If the first week of the new year is any indication, 2026 could be another year of heightened geopolitical strain. The recent US military intervention in Venezuela and Washington’s vocal designs on Greenland have ramifications beyond the Western hemisphere and the Arctic Circle.
In Asia, the implications are being closely watched, particularly for China’s deep interests in the Latin American country’s oil, precious metals and critical raw materials industries, as my colleagues Michelle Teo and Eudora Wang wrote in this week’s edition of our private equity newsletter Beyond the Buyout.
In the private capital markets, this backdrop of power rivalry adds another layer of complexity as not just growth or execution risk, but geopolitical exposure, too, has to be priced in for capital allocation.
While perhaps not as frenetic as the war room in Washington, our newsroom, too, stayed active during the holidays, publishing a steady stream of analyses and guest posts.
Private markets in mainland China were a hive of activity in the last week of December, wrapping up some of the year’s biggest transactions in the deeptech sector. At least seven deeptech megadeals were sealed across AI, electric vehicles, semiconductors, and medtech. The funds were raised by AI unicorn Moonshot AI; EV maker Deepal Automobile Technology; NIO-backed battery asset operator WN Power; and semiconductor firm SIMIC Holdings, among others.
Notably, we published a series of reports as part of a Rewiring ASEAN series that looks into the outlook for Southeast Asia’s private equity markets in 2026. Amid rising global protectionism, major Southeast Asian economies are pursuing growth-oriented policy shifts. Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore are leading reform efforts, while Indonesia is gradually rebuilding investor confidence despite policy controversies. The Philippines has underperformed but shows promise through capital-attracting initiatives, and Thailand stands out for strong private equity distributions, supported by resilient consumption and a solid manufacturing base.
You can read all our year-enders here, or scroll down for the latest updates.
Interviews and analyses
The rollback of US green incentives under the Trump administration is redirecting global climate tech momentum towards Asia, where governments are proactively “latching onto these opportunities” with new green initiatives, executives at APAC-focused climate tech specialist fund Audacy said in an interview. The expectation that Asia will emerge as a key global climate tech hub has driven Audacy to launch a blind-pool fund, with a hard cap of $100 million.
Audacy is also attending DealStreetAsia’s upcoming Indonesia PE-VC Summit 2026 in Jakarta on Jan 29, with co-founder and general partner Li Hua Tan speaking at a panel titled ‘How emerging markets are driving climate action?’
In another interview Gunther Hamm, president of HOPU Investments said the private equity market in Asia Pacific is entering a “golden first wave” of control investments driven by founder successions, MNCs divesting Asian subsidiaries, and regional owners’ divestment from overseas investments. HOPU returned $1.2 billion to its LPs throughout 2025 by leveraging its nearly two decades of control investing expertise and by building “a geographically balanced portfolio”.
Peter Kim, Partner and Head of Asia at Coller Capital, spoke to us about the growing adoption of secondaries solutions across Asia, which has “meaningfully improved liquidity”. More LP sellers are entering the market, coupled with better pricing on diversified portfolios, supported by global dry powder and evergreen capital. The increasing adoption of secondaries as a portfolio management tool, will continue to drive their growth in Asia, despite their relative nascency in the region, opined Kim.
CFOs of Southeast Asia’s tech champions GoTo, Grab and Sea Ltd. spoke to us on their plans for 2026. The companies are entering the year at a pivotal moment as their long-awaited push toward profitability starts to show results.
We also published an analysis on Indonesian telcos spinning off their fibre networks into standalone platforms—a sign of structural pressure on the traditional integrated telco model. Cases in point: Telkom transferred over half its fibre assets into InfraNexia in a $2.1 billion deal, and Indosat followed with FiberCo, valuing its fibre business at $867 million. Experts say fibre is increasingly becoming a utility-like business with limited pricing power, making separation essential to unlock capacity.
Funding news
Singapore-based SCI Ecommerce has raised $31.87 million in fresh funding, as the company reportedly plans an IPO. This week’s share purchases were led by growth equity firm Asia Partners, Sentient Enablers Holdings, and EDB Investments.
Indonesian digital staffing platform Staffinc has secured new funding from Mynavi Corporation and AppWorks, among others. Its previous funding was in March 2024 for $5.1 million from Altara Ventures and Mynavi Corporation, as part of a Series B1 round, which commenced in 2023.
Indonesian jobs platform Pintarnya has secured $14 million in a credit facility from January Capital’s $130-million private credit fund—the Growth Credit Fund.
Early-stage venture capital firm Bessemer Venture Partners and Zerodha founder Nithin Kamath are understood to have emerged as the frontrunners to acquire a stake in a Bangalore-based healthcare management platform.
Peak XV Partners has increased its stake in Indian fintech startup FloBiz to 19.1% from 16.8%, making it the company’s third-largest shareholder. The transaction reflects Peak XV’s continued conviction in the SMB-focused fintech segment, which offers digital payments and business management tools to small merchants across India.
Sirion, a Tiger Global– and Peak XV-backed enterprise SaaS company, has agreed to sell a majority stake to US private equity firm Haveli Investments. Reuters reported, citing sources, that Haveli’s stake is expected to be up to 90%, and the deal values all of Sirion at around $1 billion.
LP-GP news
Taiwanese startup accelerator AppWorks reached a $165-million final close for its fourth venture fund, almost $200 million lower than its original target. A global capital markets correction and a broader venture recalibration, triggered by the US Fed’s earlier rate hikes, forced the firm to reassess its initial $360-million fund corpus.
Seraya Partners, the Singapore-based private equity firm focused on next-generation infrastructure, is understood to be nearing the first close of its second fund, according to sources familiar with the matter.
Warburg Pincus has raised $3 billion in the final close of its latest financial services fund, surpassing a $2.5 billion target. Warburg Pincus Financial Sector III, launched in 2024, is the firm’s largest dedicated financial services fund to date. Warburg Pincus looks to deploy fresh capital into banks, insurers, payments, and other finance-related businesses through the vehicle.
And finally, with the FIFA World Cup set to kick off later this year, private equity is deepening its push into professional sport. KKR’s purchase, this week, of Arctos Partners, which owns stakes in European football giants Liverpool and Paris Saint-Germain, reflects the growing influence of private equity in sports.
Some global rivalries, at least, are better settled on the sporting field.
