Antler's Magnus Grimeland: Asia now has real AI startup advantages

Grimeland's remarks at the Fortune Southeast Asia 500 Summit in Vietnam on Nov. 3 come as venture funding into Asia has picked up. Crunchbase data shows investors put $42.8 billion into startup funding rounds across all of Asia in the second quarter of 2026, the highest quarterly total in over three years.

Within that total, funding remains heavily concentrated. Dealroom data cited in the discussion shows 68.1% of venture funds entering Asia in 2026, or $96.1 billion of $141 billion, flowed into China, mainly to AI startups such as DeepSeek, Moonshot AI and StepFun. By contrast, only $10.7 billion went to Southeast Asia during the first nine months of the year. Franco Varona of Foxmont Capital Partners described the Philippines as lacking the infrastructure for an LLM developer or even AI apps, and said his firm instead invests in the infrastructure itself.

The region's corporate structure is also shaping how venture firms raise and deploy capital. Ming Eng of Granite Asia said many Asian businesses are family owned or part of conglomerates and may not want dilution or an IPO, which led the firm to launch a private credit fund called Libra Hybrid that combines debt and equity characteristics. All three panelists remained bullish on Asia's VC scene despite recent geopolitical headwinds.