October, November & December
4th Quarter
Vietnam’s tech, startup and VC funding news from across October, November and December of 2019, focusing on early stage startups.
For technology-specific news for the most recent month, visit the Other News section, covering blockchain, artificial intelligence, fintech and cryptocurrency news across the 17 jurisdictions that we cover.
October 2019 • November 2019 • December 2019
October 2019
- Vietnam: “…in H1 2019, there were 60 transactions with $250M worth of capital poured into Vietnam’s startups”, ranking third after Singapore and Indonesia
- Vietnam: Rever proptech startup aims to take on the country’s real estate brokerage market, following $2.3M fundraise
- Vietnam: VIISA unveils Batch 6 of its accelerator program, 5 startups chosen from over 100 applications
- Vietnam: An introduction to the 5 startups selected for Batch 6 of the VIISA Acceleration Program
- Vietnam: VIISA Accelerator Program Batch 7 applications are now open
- Vietnam: Ho Chi Minh City Innovation, Startup and Entrepreneurship Week 2019 set for October 15-19, featuring more than 30 events
- Vietnam: Da Nang Start-up Innovation Festival set for November 1st, featuring 30 speakers, 70-startup expo and hoped-for attendance of 2000
- Vietnam: Women’s Initiative for Startups and Entrepreneurship demo day set for Ho Chi Minh City, October 30th
- Vietnam: An intro to Upp! upcycling startup using plastic waste from landfills and oceans for construction
- Vietnam’s fintech market predicted to grow to $7.8BN value by 2020, growing from $4.4BN in 2017
- Vietnam: MindX edtech startup raises $500K with focus on training tech skills in schools
- Vietnam: Province of Dak Lak sets sights on developing local startup ecosystem, given its large-scale agricultural area
- Vietnam: Cricket One cricket protein startup gains funding, in part from 500 Startups, with insect-based food
- Vietnam establishes cybersecurity emergency response centre, given 7000 cyberattacks so far in 2019, and 2500 website attacks in Q3 alone
- Viettel, Vietnam’s military-run telecom group, to roll out 5G tech in Laos by year-end, following on from Myanmar and Cambodia tests
- An intro to Rens, Vietnamese startup making the world’s first shoes from coffee grounds
- Vietnam: An overview of Topica Edtech Group, e-learning platform firm aiming to help Southeast Asia’s young workers reskill for the digital age
- Singapore’s Doctor Anywhere partners Vietnam’s ViettelPay to provide online healthcare services in Vietnam
- Vietnam: South Korea’s Woori Financial Group launches Digital Innovation Lab Vietnam to strengthen ties between Korean and Vietnamese fintech startups
- Vietnam orders Chinese-car importer to remove navigation maps showing spurious, illegal and unrecognised 9-dash-line in South China Sea
- Vietnam: WISE Women Accelerator 2019 Demo Day set for October 30th in Ho Chi Minh City
- The 10 finalists selected for the Mekong Innovative Startups in Tourism, set to pitch in Bangkok, October 9th
- An intro to the winners and finalists of the 2019 Mekong Innovative Startups in Tourism program
November 2019
- Viettel Group, Vietnam’s largest mobile carrier, to launch trial 5G networks service in Laos by year-end, following on from tests in Myanmar and Cambodia
- Vietnam: Lozi fast-growing tech startup gains 8-digit USD funding, with consumer-to-consumer portal and one-hour delivery fleet
- Vietnam: Hanoi People’s Committee announces $13.5M initiative, aiming to create 500 startup and innovation activities, up to 5 incubators, and more
- Vietnam: WeWork coworking gian to open 2 new spaces in Ho Chi Minh City by month-end, aiming for 850 spaces worldwide in near future
- Singapore’s MyDoc partners Vietnam’s BaoViet Group Insurance to offer cashless, digitally-integrated clinic service to health insurance policyholders
- Vietnam: VinDAX cryptocurrency exchange hacked, losing $5M in crypto assets across 23 cryptocurrencies
- State Bank of Vietnam, country’s central bank, proposes a 49% cap on foreign ownership of local e-payment companies to prevent manipulation
- Vietnam: Ho Chi Minh City to develop blockchain infrastructure to aid in smart city aspirations
- Vietnam: ASEAN Angel Alliance Summit 2019 set for December 5th in Halong Bay, alongside TechFest 2019
- Vietnam: An overview of TechFest 2019, set for December 4-6 in Halong Bay (pdf)
