China accounts for three of top five VC funded startups APAC region in 2021

China accounts for three of top five VC funded startups APAC region in 2021

Venture capital (VC) investors are keeping an eye on the startups working in diverse emerging fields across key Asia-Pacific (APAC) markets. Against this backdrop, three of the top five VC funded startups in the region were from China in 2021, reveals GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company

An analysis of GlobalData’s ’s Financial Deals Database reveals that the three China-based startups Honeycomb Energy, Horizon Robotics and Leapmotor collectively attracted US$7.4bn VC funding during the year.

Aurojyoti Bose, Lead Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “Startups active in emerging areas such as electric vehicles (EV), batteries, artificial intelligence (AI) and e-commerce have been garnering significant investors’ traction. China, which also has a conducive ecosystem with several startups working in such areas, managed to dominate the list. India-based Flipkart and Thai firm Lalamove Thailand were the two non-Chinese firms to complete the top five list.”

China-based electric batteries producer, Honeycomb Energy raised US$3.7bn the highest VC fund-raising among all the APAC companies during 2021. Flipkart, Horizon Robotics, Lalamove Thailand and Leapmotor raised US$3.6bn, US$2.3bn, US$1.5bn and US$1.4bn, respectively.

While Horizon Robotics is an AI startup, and Leapmotor is active in EV space, Flipkart offers e-commerce services and Lalamove Thailand is into logistics services.

Bose concludes: “China continues to be the most favorite destination for VC investors across APAC. Besides being the largest market in the region, the country remains a key global market and stands just next to the US in terms of VC funding deal volume as well as value.”