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Global venture funding surged to USD 113 Bn in Q’1 2025, marking a 17% quarter-on-quarter growth and the highest level since Q’2 2022. This rebound signals renewed investor confidence after a slow 2024, which averaged around USD 80 Bn per quarter. A key driver was OpenAI’s historic USD 40 Bn raise, which alone contributed to 35% of total funding this quarter, reinforcing the global momentum towards AI and deeptech investments.
Bangladesh’s startup funding hit USD 119.9 Mn in H’1 2025, a 12x jump from the previous year. This surge was almost entirely fueled by a USD 110 Mn strategic M&A deal between ShopUp and Sary, forming SILQ Group. The transaction marks the first-ever M&A in the ecosystem and stands as the second-largest deal in the country’s startup history, just after bKash’s SoftBank round.
While M&A dominated with 92% of total funding, there were also signs of growth at other stages. Series B+ (USD 4.5 Mn) and Seed (USD 4.2 Mn) rounds showed investor appetite for scalable ventures with early traction.
Pre-Seed activity was minimal, with just USD 60K raised. Notably, no deals were recorded in Debt, Pre-Series A, or Series A rounds, pointing to a widening funding gap for startups in transition stages. The funding landscape in H’1 2025 signals a clear shift towards maturity, with large exits gaining ground and early-stage ventures facing tougher scrutiny.
In the first half of 2025, the investment landscape was dominated by venture capital, which accounted for USD 117 Mn, representing 98% of the total funding raised. This marks a stark concentration of capital in a single investor category, with all other types, including corporate investors, grants/non-equity sources, and incubators, contributing a combined total of just ~2% of the funding pool.
Despite this heavy concentration, the overall deal count remained low, suggesting that the market was driven by fewer but significantly larger deals, primarily in the venture capital segment. The average deal size for VCs skyrocketed compared to H’1 2024, reflecting a maturing investment environment focused on scale-stage startups rather than early experimentation.
Bangladesh’s startup ecosystem is entering a new growth phase, but sustained progress requires coordinated action:
With investor interest rising and policy momentum in place, the focus now must shift to execution and ecosystem resilience.
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