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Discover TikTok Shop: The ultimate shopping-entertainment experience in Vietnam

TikTok Shop Vietnam is currently one of the potential online sales markets for sellers. Along with the explosion in the number of users and the virality of many videos on the Tiktok platform. The birth of the Tiktok shop promises to be one of the “successful” e-commerce channels for sellers if they know how to seize business opportunities on this platform!

Citing the report “Shoppertainment: APAC’s Trillion-Dollar Opportunity”, TikTok said that Vietnam is one of the most potential markets for the trend of shopping combined with entertainment, which is expected to lead the commercial electronics in Southeast Asia.

The appearance of TikTok Shop has affirmed the throne of shopping combined with entertainment in the Vietnamese market within the past one year.

Sharing at the event, Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Dung, Chairman of the Vietnam E-commerce Association, said: TikTok Shop has been making significant changes in the appearance of the e-commerce industry in Vietnam. The remarkable progress of TikTok Shop in the past one year has confirmed the development prospects of this platform with the cooperation of the business community, merchants, content creators, and users.

In a short time, TikTok Shop has shown the special influence of this platform on businesses, sellers, and shoppers across the country. In the past six months alone, the GMV (total value of goods) of TikTok Shop increased 11 times, of which the number of orders increased six times. Some categories are taking up a large proportion, and the main customers of TikTok Shop today are fashion, accessories, food and beverages, beauty care, and electronics.

Also Read: How TikTok co-creation strategy is supercharging Southeast Asian SMBs

Currently, there are about 50 million hours of video watching on TikTok every day in Vietnam, not to mention watching live streams.

Besides, TikTok has become the user’s favourite discovery tool. Content on the platform stimulates them to discover new brands and products naturally, even making unplanned purchasing decisions. Half of TikTok users admit they discovered a new product or brand while using the platform, and 89 per cent made an unplanned purchase after watching a video on TikTok. This is also the highest number of all existing social networking platforms.

Sell to people who don’t need it

A representative of TikTok Vietnam said that TikTok’s idea is to sell to people who have no need. After implementing this idea, there were days when TikTok recorded 700,000 – 800,000 shoppers in Vietnam. The number of sellers is also up to several tens of thousands.

Specifically, the TikTok platform provides three types of services. The first is to help users be entertained when watching videos. The second is entertainment for learning, such as cooking skills, learning English, etc. Finally, TikTok provides shopping entertainment services. Users who view TikTok after seeing other people buy will generate shopping behaviour.

As can be seen, TikTok’s way of doing this is to create opportunities for buyers, sellers, and manufacturers so that all have to pay the lowest cost. Sellers and manufacturers can completely focus on their expertise, regardless of marketing, while buyers will buy goods at the cheapest price.

The representative of TikTok Vietnam explained that every person who produces any product has a reason. TikTok allows them to tell their story. People who use the product also have the opportunity to recount why they use the product. From there, ordinary consumers can listen and make decisions.

Accompanying the local economy

Not only quickly adapting to new shopping trends in Vietnam, but TikTok Shop also “paved the way” for Vietnamese specialities to come closer to Vietnamese people. In rural development, TikTok launches the OCOP Live Market project to sell OCOP specialities every Saturday morning, introducing OCOP products in provinces and cities nationwide.

Also Read: Unstoppable surge: Vietnam’s e-commerce growth continues to soar

Approaching the way of selling product stories, TikTok aims to improve the livelihoods of 20,000 local cooperatives, people from craft villages, and small businesses spread across 63 provinces of Vietnam, contributing to preserving the local traditional culture and promoting tourism in the regions.

TikTok Shop also organises professional training classes for farmers and businesses on how to build short video content, on creative advertising solutions TikTok for Business, and establishes a separate category for OCOP products on the Internet. TikTok Shop e-commerce features.

TikTok Shop continues to strengthen comprehensive solutions

It can be said that, after the period of explosive development, traditional e-commerce began to slow down and witnessed the explosion of social commerce (selling via social networks).

Experts say that social commerce is the future of retail. The combination of social media, video, and e-commerce has made shopping more fun and interactive. This is a two-way interaction between buyers and sellers, instead of one-way from sellers like current e-commerce platforms.

