Naver, Sea, Vertex invest in Vietnamese VC firm Do Ventures’s US$50M fund I

Do Ventures, a new early-stage VC firm in Vietnam, has announced the first close of its first fund at more than half of its US$50 million target.

The Limited Parters include first-generation entrepreneurs in Vietnam and top institutional investors in South Korea and Singapore, such as Naver, Sea Group, Vertex Holdings, and Woowa Brothers, among others.

The final close is expected in 2021, Vy Hoang Uyen Le, one of the founding partners of Do ventures told e27, adding that the VC firm is quite conservative in its estimation due to the impact of COVID-19.

Do Ventures was co-founded by Manh Dung Nguyen (formerly with CyberAgent Capital) and Uyen Le (formerly with ESP Capital).

Also Read: Why is Vietnam going to emerge the strongest post-COVID-19?

Dung Nguyen has more than 12 years of experience investing in early-stage startups. He has successfully built many local startups and is the first investor in Tiki.vn, Foody.vn, Batdongsan.com, CleverAds, and Vexere.

Uyen Le has been a serial entrepreneur since the age of 13, as well as an e-commerce veteran with more than 10 years of experience. She has invested in 15 companies while at ESP Capital.

As per a press statement, Do Ventures will strategically invest in companies that tap on the fast-growing middle-class population, serve the massive young population, and employ the best-in-class execution. It will pursue the philosophy of ‘growing by doing’.

The plan is to invest in highly capable founders in relatively new sectors and support them to initiate new business models that tackle current market pain points.

The firm said that it will announce a number of deals within a month that are currently in the closing process.

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The VC firm believes that the current environment presents an ideal opportunity to successfully invest in early-stage tech companies in Vietnam. From 2017 to 2019, the amount of capital invested and the number of technology deals done in the country have grown 6x.

Although Do Ventures is sector-agnostic, it is looking at investments in two tiers of companies with the following focus areas after COVID-19.

Tier 1: B2C platforms that complement an effective ecosystem of services around young customers such as education, healthcare, social commerce, etc. due to significant changes in customer behaviour after COVID-19.

Tier 2: regional-scaled B2B platforms that create synergies for tier 1 portfolio companies and enable these companies to scale regionally. After COVID-19, more enterprises would look for solutions to digitalize the companies.

“Therefore, Saas enterprise solutions, data enablers, or e-commerce enablers would have more opportunities to grow,” Uyen Le said.

Notably, tech investment in Vietnam reached the tipping point of almost US$900 million in 2018. 

Do Ventures seeks to invest in startups throughout various stages from seed to Series B.

“We follow a comprehensive investment approach and invest from US$500,000 to US$5 million for a well-performing startup,” Uyen Le revealed. “First, we would lead the seed round with an average check size of US$500,000. After the seed round, we would make follow-on investments in Series A and Series B round. Normally, we would follow another US$1-2 million for series A, and US$2-3 million for series B. In series A and B, we would also invite our Limited Partners and other funds in the region to co-invest with us.”

Do Ventures plans to back around 30 startups in total with the current fund.

It will also help set up an automatic reporting system that empowers founders to understand real-time performance of the business and enables the fund’s investment officers to gain a deeper understanding of the its overall operations.

From the data collected, it can offer in-depth tailored operations support in various key areas, including product development, supply chain optimisation, organisational design, sales & marketing enhancement, talent recruitment and overseas expansion strategy.

Also Read: Why 2020 is the year for tech startups in Vietnam

Beside internal supporting activities, Do Ventures also conducts a C-level mentorship programme to connect successful CEOs from large-scale startups in Vietnam with portfolio companies’ founders.

The programme aims to provide young founders with in-depth advice on growth strategies and operational know-hows in specific industries.

“The Vietnam consumption market is at its tipping point and ready to be captured by technology companies with innovative products. We are enthusiastic about the opportunity to boost the local economic growth at this very key circumstance,” said Dung Nguyen.

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Image Credit: Do Ventures

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