There is a familiar refrain doing the rounds in Dhaka’s startup circles. “The ecosystem is dead.” “The ship is sinking.” The mood is understandable, but it misdiagnoses the problem. Bangladesh’s startup ecosystem is not dying. It is just working from the wrong map.
For the past decade, founders were encouraged to look east. The default playbook was to incorporate in Singapore, chase Southeast Asian (SEA) accelerators, and pitch to funds hunting for the “next Asian tiger”. In 2025, that story looks far less convincing. Southeast Asia’s venture boom has cooled, while a new centre of gravity for capital and demand is emerging closer to home, in the Gulf, especially Saudi Arabia.
The era of flying to Singapore for a $60,000 cheque and spending thousands just to get in the room is fading. The smart money has moved. Bangladeshi founders should move with it.
The wave of optimism that drove billions into Southeast Asia has met a hard reality check. A recent Lightspeed report notes that investors pumped $72bn into SEA tech companies over the last five years, but returns have been sobering.
The region’s public market champions were meant to provide clear exit pathways, yet many have struggled. Grab’s market capitalisation is down roughly 65% since listing, and GoTo has fallen roughly 86%. Beneath the headlines is a structural issue: market depth.
Southeast Asia is often spoken about in the same breath as China or India, but the addressable, high-spending consumer base is far smaller than the mythology suggests. There are only about 16 million “power user” households earning over $20,000 across the entire region. The massive, instantly monetisable middle class that underpinned so many pitch decks has been slower to materialise.
For Bangladeshi founders, the implication is straightforward. The liquidity tap is tightening. The “growth at all costs” model promoted by many accelerators is being replaced by a tougher demand for sustainability, and that shift is harder to support in markets where purchasing power is uneven and fragmentation is the norm.
While Southeast Asia cools, the Middle East is moving in the opposite direction. In 2025, the MENA region saw startups raise $7.5bn, a 225% year-on-year increase.
Saudi Arabia is at the centre of that acceleration. In 2025 alone, the kingdom recorded $1.72bn in venture capital funding, up 145% from the previous year, while deal volume rose 45% to 257 transactions. For the first time, Saudi Arabia surpassed the UAE in deal activity, accounting for 37% of all MENA transactions.
This is not just domestic capital circulating locally. International investor participation in Saudi Arabia rose by 65% last year. The appetite for digital transformation is strong and, unlike the more fragmented consumer classes in SEA, the GCC offers concentrated purchasing power and the ability to pay for quality quickly.
This shift is not theoretical. Look closely at the marquee deals coming out of Dhaka. The capital is increasingly arriving from the Gulf, not Singapore.
The merger between Bangladesh’s ShopUp and Saudi Arabia’s Sary created a new entity, SILQ, in a deal valued at more than $100m. More than an acquisition, it signalled a corridor connecting South Asian supply with Gulf demand.
Pathao, the logistics and ride-hailing company, raised a $12m pre-series B led by VentureSouq, a GCC-based fund.
Markopolo, an adtech startup, raised $2m led by Joa Capital, a Saudi venture capital firm.
10 Minute School, one of Bangladesh’s largest edtech firms, raised $2m led by Conjunction Capital in the UAE.
Jatri, the transportation platform, secured investment from Fatima Gobi Ventures, with networks across Pakistan and the GCC.
These are not one-offs. Companies such as MyAlice, Zatiq, and Barikoi are building momentum in the region. There is also talk of further GCC-linked M&A that would deepen this corridor.
While Bangladesh’s founders looked east, Pakistani startups treated the Gulf as a natural extension of their home market and built for it early. Haball ($52m) and MedIQ ($6m) recently raised significant rounds explicitly for Saudi expansion, backed by regional VCs. COLABS is entering Riyadh with local partners, PostEx ($7.3m) is scaling across the GCC, and Abhi ($60m) has established deep UAE partnerships.
They also leveraged an asset Bangladesh shares but often underuses strategically. Large expatriate communities in the Gulf can serve as a practical beachhead for distribution, hiring, partnerships, and early customers. That advantage is much harder to replicate in Southeast Asia.
The claim that “Bangladesh is dead” only holds if you measure success by access to Singapore’s old playbook. Founders do not win by insisting on a single route to the capital. They win by following demand.
Saudi Arabia is explicitly pursuing economic diversification under Vision 2030 and is actively courting international startups. The opportunity cost of ignoring the GCC is rising fast. The capital is there, the urgency for digital solutions is real, and the first serious cross-border outcomes are already appearing.
Take a pause chasing a tiger. Look to the Gulf.
Mohidul Alam is a senior investment analyst at Antler. Previously, he worked at VentureSouq, investing across fintech, AI, and marketplace startups.
Views expressed in this article are of the author’s own and may not reflect the editorial stance of The Daily Star.
