Recently, EM&AI Joint Stock Company located in Hai Chau District, Da Nang has successfully called for an investment of US$ 1 million in the fifth season of Shark Tank Viet Nam, the Vietnamese adaptation of the American business-related reality television series. This deal has received a lot of attention as well as affirmed the potential of startups from Da Nang.

The EM&AI Joint Stock Company in Da Nang has successfully called for US$ 1 million worth of investment commitment in the fifth season of Shark Tank Viet Nam.

EM&AI is the opening startup of the fifth season Shark Tank Viet Nam with 2 representatives from the company, co-founder cum CEO Le Ngoc Tri and Vo Huu Truong An in charge of product development and customer experience.

EM&AI called for US$1 million for 5% stake for the supply of the Voicebot AI solution (automatic customer care calls with artificial intelligence voice). Mr. Le Ngoc Tri informed that the company is accelerating the research and development process, deploying the English version to provide services to the world with an estimated market size of more than US$ 23.5 billion.

The company's Voicebot AI solution, although just launched in March 2022, already has attracted more than 30 customers with 10,000 conversations happening every day by AI.

Currently, the company is applying 2 forms of fee collection: every 6 or 12 months and as committed.

In addition to Voicebot AI, the company also provides other solutions such as AI chatbot; Virtual QC, an automated call assessment solution based on EM&AI’s proprietary machine learning technologies; AI labeling and training.

However, after listening to the call with Voicebot AI, Chairman of the Board of Directors of NextTech Group Joint Stock Company Nguyen Hoa Binh said that the voice of the robot is not natural, and expressed concern because AI is a challenge. It's not easy for startups.

Mr. Binh further added that the businesses that are capturing the most data about the sound and voice of Vietnamese people are Facebook, Google and Microsoft when every day there are billions of minutes of calls made by Vietnamese people through their applications of businesses. With such big data, businesses can develop AI robots that are as natural as humans and they are closest to the finish line.

Therefore, he worries that the Da Nang startup will find it difficult to compete in terms of products.
Chairman of BIN Corporation Group Le Hung Anh and Chairman of the Board of Directors of SUNHOUSE Group Nguyen Xuan Phu were also concerned about the financial picture of the Da Nang startup, so they refused to invest in it.

Meanwhile, Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of CEN Group Pham Thanh Hung and Chairman of the Board of Directors of AquaOne Group Do Thi Kim Lien expressed interest in the startup's technology.

Pham Thanh Hung's company himself is a customer of EM&AI, so he will re-examine the effectiveness of the solution brought to his company to support this startups in the future but within the framework of Shark Tank Viet Nam, the Group CEN also say “no” to  the startup.

After listening to the opinions of other investors, Ms. Do Thi Kim Lien still appreciated the solution and proposed to invest US$1 million in exchange for 35% of the startup's shares.

Upon Ms. Lien's proposal, EM&AI still kept the offering of US$1 million for 5% of the shares. However,Mr. Le Ngoc Tri suggested that Ms. Lien deposit $100,000 in advance. After 2 months of KPI (A Key Performance Indicator) appraisals, if not, EM&AI will refund all money. Finally, Ms. Lien agreed to this proposal made by EM&AI.

Sharing about his experience after calling for investment capital on Shark Tank with Da Nang Newspaper reporters, Mr. Le Ngoc Tri said, the duration of the programme is relatively short, so in order to convey the important core information to the “sharks” (investors in the programme) and television viewers is not easy. This is the focal point to prepare more carefully so that the audience to properly and fully understand the values EM&AI solutions can bring to individuals and businesses.

In order to ‘shake  hands’ with the shark, the startup needs to understand the ‘taste’ of each shark, what value the startup can contribute to the ecosystem that the shark already has.

Accordingly, the startup needs to "live on its own", the profit rate is high enough to be attractive enough, when participating in Shark Tank to raise capital, it is more likely to succeed.

Currently, EM&AI is working closely with Ms. Do Thi Kim Lien's team to provide practical solutions for Ms. Lien's company. Solutions like Voicebot AI can replace consultants, remind customers of recurring payment deadlines, and help customers not miss out on the best insurance policies.

In the future, EM&AI shares the vision of fully automating the insurance industry's call centres, reducing customer service wait times to the maximum thanks to AI Self-service technology. In addition, EM&AI is also working with Ms. Do Thi Kim Lien in providing investment appraisal information.

EM&AI's goal after receiving the investment capital is to promote business and marketing activities in the next 3 years so that the product can reach up to 30% of businesses that have call centres or  the act of selling a product or service via telephone. (telesales), and bring products like Voicebot AI telesales to change the perception of both businesses and the public about the intelligence and flexibility of AI virtual employees.

Reporting by MAI QUE - Translating by A.THU