Vietnamese start-ups attract foreign investors

With 90 million people and nearly 40 million internet users, Vietnam’s start-up ecosystem is increasingly attractive to foreign investors.

Nguyễn Hiếu Linh - a representative from CyberAgent Ventures Fund is making a working visit to Websosanh in Hanoi to find out more about the company. Websosanh is a start-up that received capital from CyberAgent in a second round of funding. CyberAgent, is a Japanese venture capital fund and came to Vietnam in 2008. To date, the fund has invested in about 18 Vietnamese start-ups.

Nguyen Hieu Linh, Representative, CyberAgent Ventures Fund, Hanoi said: We see the potential of the Vietnamese market, including the young population, large number of mobile phone users and time people spend on the internet. But hardly any services for mobile phones have been released, which may be promising in the coming time.

Launched in April, 2014, websosanh allows users to compare prices among different retailers in order to find out the most affordable products from reputable enterprises. Apart from CyberAgent, websosanh also received investment from Yello Shopping Media Group, under the Yello Mobile Group in SOUTH Korea.

Le Dac Thinh DongCo-founder, Websosanh said: It's quite difficult for young entrepreneurs to attract investors. The first thing we should do is to prove that our products are useful to the community and we’re able to well develop.

Besides investment funds, it's worth noting individual investors. Hajime Hotta is an investor from Singapore. He has invested in 3 projects in Hanoi and 3 in Ho Chi Minh City.

"Over the next 10 years, I think Vietnam is a favourable place to invest in. Because apart from domestic goods, Vietnam can also develop in global markets. And in this case, ecosystems play a very important role." said Hajime Hotta, Investor.

As reported by Topica Founder Institute last year, Vietnamese start-ups witnessed 67 investment deals, up 130% compared to 2014. Some notable deals even worth over US$ 10 million of the investors from the US, UK and Germany./.