1.31 billion.
- Data-centre capacity in Southeast Asia is projected to expand about 2.8 times on planned builds—led by Malaysia’s pipeline—while core sectors such as e‑commerce are scaling, with 2025 online retail sales expected at about US$185 billion and video commerce nearing a quarter of that total.