Startup funding in Asia surged in the first quarter of this yr, helped by a rebound in Chinese enterprise investment.
Overall, investors committed $27.4 billion to financing Asian corporations from seed to growth in the first quarter, based on Crunchbase data. This is roughly 20% greater than in the previous quarter and almost twice as much as a yr ago.
Total funding also reached its highest level in over three years, as shown below.
Funds went into larger rounds, no more of them. According to Crunchbase data, the number of transactions remained stable from the previous quarter and regularly increased in comparison with year-ago levels. Overall, the number of deals has not modified significantly from quarter to quarter over the past few years, as you possibly can see in the chart below.
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Most of the profits go to China
It is estimated that around $16.5 billion, or 60% of all Asian startup financing, went to China-based startups in the first quarter. It was also the third consecutive quarter of increased financing for Chinese enterprise firms, which reached a multi-year low in the first half of 2025.
Artificial intelligence funding has driven profits in China. All of the quarter’s largest rounds went to AI corporations, including entry-level startups StepFunagent AI company Moonshot AIand creator of artificial intelligence-enabled robots Galactic Robot.
After China, the next largest recipient of enterprise funding in Asia was India, with investments of $3.8 billion recorded in the first quarter, the highest figure in the last 4 quarters. A big part of the funds went to the largest capital round this quarter, amounting to $600 million for AI system developers Neysa.
Below is a breakdown of enterprise capital funding by country and seven leading investment hubs in Asia, showing regional funding trends from 2023.
Funding increased throughout the stages, with most of it being transferred to a later stage
Later-stage, early-stage and seed funding increased sequentially in the first quarter.
Of these, later stage and technology development deals garnered the largest share of funding, estimated at $11.7 billion in the first quarter. By far the largest late-stage round in the quarter was a $2 billion Series C for a Singapore-based data center company Day one.
Overall, this was the highest later-stage performance in five quarters, as shown below.
The early stage was also strong
Early-stage investment also increased in the first quarter, reaching its highest level in two years.
According to Crunchbase data, an estimated $11.2 billion went to Asian corporations at the Series A and Series B stages. That’s almost double the year-ago figure and an increase of about 17% over the previous quarter, as shown in the chart below.
Seed also showed growth
Investors also allocated extra money to seed-stage corporations where artificial intelligence is the major driving force.
Approximately $3.6 billion was committed to reported seed and angel rounds in the first quarter, up 85% year-over-year and 45% quarter-over-quarter. The reported number of deals has declined barely, indicating capital is concentrated in a smaller subset of hot startups. However, we expect this number to extend over time, as seed deals are often added to the dataset weeks after they close.
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A record quarter for AI
It can be absurd to shut a quarterly report today without mentioning how much investment has gone into artificial intelligence.
According to Crunchbase data, Asian startups operating in artificial intelligence categories earned roughly $11.2 billion in the first quarter, the highest total we have ever recorded.
Looking up
Overall, the quarterly data shows growing momentum in China’s startup ecosystem, which is driving much of Asia’s rising funding totals. Investment in startups in India, Singapore and South Korea also increased in the first quarter, while funding for Israel declined barely.
Overall, it was a solid quarter, full of signs of optimism about the growth of the regional startup pipeline.
Methodology
The data in this report comes directly from Crunchbase and is based on reported data. Data is as of March 31, 2026.
Please note that data transfer delays are most noticeable in the earliest stages of a enterprise, with seed funding amounts increasing significantly after quarter/yr end.
Please note that each one financing amounts are in US dollars unless otherwise noted. Crunchbase converts foreign exchange to U.S. dollars at the spot rate in effect on the date financing rounds, acquisitions, IPOs and other financial events are reported. Even if these events were added to Crunchbase long after the event was announced, foreign currency transactions are converted at the historical spot price.
Glossary of financing terms
Seeds and Angels consist of seed, pre-seed and angel rounds. Crunchbase also includes enterprise rounds of unknown series, equity crowdfunding, and convertible notes with a size of $3 million (in U.S. dollars or a U.S. dollar equivalent) or less.
The early stage consists of Series A and Series B rounds, in addition to other types of rounds. Crunchbase includes enterprise rounds of unknown series, corporate ventures and other rounds above $3 million and those valued at lower than or equal to $15 million.
The Late Stage consists of Series C, Series D, Series E, and later lettered expedition rounds following the “Series [Letter]” naming convention. Also included are enterprise rounds of unknown series, corporate ventures, and other rounds over $15 million. Corporate rounds are included only if the company has raised seed financing as part of a series enterprise financing round.
A technology development is a private equity round led by a company that has previously raised a “venture” round. (Basically any round from the pre-defined stages.)