The $13 billion costume

SEA of Startups · Oct 14, 2026 · 29m

In the first nine months of this year, startups in Southeast Asia raised more than $13 billion. A record. Depending on whose tracker you believe, that is somewhere between a 120% and a 170% jump on last year.

Hold on to that range for a second. Two serious data providers, looking at the same region over the same nine months, cannot agree on the number. That is not an accident, and we will come back to it.

Here is the second number, and it is the one I want you to actually feel. Of that $13 billion, seed and angel rounds, the first real cheque a brand new company gets, came to about $270…