The events afforded both sides chances to learn more aboutstart-up ecological system of each other.
According to the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency,Vietnam, with a population of over 96 million, is an attractive market for Koreaninvestors. As of November 2018, the RoK was the largest foreign investor inVietnam.
Economists said the RoK will further boost investment inVietnam in coming years, including in apparel, leather and footwear, which willbring many opportunities to Vietnamese start-ups.
The Vietnam Tech Investment Report by ESP Capital and CentoVentures showed that Vietnam’s start-up ecological system has rising to the topthree best among six surveyed ASEAN member states, behind only Indonesia andSingapore. The report also noted that investment from the RoK accounted for thelargest portion out of a combined 246 million USD poured into Vietnamesestart-ups in the first half of this year.
Since setting its eyes on Vietnam a decade ago, the RoK’s well-knownventure fund NexTrans has poured tens of millions USD into 10 Vietnamesestart-ups, notably Luxstay, JamJa, EcoTruck, Leflair, among others.
Eddy Hong, NexTrans Executive Director, lauded Vietnam asone of the most vibrant start-up ecological systems in Southeast Asia.
Another Korean venture fund STIC Ventures has also investedin Tiki, Cammsys Vietnam, Nanogen, among others.
The RoK’s National IT Industry Promotion Agency, the KoreaIT Cooperation Centre (KICC), and Vietnam’s Business Support Centre signed amemorandum of understanding to support Vietnamese start-up community.
In late April, the Vietnam Internet Association and the KICClaunched the K-Startup Grand Challenge, an annual contest with an aim to buildan open ecological system that will help start-ups expand their markets in Asiaby using the RoK as a buffer.
Representatives from a number of Korean investment fundsalso said they will keep expanding their portfolios in Vietnam./.