Before TikTok Shop, TikTok was very successful in Influencer Marketing (marketing by social influencers) with the explosion of short videos, KOC (key consumer) networks, and KOLs (people). influential in society) active activity on the platform has helped many brands reach their target customers more easily, thereby gaining consumer trust and revenue growth.

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Ecosystem Roundup: SEA’s VCs raise fewer dollars in H1 2023; Can Threads leech your personal data?

SEA’s VCs raise fewer dollars in H1 2023 in sign of extended slump
Homegrown VCs closed 11 funds during the period, raising US$3.72B in total proceeds; While the number of fund closes was consistent with the previous six months, H1’s fundraising was less than half of the amount raised in H1 2022.

Zuckerberg claims tens of millions of Threads signups within hours of launch
More than 30M people have signed up to Threads, Meta’s rival to Twitter; Threads was introduced as a clear spin-off of Instagram, thereby sparing the new platform the challenge of starting from scratch.

Indonesia’s eFishery nets US$47.7M in Series D+
This brings the total funds raised for the round to nearly US$176M; eFishery supports aquaculture farmers through solutions such as B2B and supply marketplaces, smart feeding systems, and financing.

SeaMoney sheds jobs in Indonesia
The financial arm of Sea Group said the move is part of its “regular review of business operations” to maximise efficiency; The group retrenched about 7,000 staff throughout 2022.

Joel Neoh launches early-stage fund First Move
First Move will provide up to US$100K in funding to early-stage SEA ventures in e-commerce, fintech, and healthtech.

Li-ion battery recycling startup NEU Battery Materials raises US$3.7M
The investors include SGInnovate, ComfortDelGro, and Shift4Good; NEU has set up a 150-square-metre pilot recycling plant in SG, capable of processing ~150 tonnes of lithium batteries annually

Singapore’s NodeFlair gets US$2M Series A
The investors are Iterative, 500 Global, and PERSOL Venture Partners; NodeFlair provides payslip-verified salary data and detailed career information for roles across all levels of seniority.

BNPL major Atome confirms exiting Vietnam
The company said that Vietnam’s contribution to our overall business was limited; In April 2022, Atome debuted in Vietnam with a pilot spanning over 20 retail partners.

Ex-Shopee exec’s AI marketing startup Needle secures US$1.2M
The investors include Iterative, Ethos Fund, and Goldbell; Needle helps founders generate ideas, determines business and marketing priorities, and then provides personalised recommendations for effective tactics.

Antler names Warung Pintar co-founder as partner for Indonesia
Agung Bezharie Hadinegoro will lead Antler’s investment strategy and operations in Indonesia, where the VC plans to invest in more than 30 companies this year.

Bain & Company buys Rainmaking’s Asia business in undisclosed deal
With this, Bain hopes to boost its business-building services called Next, launched in 2022 to help founders go from ‘seed to scale’; Rainmaking has 50 employees in Singapore, Japan, and Korea.

Vietnamese financial education startup Stag raises US$600K
The investors are Viet Capital, NH Securities, and Resolution Ventures; Stag seeks to collaborate with universities, educational organisations to raise awareness of financial literacy.

Co-living startup Hmlet’s CEO steps down
Giselle Makarachvili joined the Singapore-based flexible living firm in January 2020 as VP (operations); One year on, she was appointed COO and then made CEO in October 2021.

You can’t post ass, Threads is doomed
Threads, the Meta-owned Twitter clone that launched this week, will always be hindered by its own content guidelines; The app is dry at best and at worst, leeching your personal data.

GM.co merges the best of Web3 and e-commerce to provide a better shopping experience
The transactions on GM.co are facilitated by cryptocurrencies and conducted over a blockchain to provide an added layer of security.

How AI-powered Dobin aims to empower half of Singaporeans who are financially illiterate
Dobin uses open finance and AI to provide consumers with a consolidated financial view, a personalised financial profile, and a permission-based app for getting value from their data

Driving financial inclusion in the Philippines: Why last-mile communities are key to winning the battle.
COVID-19 accelerated digital transformation in emerging markets, but the shift into digital payments in the Philippines is something that it has been aiming for.

