Pegasus Tech Ventures steps up Vietnam focus

“The Southeast Asia venture capital market is not in winter. I see spring,” said Jeff Wu, China partner at Pegasus Tech Ventures.

Founded in 2011, Pegasus has built a global, technology-focused portfolio of more than 290 companies, including OpenAI, Anthropic and Airbnb.

In Southeast Asia, the firm has made around 45 investments across markets such as Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia, with Vietnam emerging as an increasingly important market through investments in companies including Homebase, a housing finance platform, and Abivin, a logistics optimisation firm.

Pegasus' renewed regional attention comes as venture activity in China – particularly among US-dollar funds – has slowed after the pandemic. Geopolitical tensions and shifting public-market dynamics have weakened the traditional offshore fundraising model used by many Chinese startups.

“The offshore route – using Cayman or British Virgin Islands structures to raise overseas capital and listing in the US – has become less attractive,” Wu said, citing lower valuations for Chinese companies in US markets. He pointed to Didi Global Inc. as a high-profile example of a company that listed at a depressed valuation before delisting and later shifting its focus to Hong Kong.

By contrast, Wu sees continued founder activity and capital movement across Southeast Asia, even as overall funding remains below its 2023 peak.

According to date compiler Tracxn, technology companies in the region raised $5.2 billion in 2025, up from the previous year, although funding was driven largely by late-stage deals.

“That's why we're expanding our footprint in Southeast Asia,” Wu said, adding that Pegasus' investments in Southeast Asia focus on software, internet services and SaaS, with most deals at the seed and Series A stages.

Specifically, AI is a core pillar of the firm's strategy. Pegasus was an early AI investor, before the sector became mainstream, and was among the more active AI investors in Silicon Valley in an earlier phase of the market. OpenAI is one of its portfolio companies.

“We believe AI has strong potential in Southeast Asia,” Wu said. “We're interested in opportunities across the AI ​​stack, particularly 'AI+' companies applying AI to specific industries.”

Wu said startups do not need to relocate to the US to scale globally. While companies serving US-based clients may benefit from proximity, startups focused on Southeast Asian markets can scale locally, supported by the region's population of roughly 700 million.

That view is supported by market data. Google, Temasek and Bain & Company's e-Conomy SEA 2025 report shows more than $2.3 billion invested into over 680 AI startups in Southeast Asia in the past year, accounting for over 30 per cent of private funding value in the first half of 2025.

However, Wu added that a key challenge remains that many Southeast Asian startups are not yet VC-ready in how they structure and present their businesses, and often lack experience in moving technology from the lab to scalable, market-ready products.

In Southeast Asia, Vietnam is increasingly part of Pegasus' regional assessment. With a population exceeding 100 million, the country remains one of the region's most active startup markets.

DealStreetAsia's Vietnam Venture Capital Report 2025 shows Vietnamese startups raised $494 million across 68 deals in 2024, an 8 per cent on-year decline, but still ranks Vietnam among the region's top markets three by deal volume, behind Singapore and Indonesia.

Pegasus sees parallels between Vietnam's current development and earlier phases of market opening elsewhere in Asia, where policy experimentation and special frameworks helped pull in investment.

Having invested through similar transitions, Pegasus believes that experience could be relevant as Vietnam's ecosystem continues to mature. The firm is also active in Japan's VC and public markets, which could be useful for some Vietnam-based startups exploring IPO options in Tokyo or Hong Kong.

Looking ahead, Pegasus plans to launch additional funds focused on Southeast Asia and is considering setting up an incubator in Thailand in 2026.

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