GoTo Group, one of the largest digital ecosystem in Indonesia, has secured more than US$1.3 billion in the first close of its pre-IPO funding round.

Investors include a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), Avanda Investment Management, Fidelity International, Google, Permodalan Nasional Berhad (PNB), Primavera Capital Group, SeaTown Master Fund, Temasek, Tencent, and Ward Ferry.

The ADIA subsidiary is the lead investor in the round, and it has injected US$400 million into the firm. GoTo expects more investors to join the pre-IPO round ahead of the final close in the coming weeks.

In August, Reuters reported citing sources that GoTo was set to close an up to US$2 billion pre-IPO funding round in a few weeks. Various reports suggested GoTo plans to list in Indonesia by the end of 2021 before proceeding with a US listing with a potential valuation of US$40 billion.

Also Read: 5 lessons from GoTo and Traveloka on building the future of fintech in SEA

The company will invest the money in customer growth and engagement, to expand its payments and financial services offering, and leverage its integrated transport fleet and logistics network to enhance hyperlocal experiences.

Andre Soelistyo, CEO of GoTo Group, said: “Consumer demand is being unlocked by growth in digital adoption that has brought many new users online. As a result, demand for our services continues to increase, underscored by our commitment to continuously deliver selection, value and convenience to users across the ecosystem.”

Michael Woo, Singapore-based MD of Primavera Capital Group, commented: “We foresee secular growth opportunities for Indonesia and GoTo across e-commerce, on-demand mobility and fintech – all segments in which Primavera has extensive investment experience.”

Indonesia has a GDP of more than US$1 trillion and is the fourth most populous country in the world, with a young, tech-savvy population of 270 million. GoTo’s ecosystem encompasses nearly two-thirds of Indonesian consumer expenditure, and its total addressable market is set to grow to over $600 billion in Indonesia by 2025.

The country also has almost 140 million people with little or no access to the country’s formal financial system, presenting a significant growth opportunity for the company in payments and financial services.

Also Read: Abu Dhabi wealth fund to inject US$400M into GoTo’s pre-IPO round

GoTo was formed through the merger of Gojek and Tokopedia in May. It is the largest digital ecosystem in Indonesia, whose services span on-demand transport, e-commerce, food and grocery delivery, logistics and fulfilment, and financial services.

The Group claims it generated over 1.8 billion transactions in 2020, with a total group gross transaction value of over US$22 billion and contributed to more than 2 per cent of Indonesia’s GDP.

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Image Credit: GoTo

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Vietnam’s stock trading app Anfin gets US$125K from YC 

The crux: Anfin, a Vietnam-based stock trading app development company, announced it raised US$125,000 from YC and will join YC W22 Batch from January to March next year.

Investors: Besides YC, Anfin also took angel investments from unnamed directors at Temasek and Coinbase.

Plans: The proceeds are utilised to further develop Anfin’s product into a full trading app for beginners. The startup will also focus on building and strengthening features, such as education, fractional shares and company storytelling.

About Anfin:

Founded in June 2021 by CEO Phuoc Tran and CPO Michael Do, Anfin is a stock investment app that enables users to buy and sell stocks with small capital starting at only VND50,000 (around US$2). The app also allows the trading of fractional shares, which is counted as one of Anfin’s unique selling points.

Last month, the startup raised US$510,000 from First Check Ventures, R2 Venture Partners, and Global Founders Capital (GFC), which is an early investor of companies such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Lazada, and Slack.

Also read: Pocket power: 27 personal finance startups in SEA to help you manage money

Rosetta.ai raises US$2.4M pre-Series A to scale AI-based fashion e-commerce service globally

The story: Rosetta.ai, a Taiwan-based AI technology company, has closed its US$2.4 million pre-Series A financing round led by Dr. Pehong Chen, the founder of NASDAQ-listed software vendor BroadVision.

Co-investors: 500 Global, Artesian VC, Angel To Venture Accelerator, Loyal VC, and SOSV MOX.

Plans: The new funding will be channelled to develop Rosetta.ai fashion-optimised personalisation products and broaden its talent pool to foray into the US and Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) markets.

