Cohort 13: What 724 Applications Tell Us About the State of Early-Stage Asia
By Amra Naidoo & Craig Bristol Dixon, General Partners, Accelerating Asia Ventures
Before we announce the startups selected for Cohort 13, we want to share what the application data tells us about the state of early-stage startup building across Asia right now.
C13 produced 724 applications, the largest pool we've ever evaluated for a single cohort, spanning 20 countries, across a remarkable spread of sectors, stages, and founder backgrounds. Five rounds of evaluation later, a small group is about to be announced. But the story of who applied is worth telling first.
More than half are already making money
The most important signal from this cohort isn't the volume. It's the quality. Over half of applicants are already generating revenue, with a product in market and customers paying for it. And a meaningful portion has been doing so for over 12 consecutive months, which is a real indicator of operational staying power beyond initial product-market fit.
The median monthly revenue among revenue-generating companies sits at $5,000, modest by global standards but appropriate for the stage and geography. These are founders building lean, sustainable businesses, not chasing Series A multiples from day one.
Taken together, the applicant pool represents 1,475 full-time employees across the region. That's the real economic footprint of early-stage startup activity in Asia, and it rarely gets counted.
AI is everywhere. And that's only part of the story.
AI accounts for the largest share of applications by a significant margin, but that number requires context. It includes companies where AI is the primary offering, and companies where AI is embedded in a healthcare, logistics, or fintech product. The headline isn't that everyone is building an AI company. The headline is that AI has become infrastructure, a tool deployed across sectors, not a sector unto itself, and the dominant theme running through the C13 pool.
AI (cross-sector) · Health / Medtech · Impact / Sustainability · Fintech / Insurtech · SaaS · Logistics / Supply Chain · Agritech · Education · E-Commerce
After AI, Health and Medtech, Impact and Sustainability, and Fintech and Insurtech represent the next strongest clusters. These aren't trendy bets. They reflect the real infrastructure gaps founders in this region are racing to close. Agritech, Education, and E-Commerce round out the picture, confirming the breadth of problems worth solving at scale in Asia.
Capital signals from the pipeline
For investors watching this space, the fundraising data from C13 is worth reading carefully. Applicants are collectively seeking over $213 million in capital. The median individual raise target is $500,000, focused, early-stage, appropriate. The range, however, tells the full story: some entered the process seeking their first $100K, others looking for multi-million dollar rounds backed by serious traction.
41% of applicants already had soft commitments from investors in place before our evaluation began. The market pre-validated this pool before we did.
$31.1M in aggregate soft commitments. A significant number of applicants are actively fundraising right now. The deal flow is real, it's moving, and it's concentrated in a program that has spent eight years building the infrastructure to identify the best of it.
20 countries across the region
The C13 applicant pool spans 20 countries across South Asia, Southeast Asia, East Asia, the Middle East, and beyond. Founders applied from markets across the full breadth of where we invest, including the ones that rarely make Silicon Valley's radar.
INDONESIA · VIETNAM · MALAYSIA · THAILAND · PHILIPPINES · SINGAPORE · CAMBODIA · BRUNEI · TIMOR-LESTE · INDIA · BANGLADESH · PAKISTAN · SRI LANKA · NEPAL · HONG KONG · CHINA · UAE · UNITED STATES · CANADA · AUSTRALIA
The geographic spread tracks where founders in this region are actually building. We invest in country-and-sector intersections, not regions, and the breadth of where strong applications come from cycle after cycle is what Fund II is built to back.
Nearly a third of applicants have at least one female founder
31.4% of applicant companies include at least one female founder. This isn't a quota stat. It reflects the actual composition of who applied, which in turn reflects years of intentional outreach and network-building across markets where female founders are underrepresented in the capital stack.
What repeat applicants tell us about the program
Nearly one in four. That number tells you something important about the program's reputation in the region: founders who didn't make it the first time come back. They build. They apply again. That's not a consolation-prize metric. It's a signal that the process itself has value to the founders who go through it.
23.7% of applicants have applied to Accelerating Asia before.
The report drops in June. We will share it with our LPs, with our portfolio, and with everyone who participated.
What comes next
The startups selected for C13 emerged from one of the most competitive processes in Accelerating Asia's history. They're already building, already earning, and already backed by early believers. We'll be announcing them shortly.
Cohort 14 applications are opening soon. Find out more at acceleratingasia.com/getfunded.
The C13 applicant pool isn't a standalone dataset. It's the next intake into Accelerating Asia Ventures Fund II, 100 portfolio companies total across both funds, 13 cohorts, 16 markets. Fund II is in final close, so if you're an investor interested in investing in the Fund, head to acceleratingasia.com/investors.
Fund 2 is in final close.
Start with the fund deck. Choose your path at acceleratingasia.com/investors and we'll send access.
Ask a question first. Email team@acceleratingasia.com and we'll get back to you.
Ready to invest? Book a call here with a partner.
- Craig & Amra General Partners | Accelerating Asia Ventures
See the portfolio. Check out acceleratingasia.com/portfolio. Filter by country, sector, or fundraising status. Request an introduction directly to any CEO.
For investors and partners. Choose your path at acceleratingasia.com/investors. Whether you're looking to co-invest in individual startups or invest in the fund, the next step is there.
* Carta Q4 2025 VC Fund Performance. US benchmarks used as Asian fund comparables remain limited.
About Accelerating Asia Ventures
Accelerating Asia Ventures is an independent accelerator and venture capital fund investing in early-stage startups across Southeast and South Asia. Founded by operators, the organisation is committed to supporting founders with capital, credibility, and a long-term community.
For interviews, data requests, or portfolio introductions, contact: team@acceleratingasia.com
