Prominent amongst the outstanding achievements Da Nang recorded last year were its Viet Nam Smart City Award 2020, along with its grasp of three other national-level prizes in the categories of smart public services, smart digital infrastructure, and the best cities for startups and innovations. These fruitful results clearly showcase a pioneering and constructive role of the local business incubators in building up an innovative startup ecosystem which has produced a new generation of talented young entrepreneurs.

Picture taken at the recently-held Science Research Conference and Technology Exhibition 2021 (BKDN Techshow)

The high sense of ceaseless creativity

After seven years of working at the Da Nang Maternity and Pediatrics Hospital, Nguyen Long Giang decided to quit his well-paid job here and start his own business. 

Giang entered the entrepreneurial journey with his HappyMom project and won the top prize in the Startup Weekend Da Nang 2018. The young man said that many lactating mothers usually experience postpartum depression. Another fact is that many Da Nang-based public hospitals sometimes face patient overload and, therefore, doctors find it very hard to handle a large number of out-patients. Meanwhile, many patients, especially pregnant women, also feel very exhausted and tired of waiting for their turn for examinations there. ‘Happy Mom’, therefore, is indeed a good choice for pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers.

Giang set up his own M-Medic company after joining a six-month incubation course at the Da Nang Business Incubator (DNES).

Based on the intelligent medical technology platform, M-Medic allows customers to make appointments for medical examinations, treatment and tests, access consultations about medical problems, and manage their own health and their families’ through electronic medical records.

The M-Medic entered the venture round, a type of funding round used for venture capital financing, by which startup companies obtain investment. Recently, M-Medic is one of the seven startup projects to have received 160 million VND in funding from Da Nang government to boost the perfection of its technology and its deeper penetration into the market.

Also noticeably, The STILE Initiative, an investment-backed accelerator programme based in Hong Kong, which focuses on balancing and integrating business development and investment, plans to pour 2 million$ worth of investment into M-Medic, equal to 20% of this Da Nang company’s stake.

By 2022, M-Medic will have etched its name in Vietnamese largest cities namely Ha Noi and HCM City, and by 2025, it will have made its expansion into other ASEAN countries.

Another successful startup is the city-based EM&AI JSC, which in late November finished as a runner-up at TECHFEST 2020 hosted by the Ministry of Science and Technology. Possessing two remarkable products, namely Virtual Quality Controller (Virtual QC) and Virtual Agent, EM&AI has risen to fame as one of Viet Nam’s pioneering companies in promoting intensive research into state-of-art Natural Language Processing (NLP) technology, the hardest branch of artificial intelligence (AI) for delivering better customer experience.

Besides its success at TECHFEST 2020 with its two aforementioned products, EM&AI won the top prize in the Startup Pitching 2020 contest organised by the Viet Nam Software and IT Services Association (VINASA) in November, and the Innovative Financial Technology Solution award at the Orient Commercial Joint Stock Bank (OCB)- held Open API Challenge contest early December 2020.

Also encouragingly, EM&AI stands proudly as the only Vietnamese company to secure a berth in the top 30 prospective startups at the Global Open Innovation Korea contest hosted by the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) in late October 2020.

More recently, EM&AI has raised 850,000 $ of funding, becoming one of the three projects to have been selected for their presence in TV reality show Shark Tank 2021.

Real-time solar battery navigation system, a product created by students from the Da Nang University of Science and Technology at the Techshow 2021

Start-up networking efforts

Considered as a destination full of rich potential to support the young set up startups and innovations, Da Nang, in recent years, has focused on building a strong and healthy startup ecosystem with the maximum financial support for young entrepreneurs.

Da Nang has nationally pioneered in making the debut of the Da Nang Science and Technology Development Fund, and establishing the municipal Startup Network Coordination Council and incubator DNES, the only effective incubator based on the public private partnership (PPP) model in Viet Nam.

Also, the Flying Fish Investment (FFI) has been established in the midst of Da Nang's vision to become an innovation hub by the sea, for locals and foreign entrepreneurs and digital nomads.

In particular, the construction of a working area and startup training venue integrated with the development of a national-level creative startup centre in Da Nang is dubbed as solid steps in supporting young entrepreneurs to get a stable kick-start.

The new development is expected to be built on a 1,863m² land lot, with a total gross internal area of 20,000m², well designed with modern areas for product design services, a technology trading platform, incubation spaces, auxiliary facilities and amenities.

More recently, Da Nang People's Committee Vice Chairman Ho Ky Minh pledged that the maximum  favourable conditions will be ensured for young entrepreneurs to bring their innovative startup ideas to fruition, hereby helping Da Nang turn itself into a modern-smart, ecological and global city, and an entrepreneurship and innovation hub in Asia in the future as per request by Vietnamese national government’s stance.

By HOANG NHUNG- Translated by A.T