Topic: start-ups

Increase in funding seen over recent years as Vietnam’s innovation ecosystem and tech startups continue to improve.

The ThinkZone investment fund has said that total venture capital investment in innovative businesses in Vietnam in 2021 reached $1.4 billion, of which about 90 per cent came from foreign venture capital funds. Despite playing a key role in providing capital for innovative startups in Vietnam, foreign venture capital funds still face many difficulties due to legal obstacles. It also remains difficult for startups and innovative businesses to access loans due to high interest rates and a lack of collateral.

Though cash pouring into Vietnamese startups has remained positive over the past six months, some observers have forecast that capital flows may decline in the future. Vietnam is still considered a market of potential in the region, however. Forecasts have been made that investment in Vietnam’s startups this year will reach $2 billion.

Ascend Vietnam Ventures (AVV)'s Alpha Fund is looking for Vietnamese startups with potential in a variety of industries, especially those in financial inclusion, education, and the future of work. By the end of 2023, the Fund plans to be investing $2 million each in 25 seed-stage startups.

Despite being one of the fields to have grown very quickly over the past two years of Covid-19, Vietnam’s education technology (edtech) market is yet to have a unicorn (a company with a valuation of $1 billion or more). According to stakeholders and analysts at the WISETALK discussion on edtech development in Vietnam on June 22, developing Vietnamese edtech products in international markets requires additional policy support.