Singapore – Private equity investors continue to show strong interest in marketing, media and technology-enabled services businesses across Asia-Pacific, even as the market shifts into a more selective and disciplined phase, according to a new report.
The global report, released on 11 August 2026, found that capital continues to flow towards businesses that can clearly demonstrate specialist capability, strong leadership and long-term value creation, despite investors becoming more selective overall.
A separate SI Global APAC companion analysis, which provides regional context for the global findings, showed that Japan and Australia accounted for 77% of private equity-backed marketing sector transactions analysed across the region in 2025, reinforcing their position as APAC’s leading investment markets. The APAC companion analysis is distinct from the global report, and its data should not be treated as directly interchangeable with the global figures.
Now in its third year, SI Global’s Private Equity Insights Report draws on analysis of 80 private equity firms across the UK, Europe, the US and APAC, covering 266 portfolio companies within business services. The dataset includes 300 platform investments, comprising 141 in the UK, 110 in the US, 25 in APAC and 24 in Europe, alongside more than 600 broader bolt-on and follow-on deals, with additional insight drawn from leading lower mid-market private equity investors.
Among the global report’s key findings, private equity deal volumes across business services fell 29% year-on-year, while first-money investments declined 48%, reducing new platform creation. Refinancing activity, meanwhile, increased 125%, and exit activity began to improve. The report attributed longer and more rigorous transaction processes to macroeconomic conditions, complex trading environments and increased investment committee scrutiny.
Digital and tech-enabled services continued to attract a significant share of capital, accounting for almost a third of 2025 platform investments, the report found. High-quality businesses continued to attract strong investor interest, particularly in the lower mid-market, with founder-led businesses that demonstrate clear positioning, resilient earnings and experienced management teams remaining highly attractive to investors.
Turning to the APAC region specifically, the companion analysis found that Japan accounted for approximately 42% of identified marketing-sector transactions involving private equity or private equity-backed buyers in 2025, up from 22% in 2024, a rise of 20 percentage points. Australia ranked second at 35%, up from 26% in 2024, a rise of nine percentage points. South Korea and Singapore each represented 6% of 2025 activity, while New Zealand, India and Hong Kong each accounted for 3%, pointing to continued investment activity across the broader region.
Marketing Services represented more than half, or 52%, of private equity-backed marketing sector transactions identified across APAC, followed by Marketing Technology at 19%, Digital Marketing at 16%, Data & Analytics at 10% and Tech Enabled Services at 3%, the analysis found. Technology, Data & Analytics and Tech Enabled Services combined represented 32% of identified transactions in 2025, up from 22% in 2024, an increase of 10 percentage points, suggesting a growing investor preference for marketing businesses with stronger technology, data and scalable delivery capabilities.
The APAC companion analysis also pointed to the increasingly international nature of activity across the region. Cross-border transactions involving private equity or private equity-backed buyers rose from 33% of identified transactions in 2024 to 48% in 2025, a rise of 15 percentage points. Japan accounted for the largest share of buyers at 29%, followed by the United States and Australia at 19% each, while the United Kingdom accounted for 10%. Investors from South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, Sweden, France and Canada also completed acquisitions across the region.
Alyssiah Tsui, Partner and APAC Lead at SI Global, said the report’s findings are reflected across Asia-Pacific, where investors remain active but are becoming increasingly selective about where they deploy capital.
“The APAC findings closely mirror what we’re seeing globally, capital remains available, but investors have become far more selective about the businesses they choose to back,” Tsui said.
“Businesses with differentiated capabilities, strong leadership teams and clear opportunities to create long-term value continue to attract the greatest interest, the boundaries between marketing, consulting and technology continue to blur, and investors are increasingly backing integrated capability rather than individual service lines,” Tsui added.
Tsui also added that Japan and Australia continue to anchor private equity activity across the region, adding that the breadth of international buyers investing across APAC reinforces the region’s growing strategic importance within the global marketing and technology services landscape.
The report also identified artificial intelligence as one of the defining factors reshaping how private equity investors assess value creation. While AI is increasing scrutiny around margins, delivery models and defensibility, SI Global’s research found that investors increasingly view AI as an opportunity when combined with strong leadership, differentiated capability and a clear commercial strategy. Investors are not simply looking for businesses adopting AI tools, but for management teams that understand how AI will impact their market, strengthen their proposition and support long-term value creation.
The increase in refinancing and exit activity reflects a healthier rotation of capital following a period of extended hold periods, with investors continuing to seek high-quality assets while becoming more selective about new platform investments, according to the report.