About Rosetta.ai

Launched in 2016, Rosetta.ai employs image-based machine learning to provide online fashion retailers with products including website personalisation, marketing email personalisation, and preference analysis insights.

The startup claims that its insights, including colour, material, and style, cannot be observed in other analytics tools such as Google Analytics, and can generate accurate recommendations for brands. This is thanks to the in-house fashion industry experts that train the AI to recommend visually precise images and well-written fashion-industry attributes.

So far, Rosetta.ai has a client base of over 1000 Asian businesses, including both small and midsize merchants on Shopify and large brands such as L’Oréal, Codibook, and Blue Way.

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Image Credit: Anfin

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GuildFi co-founder Jarindr Thitadilaka

GuildFi, a Thai startup that aims to create an ecosystem that connects the intricate jigsaws of the metaverse, has completed a US$6 million seed round of financing.

Singapore-based crypto-asset fund DeFiance Capital and South Korean early-stage VC firm Hashed co-led this round.

Pantera Capital, Coinbase Ventures, Alameda Research, Animoca Brands, Dapper Labs, Play Ventures, SkyVision Capital, Coin98 Ventures, and other notable investors also co-invested.

GuildFi is developing a Web3 infrastructure to connect games, NFTs, and communities to maximise players’ benefits and enable interoperability across the metaverse.

With several Web3 games being unveiled, players and enthusiasts cannot easily navigate and dabble in them. Players face high startup costs for joining new play-to-earn games, and scholarship funds are fragmented.

Furthermore, players’ efforts are siloed within a game, hampering their earning potential and defying the maximal possibilities of the metaverse.

Also Read: DeFi is pushing finance towards its e-commerce moment

GuildFi envisions a future where these intricate jigsaws are interlinked into an ecosystem. The firm serves as an infrastructure to onboard, connect, and add value to players, guilds, games, and investors alike.

“We solve discovery and access challenges for players by helping them discover new games, enhance performance with gaming tools, and track their engagement. With GuildFi ID, one ID serves all players’ metaverse journeys, and their achievements are no longer limited to specific guilds or games. Instead, they contribute towards their ranks and elevate their lifetime benefits,” said co-founder Jarindr Thitadilaka.

GuildFi looks to develop new features such as:

• GuildFi ID: a metaverse ID that is embedded with a levelling system that tracks players’ achievement and footprint across the metaverse. Players receive engagement points and ranking, which translate into the rewards they deserve,
• Game discovery: it helps players discover curated games and game creators discover the right player base for their game launch,
• Proof-of-Play Rewards: it enables play-to-earn on any games by analysing your lifetime activities and giving out the right benefits to you whether it’s an allocation to an NFT campaign or a bonus yield from our tokens,
• Metadrop Launchpad: it offers a special NFT and token deal from its partners where an allocation is determined by players’ ranks. 
• GameFi tools: They enhance players’ performance by providing gaming tools, for instance, the Axie Infinity toolkit that features scholarship management, daily SLP shares, PvP simulation, team status, and card explorer.
• Scholarship portal: it offers a built-in scholarship programme provided by GuildFi’s treasury and guild partners, reducing the barrier to entry for play-to-earn games and unlocking the opportunity for players anywhere in the world. 

To achieve this mission, GuildFi will collaborate with game creators globally to identify and attract the right players while supporting them through in-game asset investment and campaign collaboration to ensure successful launches and healthy growth.

Also Read: Metaverse is around the corner and you should play a role in it

“Hashed strongly believes the new paradigm for the gaming industry will be decentralised platforms. The more authority games give to the players, the more successful the game will be. In that respect, GuildFi has a solid potential to solidify its position as a new gaming platform,” said co-founder and partner Ethan Kyuntae Kim.

With a strong base in Thailand, the GuildFi team has launched a prominent gaming guild and the most popular Axie Infinity gaming tools on the market. It claims to have attracted over 100,000 registered users, 20,000 daily active users and 1,500 scholars within three months of inception.

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Image Credit: GuildFi

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This is the fourth and final article in this series of helping SMEs chart the course of digital transformation.

