Newsletter #21: Temasek's FY2025, the MENA-Singapore gap, new unicorns🦄
New billion dollar companies in MENA and Singapore
Temasek’s FY2025 and the MENA-Singapore gap
Singapore’s Temasek Holdings published their Annual Review 2025 earlier this week.
Here’s a recap of the top headlines:
A record high of disposed assets this year: Annual divestments for FY2025 was an all-time record of $33 billion. They disposed across the board — listed and unlisted assets, redeemed convertible bonds
Listed assets overtook unlisted ones for the first time since 2021
Geo exposure adjusted: China exposure reduced to 18% from 29% in 2020, US and India exposure up to 24% and 8% respectively.
Launched Aranda Principal Strategies, a new private credit fund: An $8 billion carve-out focused on mid-market US and Europe
Sustainability: To continue amid US-led pullback
“Surprised and disappointed” by eFishery fraud: Aduh what is this 🤦🏻♀️
Temasek has also pulled back quite significantly from doing directs, especially in early-stage deals since a few years back, so there’s definitely a bit of consolidation happening across their strategy and portfolio.
As the Singapore state investor looks to build more diversity and lower volatility exposure, one naturally wonders how they might view entering newer geographies… Geographies like the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).
While the investment team has adopted a more bearish outlook on Europe, it has begun encouraging its main portfolio companies — among the largest listed companies in Singapore, including several national champions — to make deals in the Middle East.
Temasek wants to increase its exposure to the region but believes there is already plenty of capital in the Gulf given the number of large local sovereign wealth funds, according to people involved in the investor’s decision making.
It feels the best way to access the market is through coaxing Singaporean companies to buy Middle Eastern businesses or to strike partnerships and joint ventures with them, said the people. (Source: Financial Times)
I often get asked what Singapore/Asia thinks about the Middle East, and my answer is that it’s “far away”.
Unfortunately MENA’s relative immaturity and smaller market size (vis a vis Southeast Asia and North Asia) doesn’t help them much and because of it, I do think that many MENA GPs are going to find it tough to fundraise in Singapore/Asia.
Temasek’s reported ambivalence towards the region is quite telling and based on my recent conversation with Temasek’s Seviora Holdings, their newest Abu Dhabi office is not equipped with the resources to deploy capital. Neither do they have any immediate plans to do so.
Because of this, I believe many MENA GPs will remain highly dependent on local SWFs and LPs for fundraising in the near to medium term.
It is one of the biggest differences I see between Southeast Asia and the Middle East, and probably something that Southeast Asia doesn’t even realise it has as an advantage — capital diversity.
ICYMI:
Temasek Divestments Hit Record, Portfolio Grows to $339 Billion (Bloomberg)
EQT, Eurazeo Lead $700 Billion Wave of Firms Eying the UAE (Bloomberg)
We’re still breeding unicorns!? 🦄
You’d think that the unicorn would have returned to its mythical roots by now. Not quite…
In the past week alone, we’ve had 3 new entrants in Southeast Asia and MENA crack the coveted $1 billion valuation mark, bringing the total number of new unicorns in 2025 to 6 companies across both regions. They come from B2B infrastructure, fintech, crypto, logistics.
Airalo (SG/US): Global eSIM marketplace for travellers
Xpanceo (UAE): Smart contact lenses with AR, AI, night vision
Ninja (KSA): Quick commerce in KSA, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait
Meanwhile in India, we have 5 new unicorns this year across logistics, fintech, B2B ecommerce (!) and premium pet food sectors. (See list below.)
It was also a pretty active week of startup M&A/consolidation in MENA, with a number of acquisitions made for market entry. Most of the buyers were listed and profitable (ie: Jahez), and freshly funded (ie: Nawy) doing cash and stock deals in other strategically aligned businesses.
Jahez acquires 76.56% stake in Qatar’s Snoonu in $245 million deal (Wamda)
Nawy enters GCC proptech market by acquiring Dubai’s SmartCrowd (Wamda)
Pakistan’s Best-Funded Startup Nears Profit After Fintech Deal (Bloomberg)
UAE proptech Huspy closes $59 million Series B, eyes Saudi expansion (Wamda)
Interesting reads 🤓
AI Roll ups and the public market opportunity (The Financial Pen)
Gulf private equity veteran raises $2 billion for debut fund (Semafor)
China's pension funds lose billions of yuan to local governments (Caixin)
Jane Street on Fire (Rupak Ghose’s Substack)
Out to list, Pine Labs is a hardware business pretending to be a fintech (The Morning Context)
Falling rupee stirs debate over local vs foreign capital in India's private markets (DealStreetAsia)
Once-in-a-generation shot: SE Asia looking to steer global chip race (DealStreetAsia)
Lean giants or labor armies? SEA’s revenue per employee revealed (TechinAsia)