May 2025 Investment Snapshot: Capital Wakes Up Hungry

After a sleepy Q1 start, Q2 kicked down the door with a vengeance. May 2025 brought the kind of funding energy Southeast Asia and MENA haven’t seen since pre-2022 highs. Investors weren’t just back—they were bold, backing AI, batteries, biotech, and browser security like the world depended on it.

Southeast Asia took the spotlight with Singapore at the center of the storm, but the entire region saw heat, from Jakarta’s construction-tech trenches to Vietnam’s mortgage marketplaces. Meanwhile, the Middle East sharpened its focus on next-gen tools: generative AI, quantum computing, satellite imaging, even Arabic-language content automation. This wasn’t just funding, it was future casting with money.

Let’s break it down.

Southeast Asia: Funding Frenzy 2.0

Forget the slowdown. Southeast Asia is sprinting:

• Thunes (Singapore): Raised $150M for its global payments platform. Apis and Vitruvian wrote the checks. Fintech fatigue? Not here.

• Whale (Singapore): Grabbed $60M from Bosch Ventures, MTR Lab, and Singtel Innov8 for its retail-focused enterprise AI. No one's sleeping on commerce AI anymore.

• Nuevocor (Singapore): $45M to push gene therapy for heart disease. Led by European life science funds with Singapore’s ClavystBio and Boehringer Ingelheim onboard.

• Manabie (Singapore): $23M for its online/offline edtech model, led by Japanese giants. Who said hybrid learning was dead?

• VFlowTech (Singapore): $20.5M for energy storage innovation. Backed by Granite Asia and PSA Ventures.

• SquareX (Singapore): $20M Series A for cybersecurity. U.S.-based SYN Ventures leads the charge to make your browser bulletproof.

• Brik (Indonesia): $10M to digitize Southeast Asia’s construction supply chain. Jungle Ventures and Accel co-led it like it was 2015.

Rounding out the frenzy: early-stage activity in Indonesia (Ringkas, Remind), Vietnam (Citics), and Singapore (Hyperbots, BrioHR). From waste recycling to workflow AI to HR tech, Q2's narrative is simple: money's back — and it’s curious.

New Funds Brewing

• Investigate VC (SG) launched a $500M AI-powered global fund. Expect robotic diligence and fast wires.

• Headline Asia locked $145M to fuel early-stage startups across SEA, Japan, and Taiwan.

MENA: Moonshots and Megadeals

From the Nile to Neom, MENA saw investors making bets that read like sci-fi. Here’s who cashed in:

• AI21 Labs (Israel): A massive $300M Series D to keep building LLMs. Google and Nvidia led the charge. Silicon Wadi strikes again.

• Classiq (Israel): $110M for quantum computing software. Entrée, Norwest, and NightDragon were among the believers.

• Nawy (Egypt): $52M equity + $23M in bank debt to digitize real estate and mortgages. Partech, e& Capital, and March Capital liked the odds.

• Sylndr (Egypt): $15.7M to expand used-car sales + auto financing. DPI, Nuwa, Algebra, and Raed joined the race.

• Thndr (Egypt): Another $15.7M (coincidence?) to build out its stock trading platform. Prosus, YC, and BECO were in.

• Tarjama (UAE): $15M to train Arabic AI translators. Global Ventures and Wamda are betting on regional language dominance.

• VUZ (Saudi Arabia): $12M to grow a VR-powered immersive video platform. IFC and Al Jazira led a round with media chops.

And the rest? Let’s just say MENA’s pipeline is bursting:

• WakeCap (SA): $28M to make construction sites smarter.

• SARsatX (SA): $2.6M for radar imaging satellites.

• Money Fellows (EG): $13M for digitized ROSCAs (community saving schemes).

• Nqoodlet, Kilow, ElGameya: Fintech, healthtech, communal savings — all under $3M but worth tracking.

And New Money Too…

• STV launched a Google-backed AI Fund to fuel regional AI dominance.

• Wyld VC announced a $50M AI-native fund to bridge MENA with Silicon Valley, backed by U.S. billionaire Lawrence Golub.

WOWS Insights

We’re watching two distinct themes accelerate across SEA and MENA:

• Global capital re-risking SEA: Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam—no longer hype-driven. It’s structure, scale, and syndicates.

• MENA skipping steps: From fintech to deep tech, the region’s not climbing the ladder—it’s building a new one.

If you’re an investor eyeing frontier markets or a startup wondering where capital’s going next, the message is clear: The East is not sleeping—it’s rewiring.

📩 Want to explore these deals, meet these companies, or understand investor movements across SEA & MENA? Let’s talk. WOWS Global connects startups and investors across Asia and the Middle East with purpose, structure, and style.