Funding for fintech in South-east Asia in 2025 drops to lowest level since 2016: UOB, PwC and SFA report

[SINGAPORE] Funding for fintechs in South-east Asia for the nine-month period ending Sep 30, 2025, has fallen to the lowest amount since 2016, said a report by UOB, PwC Singapore and Singapore FinTech Association (SFA).

Both funding amount and deals have declined in the nine-month period in 2025 compared with the same period in 2024. Funding in the region fell 36 per cent to around US$835 million, while deals dropped 60 per cent to 53 deals in the period.

The region secured US$1.8 billion in fintech funding in 2024.

This is bucking the trend, as fintech funding globally rose 13 per cent to US$27.8 billion in the same nine-month period.

The report attributes this to shallower equity and debt markets.

There is a concentration of funding among later-stage fintech startups, with 67 per cent of funding captured by this segment.

This reflects investors’ focus to shift from early-stage startups to later-stage ones chasing profitability, scalability and a sustainable business model.

The average late-stage deal size has grown 40 per cent to US$112 million, driven by three deals totalling nearly US$450 million.

“The rise in average deal size and strong performance of late-stage companies underscore investor confidence in the region’s long-term potential as a thriving digital economy,” said Janet Young, managing director and group head of channels and digitalisation and strategic communications and brand at UOB.

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Singapore continued to snag most of fintech funding in the nine-month period in 2025, getting about 87 per cent of total fintech funding.

By contrast, Indonesia and Thailand saw their share of funding fall. Indonesia’s share of funding fell from 15 per cent in 2024 to 4 per cent in the nine-month period in 2025. Thailand’s share of funding plunged from 12 per cent in 2024 to less than 1 per cent in the nine-month period of 2025.

Across the region, funding was noticeably quieter, with the Philippines getting about 4 per cent of total funding, followed by Vietnam at 3 per cent and Malaysia at 2 per cent.

Payments came out as the top funded sector in the nine-month period of 2025, getting about 41 per cent of total funding, while 2024’s leader, banking tech, fell to about 3 per cent compared with 29 per cent in 2024.

Holly Fang, president of SFA, said: “The sector’s focus on sustainable growth and profitability marks an important step in the maturation of the fintech ecosystem, where firms are being tested on their ability to sustain innovation amid an increasingly volatile and uncertain environment.”