Southeast Asia M&A Momentum is Building

Southeast Asia has entered 2026 with a ‘selectively open’ M&A market. Buyers are active but standards are higher with deeper diligence than before and a leaning towards three strategic considerations.

1. Vietnam, Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia are high growth, high population, highly digitalised markets that are consistently attracting interest and investment.

2. Budgets are still expanding, especially around retail media driven by mobile, social and video. Dentsu expected Southeast Asia ad spend growth of 6.8% in 2025, with retail media (eg. 'super apps' and marketplace ecosystems) the key driver.

3. Marketing spends are moving closer to conversion. Video (social) commerce has already risen to 20% of all e-commerce GMV (from <5% in 2022), pulling content, creators / influencers, affiliates and digital media into the same performance stack.

Layer on improving PE confidence in the region (US$15.8bn deployed across 67 PE-backed deals in 2024 per EY) and you have a market where both strategic buyers and platform investors are willing to lean in, provided the assets are scaled, differentiated and genuinely resilient.

1. What’s actually changing in 2026

We expect a few ‘directional’ changes to show up in mandates, diligence and deal structures:

• Fewer ‘broad agency’ narratives in favour of more specialist capabilities and repeatable revenue lines. Buyers want a sharp wedge (category, platform, channel, audience) and proof you can repeat outcomes.

• More ecosystem-led M&A. Marketplaces, super-apps and commerce platforms are shaping what ‘winning’ looks like (measurement, retail media, affiliate, creator-led conversion).

• More sponsor-backed platform building. Not every asset needs to be a roll-up, but the logic of platform building is increasingly present. Build a durable core, then add adjacency capabilities. Globally, sponsors have been allocating a large share of new platform investment toward digital agencies with social / creative / creator exposure, and that mindset increasingly influences how SEA assets are priced and structured.

2. Where deals are clustering in Southeast Asia

Below are the areas we see as most ‘transactable’ right now with some recent deal examples.

A) Adtech, data and identity-led marketing

SEA buyers are prioritising addressability, cookieless targeting and higher-quality first-party data flows, especially in markets where measurement is fragmented.

Recent examples:

• SQREEM’s acquisition of Trade Indy (Mar 2024) - combining AI-driven behavioural intelligence with programmatic execution capability.

• Accenture’s acquisition of Jixie (completed Feb 2024) - adding a marketing technology platform and team focused on Indonesia.

What’s notable: these aren’t 'pure-play adtech’ bets in the classic sense, they’re data + execution + governance moves (privacy, brand safety, control of monetisation and targeting).

B) Performance media and outcome-led growth (including ‘performance consulting’)

We expect more M&A around measurable growth engines - paid social/search, marketplace performance, feed optimisation, lifecycle/CRM and marketing automation tied to conversion.

Recent example:

• Catcha Digital acquiring 51% of Digital Symphony (Mar 2025) - explicitly framed around scaling data-driven performance marketing and cross-selling into an existing advertising client base.

What’s notable: ‘performance’ is broadening - increasingly blending analytics, creative iteration, and automation. Buyers pay up when the model is repeatable, not purely dependent on a few one off hits.

C) Influencer, creator and social-first content (now tied to commerce)

Creator ecosystems are moving from ‘brand awareness’ into a measurable sales channel especially as video commerce and affiliate infrastructure mature.

Recent example:

• Publicis Groupe’s agreement to acquire HEPMIL Media Group (Oct 2025) - a scaled influencer and content platform across SEA, with thousands of creators and broad regional reach.

What’s notable: scaled creator platforms are being valued as distribution + production + data, not simply 'talent networks'.

D) Live commerce operations and creator-led conversion stacks

Live and social commerce in SEA is developing real operational depth: studio capacity, host networks, affiliate execution, and platform tooling.

Recent example:

• AnyMind Group’s acquisition of Vietnam-based live/social commerce agency Vibula (announced Apr 2025, completed Sep 2025) - combining operating capability (studios, hosts, affiliate networks) with a broader tech platform footprint.

What’s notable: buyers are looking for the operating system (people + process + tooling) that can scale across markets, not just a ‘services wrapper’.

E) Live / experiential, brand experience and event production ecosystems

This area is back on the strategic agenda as brands rebalance spend across digital + in-person but with higher expectations around content capture, broadcast-quality production, and measurable engagement.

Recent examples:

• Opus Agency acquiring The Company We Keep (2025) - expanding APAC experiential capability (including Singapore footprint) and production depth.

• Encore acquiring FIRST (Dec 2025) - expanding global brand experience capabilities with a Singapore office noted as part of the footprint.

What’s notable: the leading international experiential groups look more like experience platforms than event shops with creative, content, production and embedded delivery models.

3. Private equity and roll-up dynamics to watch

PE in SEA is not only ‘growth capital’, it’s increasingly an architecture for consolidation - especially when founders want liquidity while also wanting to keep building.

Two practical implications for founders in marketing services / martech:

• More platform conversations, but with more discipline. Sponsors have been less eager to do immediate bolt-ons right after platform entry. Globally, the share of platforms completing an acquisition in the first 12 months fell sharply for the 2024 cohort.

• More focus on operational improvement before the next step. This is consistent with a broader tilt toward margin quality, integration and organic growth first.

In SEA, that tends to translate into deal structures that reward integration readiness and repeatable unit economics, not just top-line momentum.

4. Where Motion would look in 2026

Rather than forcing the SEA region into fixed markets, we’d map the regional opportunity to capability clusters and then ask 'which clusters have the clearest path to scale and buyer urgency?'

The short list we’d prioritise:

• Commerce-linked marketing (marketplace, retail media, affiliate, feed, conversion creative)

• Creator + social commerce infrastructure (not just creator, more the operating layer that makes performance repeatable)

• Data, identity and CRM activation (especially where integrated with execution)

• Performance-led growth platforms (multi-market delivery, measurement discipline, AI automation)

• Experience platforms (live + content + production + embedded models)

5. What this means for founders

Founders who get the best outcomes tend to show:

• Proof of repeatability: a clear ‘engine’ (how demand is created, converted, retained) rather than case-study storytelling

• Channel resilience: diversification across platforms and traffic sources (and a plan for platform risk)

• Measurable delivery: tight reporting, cohort logic, unit economics and clean definitions (especially where ‘performance’ is a big part of the pitch)

• Integration readiness: second-line leadership, documentation, commercial hygiene and a realistic integration plan

• A clear scaling thesis across SEA: which markets are ‘exportable’, which are bespoke and why

Some practical takeaways:

• If you’re in creator / social / commerce, buyers will pressure-test whether outcomes persist when CPMs rise and platform rules change.

• If you’re in adtech / data, they’ll test whether you have durable access to data, clean permissions, and a real wedge (not just tooling).

• If you’re in experiential, they’ll test whether you’re a 'project shop' or a scalable platform with embedded accounts and production leverage.

2026's most successful deals will sit at the intersection of commerce, creators, data and measurable outcomes. The agencies and products set to achieve the highest multiple / valuations will be the ones that can prove repeatability across multiple SEA markets, not just momentum in one.

If you’re a founder, investor, or acquirer thinking about SEA - whether that’s preparing for a process, building a platform or stress-testing a target - we’re happy to share how we’re seeing buyer expectations evolve and what that means in practice.