Vietnam's tech startup firms are expected to quickly reach the unicorn status. (Photo: baodautu.vn)Hanoi (VNA) – As Vietnam, one of the hottest startup hubs in theworld, is welcoming a huge wave of venture capital, its tech startup firms areexpected to quickly reach the unicorn status, which means they are valued 1billion USD or more, according to insiders.
Most recently, VinaCapital Ventures, a 100 million USD technology holdingcompany, has invested in various startups in the Southeast Asian country.
Following FastGo, Logivan, Urbox and Wee Digital, itchose Rever, a tech-enabled real estate brokerage, to land an investment worth4 million USD.
Besides, it signed a strategic partnership with the Republic of Korea’s MiraeAsset-Naver Asia Growth Fund, a 1 billion USD joint fund by Mirae Asset andNaver, to prepare 100 million USD for Vietnamese startups over the next threeyears.
Within a month, foreign ventures pumped millions of USD to Vietnamese startups,including Korean GS Ship and Cambodian Belt Road Capital Management who poured7 million USD in Leflair, and CyberAgent Ventures and Y1 Ventures and someother foreign ventures landing 3 million USD in Luxstay. Meanwhile, Wefit andJAMJA were successful at mobilising 1 million USD for each operation.
The M&A of mobile wallet provider Vimo Technology JSC and Vietnam MPOSTechnology JSC to form NextPay Holdings is a most noticeable deal of this kind amongVietnamese startup firms. It aims to expand scale in the market where non-cashpayments are booming. Also, NextPay is calling for an investment of 30 millionUSD.
At the recent Vietnam Venture Summit 2019, leading global venture capital firmslike Golden Gate Ventures, 500 Startups and Topica committed investment worthsome 10 trillion VND (425 million USD) for Vietnamese start-ups over the nextthree years.
Korean-basedDT&I also decided to pour 1.4 million USD into Propzy, a Vietnamese startupproviding solutions for real estate transactions in June.
Topica Founder Institute’s report said Vietnamese startups received 889 millionUSD worth of capital financing from both domestic and foreign investors in2018, tripling the amount recorded in the previous years, and six times thefigure in 2016.
Vietnam’s start-up ecosystem has been developing with some 3,000 companies againstthe 400 firms in 2012.
Startups in financial technology (Fintech), education, renewable energy, healthand pharmaceuticals, e-commerce, transport and forwarding services will be atadvantage to lure more capital in the next 12 months, as private investors areseeking new investment opportunities in the fields in Southeast Asia,especially Vietnam, according to Grant Thornton Vietnam’s Vietnam PrivateEquity Investment Outlook 2019.
Besides getting loans from commercial banks, Vietnamese startups now have awide range of choices to mobilise capital due to increasing presence of bothdomestic and foreign ventures.
Manyleading Vietnamese corporations like FPT, Viettel and Vingroup have alsoenhanced their support for local startups.-VNA
VNA
