Asian Startup Funding Fell In 2025 But Rose In Q4

Funding to Asia-based startups ticked lower in 2025. Even so, the fourth quarter closed out the annum on an up note, with the highest quarterly investment tally of the year, Crunchbase data shows.

In total, investors poured $67.5 billion into reported seed- through growth-stage rounds for companies across Asia in last year, per Crunchbase data. That’s a decline of about 6% from 2024, and the lowest annual total in five years.

The lackluster numbers resulted mostly from weak investment in the first half of the year. Momentum picked up in the latter half, boosted in particular by rising investment in Chinese startups.

Funding gains culminated in Q4, with $21.7 billion in reported investments. That’s a rise of 19% quarter over quarter, and 22% year over year. The increase was most pronounced for late-stage dealmaking.

For broader perspective, below we look at dealmaking across stages and country-by-country, as well as focus on AI-focused investment.

Table of contents

Late stage

Later-stage startups received the largest share of funding, so that’s where we’ll start.

An estimated $10.4 billion went to Asia-based companies at Series C and beyond in Q4, per Crunchbase data, the highest quarterly total of the year. For the full year, meanwhile, later-stage and technology growth investment totaled $30.8 billion.

For Q4, a few jumbo rounds for China-based startups played a big role in boosting the totals. These included a reported $874 million Series C for EV brand Deepal, a $600 million Series D for autonomous delivery vehicle provider Neolix, and a $500 million Series C for agentic AI company Moonshot AI.

Early stage

Early-stage investors also ended the year on a positive note, with $8.9 billion in reported Q4 deals, the highest quarterly total of the year. For the full year, funding at Series A and Series B stages totaled $28.2 billion, down about 10% year over year.

A few large individual rounds lifted the tallies. This included NeueHCT, a startup focused on intelligent driving technology, and AA-I Technologies, an Israeli startup focused on artificial general intelligence, which each picked up $200 million financings.

Seed stage

Seed-stage investment moved higher in Q4, with $2.1 billion in reported deals, the highest total in the past four quarters. We expect the tally to rise a bit more over time, as well, as more deals are added later to the dataset.

For the full year, meanwhile, reported seed funding to startups in Asia was estimated at $8.2 billion. That’s down about 6% from 2024.

AI investment

Artificial intelligence investment also scaled to record heights in 2025, peaking in the fourth quarter.

For the full year, investment to startups in Crunchbase AI-related categories totaled $16.7 billion. Of that, just over 38% was in Q4.

Country-by-country funding tallies

While China’s startup funding remains far below historical highs, the country remains the leading destination for Asia’s venture investment. Next is India, followed by Israel, Japan and Singapore.

For Q4, we saw China widen its lead some, bolstered by large deals around electric vehicles, autonomous driving and AI infrastructure.

The big picture: Restrained, but looking up

Overall, funding tallies paint an image of an investment environment that’s constrained, but with some bullish undertones. One particularly positive indicator is that investment picked up in Q4, indicating momentum is upward, not downward.

Still, funding remains well below peak levels. So there’s a lot of catching up to do.

Methodology

The data contained in this report comes directly from Crunchbase, and is based on reported data. Data is as of Jan. 4, 2026.

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.)

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Illustration: Dom Guzman