Vietnamese startups bagged $750 million in funding across 29 deals in the first ten months of this year, the country’s science and technology minister said on Wednesday.
“The growing scale of investment shows the potential to create new unicorns in Vietnam,” said Chu Ngoc Anh, Minister of Science and Technology, at Techfest 2019, an annual government-backed event that seeks to connect Vietnamese startups with potential investors.
Fintech was the hottest sector for investments, with the biggest deal cracked in the sector worth up to $300 million, he added. The deal is likely a reference to SoftBank and GIC Pte’s investment in VNLIFE, the parent company of payments firm VNPAY.
Another significant fintech deal this year was Vietnamese e-wallet MoMo’s Series C funding round in January led by global private equity firm Warburg Pincus. The investment was in the region of $100 million, making this one of the largest single rounds ever raised by a Vietnamese startup.
The minister said Vietnam’s startup ecosystem now has 38 incubators, more than 170 co-working spaces and 61 startup funds. One of the significant initiatives launched this year was a joint commitment by the Vietnam government and local and international VCs to invest 10 trillion dong ($425 million) in Vietnamese startups over the next three years.
Logistics and e-commerce were the other leading sectors to attract investor dollars. Singapore state investor Temasek Holdings made an investment, understood to be as much as $100 million, in Scommerce, the Ho Chi Minh City-headquartered logistics company.
Meanhwhile, Vietnamese e-commerce firm Sendo last month secured $61 million in a Series C funding round from existing shareholders as well as new investors including Indonesia’s EV Growth and Thailand’s Kasikornbank. E-commerce company Tiki, on the other hand, bagged funding from private equity firm Northstar Group.
“There is a huge opportunity for investing in fintech and digital wallets in Vietnam as the government is promoting cashless transactions… I think fintech, logistics and healthcare are the sectors that will attract a lot of investments in the years to come,” Eddy Hong, general manager at South Korean investment fund Nextrans told DealStreetAsia in a recent interaction.
