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DIGITaL BIZ




                         Bursting with appeal




                              Vietnam’s startup landscape is closing the gap with its regional peers
                               as it sees more endeavors appearing on the radar of venture funds.
                                                      T Van Lan REPORTS



















































               ietnamese media company Vietcetera  result-driven brands tell better stories. Coupled  global  investors.  Live  streaming  platform
               Media raised $700,000 in seed funding  with wide readership loyalty and impressive  GoStream,  meanwhile,  announced  that
         V in  a  round  in  early  March  led  by  CPC (cost per click) and CPA (cost per action)  VinaCapital Ventures had invested $1 million
         Japan’s Genesia Ventures, a venture capital  figures, we are confident in Vietcetera’s sub-  in the company.
         firm focused on early-stage startups in Japan  stantial potential to be a market leader.”  Venture  funds  actually  increased  their
         and  Southeast  Asia.  Funds  raised  will  go                          investment  in  Vietnamese  startups  in  the
         towards growing the platform’s data science,  Robust investment wave    midst of the pandemic. 500 Startups made
         engineering, and product teams as it looks to  Despite  Covid-19,  Vietnamese  startups  15 new investments in 2020, increasing its
         capitalize  on  its  first-mover  advantage  and  still secured millions of dollars from venture  portfolio to more than 70 companies. It said
         secure  its  position  as  an  innovator  known  funds in the opening months of 2021. In Feb-  there  continues  to  be  immense  long-term
         for a modern approach in a legacy industry.  ruary, ELSA, a mobile app that uses artificial  potential for technology in Vietnam, both for
         “Vietcetera gets its edge from targeting Viet-  intelligence (AI) and speech recognition tech-  companies serving the domestic market or
         nam’s 38 million Millennials and Gen Zers -  nology  to  help  language  learners  improve  overseas.  It  fell  just  short  of  its  target  of
         roughly 39 per cent of the population - who  their  English-speaking  and  pronunciation  investing in 80 companies by early this year,
         are starting to wield incredible power as con-  skills,  announced  a  Series  B  round  of  $15  reaching 75, but efforts continue.
         sumers,” said Mr. Takahiro Suzuki, General  million in new capital, co-led by VI (Vietnam  Do Ventures also managed to close three
         Partner  at  Genesia  Ventures.  “Vietcetera’s  Investments) Group and SIG.   investment deals in three promising companies
         young, talented, and visionary team consis-  In January, e-wallet MoMo bagged over  last year. F99 is a platform that enables farmers
         tently delivers high-quality content that helps  $100 million in Series D financing from leading  to  bypass  traditional  intermediaries  to  sell



         34 | VIETNAM ECONOMIC TIMES | APRIL 2021
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