Zombie Unicorns: Southeast Asia's Structural VC Problem | Kristie Neo - E714

Southeast Asia's venture market is not in a downturn. It is in a structural winter, and mid-2026 is when that distinction stopped being academic.

Kristie Neo returns to break down what is actually happening across the region: Singapore's IPO revival is real but is being carried by data centres and REITs rather than homegrown tech; allocators now rank Southeast Asia at the bottom of Asia behind China, India, Japan, Korea and ANZ; and a generation of growth-stage companies is being kept alive past the point where a merger or a wind-down would have served everyone better. Jeremy Au and Kristie also work through what could actually restart the funding ladder, from encouraging tech M&A and fixing university IP commercialisation, to tax incentives for angels and support for syndicate leads who can assemble the $1 million to $5 million rounds that Singapore currently cannot fill. If you are a founder raising in Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines, Thailand or Malaysia, or an LP trying to work out where capital goes next in Asia, this is the honest state of the market.

Watch, listen or read the full insight at https://www.bravesea.com/blog/kristie-neo-southeast-asia-zombie-unicorns

BRAVE is Southeast Asia's leading tech podcast, hosted by Jeremy Au. Honest conversations with the region's top founders, investors, and operators on building startups in Southeast Asia.

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#SoutheastAsia #VentureCapital #SingaporeIPO

00:00 Intro

01:00 Singapore's IPO revival and what is really lifting SGX

06:30 Safe haven status and the Indonesia allocation problem

09:34 Why Southeast Asia sits at the bottom of the allocator stack

14:58 A generation of zombie companies

18:07 The case for mergers, folds and consolidation

21:50 Fixing the funding ladder: who writes the first check

23:55 The IP commercialisation gap and university tech licensing

35:15 Rethinking how governments seed VC funds

41:24 Where can an LP put money today

45:00 Incentivising angels, syndicates and family offices

52:43 The information gap and parting thoughts