We will now look at arguably the most important stage of digital transformation, and that is its implementation into the organisation’s structure and processes.

How to go about implementing?

First and foremost, the CEO/Board/Entrepreneur should be passionate, educate themselves, and amply set clear objectives.

The absence of in-house expertise, as well as security concerns, cannot be an afterthought. While the security concerns can be handled technically, an enterprise’s lack of requisite skills does dissuade and further delay adoption.

Then create a small Digital Transformation team– include youngsters and experienced staff. Send the senior employees for credible training.

Identify and join hands with the right partner who can help lay the digital transformation journey roadmap and identify the priorities that can ensure a quick return on investment (RoI).

It also helps to define the budgets broadly and do a rough RoI calculation. A well laid out digitalisation plan can simplify enterprises to consider the whole while taking manageable small steps towards the larger goal.

As in the above table, many areas within an enterprise can benefit from digitalisation. It is important to prioritise the ones with maximum impact to set the momentum and build confidence.

Specific parameters vary in a small range that would give you a significant impact or identify the low hanging fruits in layman’s terms. The right technology applied in the right way on a well-defined problem can provide a very quick return on investment. Implement the solution and book profit.

Also read: Digital transformation for SMEs, Part 3: Data analytics in the enterprise

Next, identify critical bottlenecks, convert them into an appropriate business use case. Once a business use case is established, it becomes the focal point driving all other decisions– technology, domain experts, integration, and solution partners.

• Measure the current process. Remember, if you can’t measure, you can’t improve.
• Implement the technology solution meticulously. Your team should be as much involved as the partner organisation.
• Measure the benefit.
• Continuously refine to reap better benefits.
• Replicate the process for the rest of the objectives.

Don’t spend too much time and effort trying small initiatives across multiple business areas with no definite value coming forth. Letting technology fatigue set in that dissuades the team from pursuing all such initiatives further.

I want to leave you with a thought.

Often in small and simple changes lie big gains

The uninformed CEO might look at the 10 per cent year-on-year profit (per left bar chart as below) and be happy with the outcome. At the same time, a data-driven one would realise shedding (discontinuing) which products could have made more profits and take corrective measures unless they are produced for strategic reasons.

A Delta Drill chart is capable of segregating the loss-makers from the profiteers.

Delta Drill

Malaysia may have scored high on digital readiness rankings. Still, digital adoption by SMEs and traditional businesses are often hindered by, among others, a lack of awareness, readiness, know-how, and appreciation of the benefits of digitalisation, as well as the oft-misperceived high cost of implementing new technologies.

I hope this series has given our readers, particularly SMEs, a better understanding and more positive attitude about embracing digital transformation, starting with small but impactful areas in the organisation.

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• With the UK releasing massive requirements for sustainability-related disclosure on public markets, Biden is set to come back from COP26 with tangible guidelines for fueling the US green finance landscape.
• As stated by Guido Giese, executive director at MSCI Research, the data shows how stocks with better ESG scores tend to generate better earnings than those with lower ESG scores.
• Over the next five to 10 years, the climate will have financial consequences for most industries and business models – many large corporates are starting to embed sustainability in their core strategy.

Climate risk is investment risk

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Google, Temasek and Bain & Company returned with the latest edition of its annual report on Southeast Asia’s (SEA) internet economy, e-Conomy Southeast Asia (SEA) Report – Roaring 20’s: The SEA Digital Decade.

In its sixth edition, the report stated that the region’s internet economy is expected to reach US$1 trillion in GMV by 2030, a prospect that led Google Southeast Asia Vice President Stephanie Davis to dub the region as one that will “define the future of the global digital ecosystem.”

The report further revealed that SEA’s internet economy is estimated to reach US$174 billion in GMV by the end of 2021. It is also expected to reach around US$360 billion by 2025, outgrowing the earlier projection of US$300 billion.

The region now has more than 440 million internet users with 80 per cent (350 million) of them being defined as “digital consumers” –or internet users who have bought at least one online service.

