Vietnamese startups succeed in attracting large investment amounts
Despite the severe COVID-19 pandemic, the Vietnamese startup ecosystem is witnessing an impressive growth, with various startup projects being successful in gaining millions of dollars of capital this year.
In June 2021, KKR – a leading global investment firm that manages multiple alternative asset classes – announced its investment of US$100 million in EQuest, a Vietnamese educational startup.
Similarly, in September 2021, goods shipping startup Ninja Van successfully attracted over US$500 million in the Series E funding round from such investors as Geopost/DPDgroup - the parcel delivery network of GeoPost, BCapital Group, Monk’s Hill Ventures and Zamrud – the investment fund of the Nation of Brunei. This amount is used to expand operations domestically and internationally.
Another promising startup named Momo, member of Online Mobile Services JSC. (M_Service) was able to complete its Series D funding round to gain more than US$100 million from investors globally. Nitin Saigal, Co-founder cum Chief Investment Officer of Kora Management, shared that it is a pleasure to work with Momo to provide excellent financial services to citizens nationwide via its 120,000 stations.
Lately, VNG Corporation has announced its investment of US$22.5 million in startup Telio – a Business-to-Business (B2B) e-commerce platform. This helps Telio to grow sustainably and expand its commercial activities. In addition, VNG aids Telio to increase its popularity on Zalo platform so that its agencies find it easier to digitalize as well as tracking orders.
Statistics reveal that the total value of investment deals in Vietnamese innovative startups since the beginning of 2021 is over US$290 million. Before that, in the Vietnam Innovative Startup Investment Fund Forum held at the end of 2020, 33 investment funds committed to pour more than US$810 million in innovative startups nationwide in a five-year period from 2021.
A similar report from Do Ventures and Vietnam National Innovation Center (NIC), during the first nine months of this year, the total capital for Vietnamese startups reached US$600 million, with expectations to increase to Ú$1 billion – the highest ever.
“Startups are always in thirst of investments, especially during their incubation period. To earn that capital, these startups need to show off their development potential. In spite of the negative impact of the pandemic on social and economic aspects, investment funds in the world still maintain their search for promising startups”, informed Huynh Kim Tuoc, Director of Saigon Innovation Hub.
