As Viet Nam, one of the hottest startup hubs in the world, is welcoming a huge wave of venture capital, its tech startup firms are expected to quickly reach the unicorn status, which means they are valued 1 billion USD or more, according to insiders.

Viet Nam's tech startup firms are expected to quickly reach the unicorn status. (Photo: baodautu.vn)

Most recently, VinaCapital Ventures, a 100 million USD technology holding company, has invested in various startups in the Southeast Asian country.

Following FastGo, Logivan, Urbox and Wee Digital, it chose Rever, a tech-enabled real estate brokerage, to land an investment worth 4 million USD.

Besides, it signed a strategic partnership with the Republic of Korea’s Mirae Asset-Naver Asia Growth Fund, a 1 billion USD joint fund by Mirae Asset and Naver, to prepare 100 million USD for Vietnamese startups over the next three years.

Within a month, foreign ventures pumped millions of USD to Vietnamese startups, including Korean GS Ship and Cambodian Belt Road Capital Management who poured 7 million USD in Leflair, and CyberAgent Ventures and Y1 Ventures and some other foreign ventures landing 3 million USD in Luxstay. Meanwhile, Wefit and JAMJA were successful at mobilising 1 million USD for each operation.

The M&A of mobile wallet provider Vimo Technology JSC and Viet Nam MPOS Technology JSC to form NextPay Holdings is a most noticeable deal of this kind among Vietnamese startup firms. It aims to expand scale in the market where non-cash payments are booming. Also, NextPay is calling for an investment of 30 million USD.

At the recent Viet Nam Venture Summit 2019, leading global venture capital firms like Golden Gate Ventures, 500 Startups and Topica committed investment worth some 10 trillion VND (425 million USD) for Vietnamese start-ups over the next three years.

Korean-based DT&I also decided to pour 1.4 million USD into Propzy, a Vietnamese startup providing solutions for real estate transactions in June.

Topica Founder Institute’s report said Vietnamese startups received 889 million USD worth of capital financing from both domestic and foreign investors in 2018, tripling the amount recorded in the previous years, and six times the figure in 2016.

Viet Nam’s start-up ecosystem has been developing with some 3,000 companies against the 400 firms in 2012.

Startups in financial technology (Fintech), education, renewable energy, health and pharmaceuticals, e-commerce, transport and forwarding services will be at advantage to lure more capital in the next 12 months, as private investors are seeking new investment opportunities in the fields in Southeast Asia, especially Viet Nam, according to Grant Thornton Viet Nam’s Viet Nam Private Equity Investment Outlook 2019.

Besides getting loans from commercial banks, Vietnamese startups now have a wide range of choices to mobilise capital due to increasing presence of both domestic and foreign ventures.

Many leading Vietnamese corporations like FPT, Viettel and Vingroup have also enhanced their support for local startups.

(Source: VNA)