How the pandemic impacts the internet economy

The report touched upon the topic of how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the internet economy in SEA by changing customer behaviour and propelling the growth of several verticals. It highlighted how since the pandemic began, SEA has added 60 million new digital consumers, of which 20 million joined in the first half of 2021 alone.

This growth is “primarily driven” by the e-commerce and food delivery verticals.

Also Read: Google Temasek Report: Southeast Asia’s internet economy to hit US$240B by 2025

“In a strong lead-up to 2030, e-commerce GMV could exceed US$120 billion by end 2021 (a near doubling from 2020) with the potential to reach US$234 billion by 2025. The food delivery sector emerged as a bright spot, growing 33 per cent y-o-y to reach US$12 billion in GMV. It has now become the most penetrated digital service, with 71 per cent of all internet users ordering meals online at least once,” the report wrote.

In addition to e-commerce and food delivery, digital lending services are also expected to grow due to an appetite for consumer financing options and supply chain financing.

“By 2025, digital payments are forecasted to reach over US$1.1 trillion in gross transaction value (GTV), up from a forecast of US$707 billion in 2021. Digital lending could see a 50 per cent increase in outstanding balance from US$26 billion in 2020 to US$39 billion in 2021, led by a rebound in lending appetite and growth in usage of buy-now-pay-later services,” the report said.

How about verticals that have taken a hit during the pandemic, such as travel tech? The report stated that while growth remains muted, it is likely to see a recovery in the medium-to-long term, driven by pent-up demand and vaccination progress.

Startup investments: Reaching “all-time high” in 2021

One of the highlights of SEA’s internet economy in 2021 was the resurgence of startup funding and the so-called race to IPO, which led the report to declare the region’s internet economy to be “expected to reach an all-time high in 2021.”

“Deal value came up to US$11.5 billion in the first half of the year, surpassing the US$11.6 billion for the entire 2020,” it wrote. “Investors see SEA as a lucrative investment destination for the long-term, especially in sectors such as e-commerce and digital financial services, which continue to attract the majority of investments (more than 60 per cent of deal value).”

“Increased deal activity and larger valuations that led to bigger funding rounds have spurred the induction of 11 new consumer technology unicorns in 2021, bringing the total number to 23.”

The year 2021 had also seen IPOs of notable tech companies in the region, such as Indonesia’s Bukalapak. According to the report, more tech companies are exploring IPOs as viable pathways to raise capital or allow early investors to monetise their holdings, especially in view of strong valuations and novel listing approaches such as special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs).

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Though the COVID-19 pandemic has burdened the entire world with unprecedented problems, it has also offered an opportunity for accelerated digital transformation. COVID-19 has caused a shift in the way transactions are executed, has expedited the migration to an enhanced digital environment, and has influenced purchasing habits.

This has resulted in a considerable rise in the region’s digital marketing sector, giving women entrepreneurs a significant opportunity to excel and explore global and regional markets.

Women entrepreneurs are seen as key to economic growth because of the multiplier impact on job creation, labour force participation, and uplifting families out of their lower socio-economic background. They can help achieve several SDGs, especially SDG 5 – gender equality.

Women entrepreneurs in the developing nations within the SEA region, on the other hand, face challenges in terms of access to finance, ICT and are unable to expand their businesses and join wider regional and global supply chains, owing to a lack of knowledge and the small scale of their companies (micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSME)).

E-commerce could be a powerful tool for interacting with customers and participating in a larger supply chain.

At the same time, the studies discovered that in response to COVID-19, women business leaders exhibited greater flexibility in their business models and were more likely to earn more than 50 per cent of their sales through digital channels.

Despite the passage of time, which has resulted in over 252 million women entrepreneurs worldwide, they continue to struggle to overcome the obstacles they encounter daily.

Also Read: Meet the 13 UN Women Care Accelerator startups transforming care work in APAC

With women accounting for around one-third of all entrepreneurs worldwide, things have never looked better for them on paper. Unfortunately, these figures only tell half of the picture.

Gender norms are impacting the ecology of entrepreneurship and posing tremendous obstacles for women worldwide, just as they do in other sectors today.

