Startups founded by Vietnamese-born businessmen

1. Sonny Vu has announced that his startup, Misfit, a maker of wearable fitness trackers which began in 2011, has been taken over by watchmaker Fossil Group in a deal worth US$260 million. It is expected that after the deal, 50 million watches will be sold a year.

Sonny Vu, born in 1973 in Vietnam, moved to the US in 1979 with his family members. He graduated from Illinois University in math and linguistics and then obtained a doctorate at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2000. After the merger, he will hold the post of Fossil’s technology director.

2. In 1999, a software firm named Onebox was sold after 18 months of operation. The deal caught the special attention from the public because the company’s founder is Bill Nguyen, who is described by foreign press as the person who can change the information technology’s face around the globe. 

Later, in 2009, Bill sold lala.com, the network which connects music lovers, to Apple, for $80 million. The app was later used by Apple in its iTunes.

In 2012, Apple once again spent tens of millions of dollars to buy an image sharing app designed by Bill Nguyen and a co-worker.

The businessman has now developed Seven Networks which specializes in providing apps and content services to network operators.

Bill Nguyen, one of the 40 under-40 richest persons in the US, grew up in Houston, the son of Vietnamese immigrants.

3. In 1995, Dung Tan Trung set up One Display, a company providing software products that help manage the business via the internet. At that time, he encountered many difficulties in seeking clients and mobilizing capital as the internet was still not commonly used.

But in 1998, when the internet exploded, the business began developing at lightning speed. Just one year later, On Display made IPO and five months later, it was transferred to Vignette at $1.8 billion.

Trung was born in 1967 in Vietnam and left Vietnam when he was 17. In 1985, he arrived in the US with just two dollars in his pocket. He graduated from Massachusetts University in Boston. 

4. Just after 12 months of operation, Tappy, a startup, has been taken over by Weeby.co from Silicon Valley. There is no information about the value of the deal, but insiders believe the firm is worth millions of dollars. 

The firm was founded by Truong Thanh Thuy, Vu Duy Thuc and Leslie Ngan Nguyen.

5. One of three founders of Katango is Vu Duy Thuc, a young talent in information technology. In late 2011, Google bought Katango in a plan to upgrade Google+.