The Mills Fabrica aims to transform agrifood, textile industries through its climate tech investments
It plans to invest up to US$3M in each climate tech startup and expand the model implemented in its impact retail platform Fabrica X beyond HK and London.

How to create harmony between work and life as a founder
There are a few things that we need to learn and unlearn if we want to establish harmony between our work and personal life.

Is generative AI the game-changer for productivity?
While Gen AI can automate various tasks, it cannot entirely replace human creativity, empathy, and critical thinking.

Fundraising or preparing your startup for fundraising? Build your investor network, search from 400+ SEA investors on e27, and get connected or get insights regarding fundraising. Try e27 Pro for free today.

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Meet the VCs that invested in Southeast Asia in July first week

Southeast Asia saw several emerging home-grown startups raising relatively smaller rounds of investments. In addition to domestic VCs, several foreign investors — from Japan to Europe — also came to invest.

Below is the list of investors that invested in the region’s startups this week.

Iterative

Singapore-based venture capital firm, Iterative, runs a Y Combinator-style accelerator programme. It launched its first fund in 2021, which has invested in over 65 companies in five cohorts.

500 Global

With US$2.5 billion in assets under management, 500 invests in founders building fast-growing technology companies. It invests far and wide across sectors and geographies, including 45+ companies valued at US$1 billion+ and 150+ companies valued at more than US$100 million.

Persol Venture Partners

The corporate VC arm of the Japanese HR management group Persol. Launched in 2015, Persol Venture Partners seeks to invest in the HR-tech sector.

This week, Persol co-invested in the US$2 million Series A round of NodeFlair, a Singapore-based career advancement platform for tech talents, along with Iterative (lead) and 500 Global.

Viet Capital Ventures

Established in 2018, Viet Capital Ventures (VCV) makes investments through Viet Capital Asset Management’s licensed portfolio management service. VCV invests in early- and growth-stage firms in Vietnam, emphasising companies with IT-based operations that already have revenue.

Resolution Ventures

It invests in seed to Series A fintech companies in Southeast Asia. It works with founders willing to tackle audacious goals on a global playing field. It looks for solutions that solve immediate problems around financial inclusion and the financial infrastructure in Southeast Asia that could be exported to the rest of the world.

VCV, Resolution Ventures, and other investors funded Vietnamese financial education startup Stag this week.

Ethos Fund

It invests in pre-seed-stage startups in Vietnam and the US. Ethos’s mission is to strengthen and leverage the connections between Vietnam and the US. In addition, it has established venture studios and programmes like Venture Protégé and Venture Fellowship that will provide a comprehensive support system for startups

SGInnovate

SGInnovate builds and scales deep-tech startups into high-potential companies with global impact. It focuses on adding tangible value to the deeptech startup ecosystem in two key areas: human capital development and deployment of investment capital. With the support of its partners and co-investors, it backs entrepreneurial scientists through equity-based investments, access to talent and business-building advice. Its focus areas are advanced manufacturing, agrifood, healthcare and biomedical sciences and sustainability.

ComfortDelGro Ventures

ComfortDelGro Ventures is the corporate VC arm of Singapore-based ComfortDelGro. It invests in transport-related technology startups, such as on-demand bus technology, fleet management, autonomous vehicles, fleet electrification, automotive engineering, and fleet management systems.

Shift4Good

Shift4Good is a VC fund manager investing in the decarbonisation of the transportation sector
With teams based in Paris and Singapore, it mostly focuses on European and Southeast Asian opportunities, particularly in the mobility sector.

It can deploy between €0.5 million and €20 million per company. It mostly invests in Series A and Series B rounds and can allocate 10 per cent of its funds to pre-Series A rounds.

Paragon Ventures

Paragon Ventures is an experienced merger and acquisition firm with long and deep experience in the healthcare sector. It has owned, operated and sold its healthcare businesses. It has represented and closed over 300 healthcare M&A transactions representing over US$1.4 billion in healthcare revenues.

ComfortDelGro Ventures, Shift4Good, and Paragon Ventures invested in NEU Battery Materials, a Singapore-based lithium-ion battery recycling startup, this week.

