Asia’s startup funding rose sequentially in the third quarter, boosted by a handful of hardtech-focused megarounds.
Overall, investors put $16.8 billion into reported seed- through growth-stage rounds for companies across Asia, per Crunchbase data. That’s a 20% increase from the prior quarter and a 16% rise from the year-ago period.
But while funding is up in the short-term, investment remains well below the levels typical a few years ago. In multiple quarters in 2021 and 2022, funding was more than twice current levels.
Still, sequential improvement is a positive indicator. And for Q3, it’s also encouraging that reported round counts were up along with total funding, rising by around 10% from Q2.
Table of contents
China leads, India lags
Funding gains were unequally distributed among countries in the region, with some posting sharp gains and others seeing investment fall.
China: China, the region’s largest recipient of venture investment, was among those in the plus column. Funding to China’s startups hit $6.2 billion in Q3, up 13% from an unusually weak Q2. Even with those gains, however, China funding is down from a year ago and far below 2022 and 2023 levels.
The largest financing went to Galactic Energy Aerospace Technology, a developer of commercial launch vehicles, that raised $337 million in a late-September financing. Two robotics-focused companies, X Square and EngineAI, also secured $140 million each.
India: India, the second-largest venture funding destination in Asia, saw investment contract in the third quarter. Per Crunchbase data, a total of $2.7 billion went to reported rounds for India-based startups in Q3, down 22% quarter over quarter and the lowest tally in two years.
Even so, there were some larger rounds in the mix. Truemeds, an online pharmacy and telemedicine app, picked up $65 million in Series C funding. And Flipspaces, a design tech brand, closed on $50 million.
Singapore, Israel and other top funding destinations
While China and India, with roughly 60% of Asia’s population, are predictably the continent’s largest venture markets, several smaller countries also proved popular with investors.
Singapore: Startups in the Southeast Asian financial capital landed a combined $2.4 billion in Q3, nearly triple year-ago levels. The quarter included a $220 million Series C for Airalo, an eSIM provider for mobile devices enabling data connectivity for travelers.
Israel: Funding to Israeli startups was estimated at $1.4 billion in Q3 — down from the prior quarter, but still up significantly from a year earlier.
Noma Security, a cybersecurity platform for AI and autonomous agents, closed on the largest venture fund, a $100 million Series B. The next-biggest was a $96 million Series B for Exodigo, based in Silicon Valley and Tel Aviv, focused on underground mapping.
UAE, South Korea, Japan and Saudi Arabia: For other Asian nations, fluctuation was the only consistent attribute for funding levels.
United Arab Emirates was one of the gainers, largely due to big rounds for Dubai-based companies. One standout was Xpanceo, a developer of connected smart contact lenses that pulled in $250 million in a July Series A.
South Korea funding also ticked up in Q3. The largest round for the quarter was a $250 million financing for AI semiconductor startup Rebellions.
Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, clinched a big round with payments platform Hala closing on $157 million for its Series B. And in Japan, overall funding was down, but we did see some jumbo-sized rounds, including a $100 million Series B for back-office automation provider LayerX.
Late stage, early stage and seed
Overall, late-stage and technology-growth deals captured the largest share of funding across Asia.
For Q3, investors put $8.3 billion into 151 reported rounds at these stages. In dollar terms, it was the highest quarterly total for the year.
Early-stage dealmaking also saw a pickup in Q3, with reported investment hitting $6.7 billion, also a quarterly high for the year.
At seed, meanwhile, it appears investment declined in Q3 based on reported totals. However, we expect these numbers to rise some over time, as deals at this stage are often recorded in the dataset weeks or months after they close.
AI funding rises
We also broke out the share of Asian funding going to AI-focused companies, given the popularity of this investment theme in recent quarters. For Q3, AI-related investment rose significantly, hitting the highest total on record.
Better, but still room for improvement
Overall, Asia startup funding tallies for the third quarter indicate some improvement in the flow of investment. Given that the region is home to most of the world’s population and still pulls in a disproportionately small share of total funding, clearly there’s room for growth.
Perhaps we’ll see some more progress in that direction next quarter.
Methodology
The data contained in this report comes directly from Crunchbase, and is based on reported data. Data is as of Oct. 6, 2025.
Note that data lags are most pronounced at the earliest stages of venture activity, with seed funding amounts increasing significantly after the end of a quarter/year.
Please note that all funding values are given in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted.
Crunchbase converts foreign currencies to U.S. dollars at the prevailing spot rate from the date funding rounds, acquisitions, IPOs and other financial events are reported. Even if those events were added to Crunchbase long after the event was announced, foreign currency transactions are converted at the historic spot price.
Glossary of funding terms
Seed and angel consists of seed, pre-seed and angel rounds. Crunchbase also includes venture rounds of unknown series, equity crowdfunding and convertible notes at $3 million (USD or as-converted USD equivalent) or less.
Early-stage consists of Series A and Series B rounds, as well as other round types. Crunchbase includes venture rounds of unknown series, corporate venture and other rounds above $3 million, and those less than or equal to $15 million.
Late-stage consists of Series C, Series D, Series E and later-lettered venture rounds following the “Series [Letter]” naming convention. Also included are venture rounds of unknown series, corporate venture and other rounds above $15 million. Corporate rounds are only included if a company has raised an equity funding at seed through a venture series funding round.
Technology growth is a private-equity round raised by a company that has previously raised a “venture” round. (So basically, any round from the previously defined stages.)
Illustration: Dom Guzman
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