APAC-Focused Private Equity Reaches $1.3tn in AUM

APAC-focused private equity & venture capital (PEVC) assets under management (AUM) have surged in recent years, hitting a record-high $1.3tn as of December 2019.

In fact, PEVC is driving innovation across Asia-Pacific, where growth technologies are attracting investors’ interest.

The e-commerce sector has boomed across APAC in the past five years – PEVC investment has reached $128bn in aggregate deal value between 2015 and 2019, reaching $35bn in 2018 alone.


Venture-backed deals in artificial intelligence (AI) companies in APAC have also become more common, with deal-makers completing a record-breaking 861 transactions in 2019.

Within APAC, private capital has flooded into ASEAN to back innovative fintech start-ups – the region represented 48% of total fintech deal value in the APAC for 2019.

And the region is on route to a future driven by Internet of Things (IoT) technologies – between 2015 and 2019 the number of APAC IoT venture capital deals grew at a CAGR of 38%, while aggregate deal value registered a CAGR of 86% over the same period.

For more information and analysis, see the full Private Equity & Venture Capital Driving Innovation in Asia-Pacific report.

Dave Lowery, Head of Research Insights:“Fundraising and dealmaking in APAC have been hampered by COVID-19 in H1 2020, sinking notably compared to the same period last year. Nonetheless, the region’s PEVC AUM is at an all-time high and the industry continues to support the digital transformation of key industries and fuel the development of new ideas in APAC. Activity is becoming more geographically diverse within the region, which is bringing new and fresh opportunities to the market. Investors are seeing the opportunity and the APAC market is growing fast.”

Key Private Equity Innovation in APAC Facts:· APAC-focused private equity & venture capital assets under management (AUM) reached a record-high $1.3tn as of December 2019, a 34% increase from a year prior.

· Between 2015 and 2019, e-commerce deals in APAC amassed $128bn, including a nine-year high of $35bn in 2018.

· A record high of 861 artificial intelligence deals were completed in APAC in 2019. And, in H1 2020, there have already been 400 deals made.

· The fintech industry has also surged in recent years, most of all in the ASEAN region. Of $8.3bn in total fintech deal value in APAC, $4bn was held in the ASEAN region, up 12x on the $348mn transacted just five years prior in 2014.

· In the Internet of Things sector, the number and value of APAC venture capital deals has grown year on year, reaching record high figures in 2019 – 314 deals completed with an aggregate deal value of $7bn.

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