Angels in the funding winter

MANY of us are no stranger to the term “funding winter” by now. With high interest rates driving investors to safer investment options, obtaining funding has become tough for startups globally. 

But is it really all doom and gloom? Angel investors that Garage correspondent Sharanya Pillai spoke to do not think so. In particular, long-time angel investor James Tan feels that downturns are the best time for fresh bets. “My best angel investments today were made in the early days of the recovery from the Great Recession,” he says.

Some sectors and regions remain bright spots for investments. Deep tech, for one, is a rising field in South-east Asia, with the proportion of deep tech deals trending upwards from 9 per cent in H1 2020 to 14 per cent in H1 2023, according to DealStreetAsia. Singapore also accounted for about three-quarters of the total deep-tech deal volume in South-east Asia in the first nine months of 2023, said Enterprise Singapore.