We’ve just closed our pre-seed funding round with A2D Ventures and Innospace Thailand as our lead investors, joined by angel investors from Shopee and 500 Startups. To our early backers: thank you for putting your trust in us. We’re excited to build something meaningful together.

Let me be honest. Raising capital in Southeast Asia this year has been tougher than ever. A VC told me something recently that captured the sentiment perfectly:

“We’re deploying just 5% of what we used to two years ago.”

That line stayed with me. So I wanted to share a few reflections that might help other founders navigating the same journey.

The Southeast Asian market has shifted from hype to proof. Investors aren’t writing checks based on vision alone anymore. They want traction, early signs of product-market fit, and a clear path to revenue. Personally, I think this shift is healthy. It forces founders to build with profitability and durability in mind — the kind of companies that survive beyond a single cycle.

One veteran regional VC told me something else that stuck: Southeast Asia may produce fewer unicorns in the next decade, but there’s still plenty of room for startups to reach the $100M+ range — enough to deliver 10–50x returns. If you’re building purely for Southeast Asia, that’s the realistic ceiling. But if you’re aiming global — US, Europe, India, China — the ceiling changes completely. It’s a choice you have to make early. And if global scale is your target, you may want to go straight to ecosystems where capital pools are deeper and risk appetite is higher.

The other big lesson for me as a first-time founder: join an accelerator. It was one of the best decisions we made. You meet incredible builders, you learn fast, and you get access to VCs who come looking for startups on Demo Day.

I’m grateful to Ted and Ankit for building Venture Spark — one of the strongest accelerators in Thailand. Placing in the top 5 gave us visibility with regional investors, many of whom are now in conversations with us for future rounds. Accelerators give you a credibility boost that’s hard to get anywhere else. Investors know you’ve been vetted, coached, and prepared to pitch.

So if you’re fundraising right now and finding it tough, you’re not alone. The climate really has shifted. It’s worth spending a little more time upfront securing early traction and revenue commitments before stepping into a VC conversation.

Wishing you all the best in your journey. And if I can help in any way, feel free to reach out.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alvinkanpura/