Copyright: alfaphoto

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eFishery banks US$200M, targets to engage 1M+ aquaculture ponds by 2025

Indonesia’s aquaculture company eFishery has raised US$200 million in its Series D funding round led by Abu Dhabi-based global fund manager 42XFund.

Malaysian public sector pension fund, Kumpulan Wang Persaraan (KWAP), Switzerland-based asset manager responsAbility, 500 Global, Northstar, Temasek, and SoftBank also joined.

The funds will be used to expand the eFishery farming community, targeting to engage over 1 million aquaculture ponds in Indonesia by 2025 and increasing the transactions of fish feed and fresh fish on the platform. The goal is to export fully traceable, chemical-free and antibiotic-free shrimp to international markets.

Co-Founder and CEO Gibran Huzaifah said: “The strategic support we receive from our investors will help us revolutionise the entire industry, especially by integrating Indonesian smallholder fish farmers into the eFishery ecosystem that spans the entire value chain.”

Also Read: eFishery secures US$32M loan from DBS Indonesia to support expansion move

Founded in 2013, eFishery is one of Indonesia’s largest digital co-operatives for fish and shrimp farmers. It offers an integrated aquaculture ecosystem that provides access to technology, supporting over 70,000 fish and shrimp farmers in 280 cities across Indonesia.

Its solutions include feeder technology that speeds up the crop cycle by up to 74 days, access to financial institutions worth more than US$40 million, and a platform to sell fish and shrimp crops.

The company has three main objectives: to address food security through aquaculture, to overcome fundamental challenges in the aquaculture industry by providing affordable technology, and to reduce social and economic inequality through an inclusive digital economy.

In October 2022, eFishery secured a US$32 million loan from DBS Bank Indonesia, as per a Tech In Asia report.

Fundraising or preparing your startup for fundraising? Build your investor network, search from 400+ SEA investors on e27, and get connected or get insights regarding fundraising. Try e27 Pro for free today.

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Antler names Warung Pintar co-founder Agung Bezharie Hadinegoro as Partner

Agung Bezharie Hadinegoro

Singapore-based early-stage venture capital firm Antler has appointed Agung Bezharie Hadinegoro as a Partner.

Hadinegoro will spearhead Antler’s investment strategy and operations in Indonesia. This aligns with Antler’s plans to invest in over 30 Indonesian companies in 2023.

Hadinegoro brings over a decade of entrepreneurial and venture capital experience. Before joining Antler, he co-founded and headed Warung Pintar, a digital platform that connects micro retailers with suppliers (manufacturers, distributors, wholesalers). Warung Pintar, backed by East Ventures, SMDV, Vertex Ventures, and OVO, was acquired by SIRCLO Group in 2022.

Before Warung Pintar, Bezharie contributed to organisations such as East Ventures and Global Entrepreneurship Program Indonesia, where he played an active role in empowering aspiring entrepreneurs by providing them with the necessary resources, funding, access to mentorship, and networking opportunities to flourish in the competitive business landscape.

Also Read: Antler Elevate closes US$285M emerging growth fund

Founded in Singapore in 2018, Antler partners with people across six continents to launch and scale high-potential startups that address meaningful opportunities and challenges. Its global community backs people from the beginning with co-founder matching, deep business model validation, initial capital, expansion support, and follow-on funding.

It has so far invested in over 792 companies across 25 cities worldwide and has an accumulated portfolio value of US$3.7 billion. It aims to back over 6,000 by 2030.

Antler has offices in 25 cities, including Singapore, Jakarta, Ho Chi Minh, Austin, New York, London, Berlin, Stockholm, Bangalore, Seoul, Tokyo, and Sydney.

The next residency programme in Indonesia will kick off in October 2023 in two phases. The first phase is about building the right team with co-founders who have complementary skills. During this period, Antler will provide the necessary resources and expertise worldwide to enable founders to validate their business ideas and prove product-market fit.

After the first phase of ten weeks, the strongest teams will be selected to get funded from pre-seed to beyond and expand across Indonesia and Southeast Asia.


Fundraising or preparing your startup for fundraising? Build your investor network, search from 400+ SEA investors on e27, and get connected or get insights regarding fundraising. Try e27 Pro for free today.

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