BUILDING REALIndustry brief
Five Building Real founders work in deep tech. Their companies run sewage plants with no power, make bricks from plastic waste, sort mosquitoes with AI, keep cold rooms running through brownouts, and turn food waste into soil in a day. This brief covers what is happening around them in India, Israel, Thailand, the Philippines and Indonesia.
raised by Indian deep tech startups in 2025, up 37% on 2024, according to Nasscom-Zinnov1
deep tech startups in India, more than 550 of them founded in 20252
of India's 2025 deep tech funding went to AI companies3
Israeli deep tech companies. Between 2019 and August 2025 they raised over $28B, about 36% of all capital raised by Israeli high-tech in that period4
raised by Israeli tech companies in 2025, up 30%, even as the number of funding rounds kept falling5
invested in Southeast Asia's 680-plus AI startups in the twelve months to mid-20256
AI firms are 84% of Indian deep tech startups and took 91% of its funding3. Everything else in deep tech, from water to materials, shares the remaining 9%.
Southeast Asian startups raised $7.25B in the first half of 2026, the most in any half-year since 2022. But one $4.5B data-centre round drove most of it, and the number of deals fell to its lowest since at least 201810.
raised by Indian climate tech companies in 2025, up from about $315M in 2020 (Tracxn)11
disclosed equity raised by climate tech startups across Southeast Asia, including Singapore, in 2025. That is up 10% from $152M in 2024 but well below the 2023 peak of $288M (Tracxn)12
These come from different Tracxn reports with different scopes, so they are not directly comparable. Neither counts deep tech alone.
Exits are picking up too. Nasscom-Zinnov counted over 140 Indian tech start-up acquisitions in 2025, nearly double 2024, with Indian corporates behind about 36%17.
In India, 91% of 2025 deep tech funding went to AI3. In Southeast Asia, AI drew over 30% of private funding value in the first half of 20256. Founders building physical systems are competing with software for the same capital.
Israeli funding rose in 2025 while the number of rounds kept falling, and rounds under $10M hit a ten-year low5. Southeast Asia's deal count in H1 2026 was its lowest since at least 201810.
Between 2025 and 2026, all five markets put public money behind deep tech or the infrastructure our guests work on, or moved new startup laws forward162021222324.
Megaliter Varunaa sells sewage treatment as a zero-capex subscription13. Polar Cold rents its cold rooms rather than selling them; Joe Khoo explains why in “Switching From Selling To Renting Killed The Sales Cycle”.
Over 140 Indian tech start-up acquisitions in 2025, nearly double 202417.
EP01
The dirtiest problem no one wanted to solve
Urban India generated an estimated 72,368 million litres of sewage a day, against 31,841 MLD of installed treatment capacity. Only about 20,235 MLD was actually treated25.
EP09
The bricks made from plastic waste that refuse to break
India's officially reported plastic waste in 2022-23 (41.36 lakh tonnes), up from 3.36 Mt in 2018-19, according to Environment Ministry replies to Parliament26
EP10
Fighting the deadliest animal on earth with more mosquitoes
dengue cases worldwide in 2024, a record, with more than 12,000 deaths reported to WHO. About half the world's population is now at risk27
Thailand reported 55,013 cases and 46 deaths in 2025 up to 30 November, about 55% of the same period in 202428. Dengue is cyclical, so one year down does not mean the problem is shrinking.
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EP11
Rebuilding cold chain for Southeast Asia's broken grids
allocated by the Department of Agriculture for around 99 cold storage facilities, about 65 of them small or modular chiller-type units21
I Squared Capital's Royale Cold Storage expansion in Bulacan, adding 22,000 pallet positions14
EP12
Turning Bali's garbage crisis into nutrient-dense soil
of Indonesia's recorded waste in 2025 was food scraps, the largest single category. The national waste information system covers only the districts that report29
Bali's largest landfill, Suwung, stopped taking organic waste from April 2026. Limited stopgap dumping was allowed until the end of July, leaving households, hotels and villages to deal with food and garden waste where it is produced30.
Watch the episode →See how these five conversations connect on the Discovery Atlas →
One research agent gathered 31 figures from government, regulator and established data sources. A separate red-team agent then reopened every source, checked each number, its scope and its date, and searched for newer or conflicting data. It kept 7 figures as written, corrected 23 and cut 1. Each figure above links to its source below, with the date it refers to.