DATA VANTAGE | SE Asia ESG funds and startup financials in focus
Edition #451, 11 March 2025
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Dear Reader,
Southeast Asia’s ESG-focused funds have not escaped the broader funding downturn, with new data from DealStreetAsia’s DATA VANTAGE biannual report highlighting a significant slowdown in capital commitments to this sector.
In 2024, only two ESG-focused funds reached their final close: Shift4Good’s debut fund, which secured $230 million; and Intudo Ventures’s $50-million Natural Resources & Renewable Energy Fund. This marks a dramatic drop from 2023, when six ESG funds were closed successfully; and a decrease from four in 2022.
Looking beyond final closes, the data paint a similarly bleak picture. In 2024, just four fundraising milestones were recorded for ESG funds, raising a total of $305 million. This is a sharp contrast to the 13 milestones in 2023 and 11 in 2022, underscoring the challenging fundraising environment for ESG investors.
Source: DealStreetAsia’s DATA VANTAGE
The decline in ESG fundraising reflects the broader slowdown in the venture capital ecosystem across Southeast Asia, where capital commitments have become more cautious and selective. As investors continue to tighten their purse strings, ESG funds, which were once a rapidly growing sector, are now facing heightened competition for limited capital.
This trend suggests that ESG-focused investments, while still an area of interest for some, may need to adapt to the current market conditions in order to maintain investor confidence and secure the necessary capital for growth.
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Other updates from DATA VANTAGE
India-based blockchain startup [redacted] staged a turnaround in the 12-month period ended March 2024, posting nearly $1 million in profit as it capitalised on growing enterprise adoption of the distributed ledger technology.
Also, in the same period, [redacted], a Singapore-based firm specialising in machine learning and AI solutions for business forecasting and planning, experienced a 34% decline in revenue but managed to maintain profitability, reflecting improved cost efficiencies.
Another Singapore-based company specialising in machine learning and AI but with a focus on machine maintenance and workplace safety, [redacted], achieved a more than threefold increase in revenue for the 12-month period ended March 2024, our database shows.
Singapore-based security firm [redacted] recorded a 79% year-on-year increase in revenue for the same period, though its bottom line saw a slight decline, reflecting the company’s continued investment in scaling its Web3 security solutions.
The Singapore entity of [redacted], a company developing a SaaS platform to help businesses enhance their ESG performance, managed to narrow its losses, reflecting an improving operating environment and greater adoption of sustainability-driven solutions.
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