- Vietnam: Sesame Summit Asia 2020 set for April 2-3 in Hanoi
- Vietnam: Mekong Innovation Hub launches for startups in Ben Tre province, supported by Saigon Innovation Hub
- Vietnam: Sendo secures $61M with e-commerce focused ecosystem spanning marketplace, advertising, logistics and financial services
- Vietnam: A look at the country’s exposure – and opportunities – around P2P lending regulations
- Vietnam: BLOCK71 ecosystem builder to launch following MOU between Singapore’s NUS Enterprise and Becamex, industrial infrastructure developer
- FEBE Ventures launches $25M Vietnam-focused VC fund, focusing on pre-A to full Series A investments
- SBI Ripple Asia and SBI Remit launch the first Japan-Vietnam money transfer service using distributed ledger tech, possibly to incorporate crypto assets in future
December 2019
- Vietnam: An overview of opportunities growing in the country’s burgeoning esports and gaming market
- Vietnam: 4 key factors that make Vietnam likely to be Southeast Asia’s next growth story
- Vietnam: ViecCo takes win at Vietnam Startup 2019 with platform connecting employers and freelancers
- Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City reiterates goal of becoming a strategic partner of Australia in innovation and education in recent state-level visit
- Vietnam’s emerging startup scene is proving to be a case of ‘right place, right time’ for local and international venture capital funds
- Vietnam: Interloan, a winner in the Fintech Vietnam Challenge 2019, gains $500K backing to provide unsecured loans to working professionals in the country
- A brief intro to the finalists from the recent Fintech Vietnam Challenge 2019, spanning AI, real estate, lending and more
- Vietnam: A brief look at the thinking behind Techfest 2019 Conference, part of the government’s ‘Supporting the national innovative startup ecosystem until 2025’ project
- Vietnam: A brief intro to the 4 startups recently graduated from VIISA Acceleration Programme’s 6th batch
- Vietnam: Echelon Asia Summit 2020 Roadshow Vietnam edition set for Ho Chi Minh City in February
- Vietnam: Ho Chi Minh City confirms Sasaki architecture firm to design innovation district in eastern part of the city, proposing 6 ‘innovation hotspots’ for investment
- Vietnamese startups have been able to successfully attract capital, with a total amount of more than $670M for 50 projects’, with HCMC accounting for nearly half
- Vietnam: MultiGlass, startup producing smart glasses for the handicapped, wins national contest; preps to represent Vietnam at Startup World Cup 2020 in the US
- Vietnam’s fintech industry growth is a model for Southeast Asia’
- Vietnam: State-owned MobiFone becomes the second mobile network provider to pilot 5G system
- Vietnam: eMonkey e-wallet reportedly quietly backed by China’s Ant Financial; parent firm M-Pay has partnerships with most of Vietnam’s largest banks, telco’s
- Vietnam: Telio B2B e-commerce startup raises $25M Series A with platform connecting small mom-and-pop stores with brands and wholesalers
- Vietnam: An overview of the opportunities and challenges for the country’s new environmentally-focused ‘zero-waste’ startups
- Vietnam’s Cai Mep International Terminal joins TradeLens, Maersk and IBM blockchain platform for supply chain efficiency
- Vietnam: An interview with Phi Van Nguyen, Chairwoman of Open Innovation Vietnam, in the Women in GovTech Special Report 2019
- Vietnam: Dream Viet Education edtech startup sells majority ownership of 2 adult learning platforms, aiming to focus on children’s education
- Vietnam: VeXeRe bus booking platform gains funding to boost products beyond online bookings, software, and ticket distribution software for agents
- AWStartups Summit Vietnam set for February 13th in Ho Chi Minh City
- Vietnam: An intro to Jingo Live, helping brands connect with audiences using app-based gamification
- Indonesia: Ruangguru online learning platform raises $150M with over 15M students and 300K teachers across Indonesia, setting sights on Vietnam entry
- MVL, parent of blockchain ride-hailing app TADA, raises $5M Series A with over 50K drivers and over 500K users across Singapore, Vietnam and Cambodia
- A brief intro to 5 of Southeast Asia’s early-stage startups, working in farming, logistics and more
Startup News: Vietnam
Keep up-to-the-minute with Vietnam’s startup news:
in: on LinkedIn
tw: on Twitter
fb: on Facebook
app: on Google Play