Between 2013 and 2019, the number of female-led businesses that became unicorns increased. In 2019, there were 21 new female-led unicorns reported globally, six more than the previous year.

There were only four new female-led unicorns recorded in 2013; therefore, unicorn numbers rose by more than 400 per cent over this period.

Being a woman entrepreneur is challenging since you must look after everything on your own. Being the primary caregiver makes the job double as hard. In addition to taking care of the household, unless heavily funded, you must be a jack of all trades at business– operations, sales, marketing, product development, and finance.

However, with a solid digital outreach plan, you may at least minimise the strain of obtaining excellent sales and keeping the cash flow going. Most businesses don’t know what they want to or can achieve with digital marketing, and as a result, they fail at the first hurdle. You must sit down and write out the goals you want to attain by investing time and effort in advertising your company online.

In the long run, a strong band helps with organic growth; however, in the initial days, the approach is towards customer acquisition, successful servicing or order fulfilment to keep the engines running.

The approach begins with identifying the businesses target audience. Understanding wherein the internet world they lurk, what content they consume, who they follow.

Next is to build a detailed plan to reach this identified audience group through social and search channels, influencers and sponsored campaigns.

When constructing the tactics, consider:

Numbers to define success, including time, budget and Objective KPIs to measure

As soon as someone decides to start their own business, they have a sales goal in mind. It is, by far, the essential KPI that companies should focus on. However, in addition to sales, it is critical to focus on growth and scalability.

Also Read: A woman among women: 27 female-led startups in SEA that are going places

Direct and indirect competitors and their most successful campaigns

Who are the top five direct and indirect competitors? What is their marketing strategy? Which platforms are they putting their money into? Do they have a hyper-personalised or localised approach? Most of the time, the answers to these questions will assist you in developing your marketing plan.

In my opinion, most businesses ignore some of the most critical techniques that their competitors exercise. It usually pays more to improvise than to reinvent the wheel. Whether it’s an off-page SEO plan or influencer marketing on Instagram, you could overlook fundamentals that your rival is flourishing online.

Ways to localise your product or service

Finding the correct marketing platforms is the simplest of all if you can complete all of the processes, including establishing your goals, identifying the right consumer persona, recognising your local competitors and drawing inspiration from successful ones in your space.

Digital marketing is broad and offers many various ways to create revenue for every firm. Still, it’s critical to pick the correct approach for your budget to avoid going overboard with your marketing costs.

Multiple variations of your campaigns to test resonance with your target audience

You must decide on your marketing budget based on your desire to create sales for your brand. For example, as an eCommerce business, if you can only send ten orders per day, decide how much money you want to spend on advertising to achieve those ten orders. As the adage goes, “never put all your eggs in one basket.”

As a result, distribute your spending over several channels to determine which ones perform best for you. Regular experiments and assessments of each platform provide the highest ROI and adjust your spending appropriately.

Once the basics are covered, focus on building a brand for longevity and organic growth.

The life of an entrepreneur is hard and lonely. With the community’s help and a robust support system of customers, partners, the team with a similar vision, the statistics say, less than 2 per cent of startups survive.

The mechanics do not change as per the gender of the entrepreneur. However, given the nature of one’s surroundings, for the fairer sex, statistically, it is much harder to build a business.

Also Read: Why women and tech are a rocking combination!

Although I’d like to believe the struggles are more internal and one can overcome the challenges with meticulous planning, undeterred execution and perseverance, the truth may be far from it.

It takes a village to run a business, and for women, the process is multiple times harder. Time and again, successful entrepreneurs have established to build for a brand, network, lean in the community to learn, grow and pursue the goals with grit and determination, which will lead to success, so let’s build one for one another.

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Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing views from the community. Share your opinion by submitting an article, video, podcast, or infographic

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Lista, a book-keeping app for micro, small, and medium enterprises in the Philippines, has secured undisclosed funding from 1982 Ventures, East Ventures and Saison Capital, and Alternate Ventures.

Monde Nissin Family Ventures’s Willy Arifin, former Grab Philippines President Brian Cu, Pinelabs CEO Amrish Rau, CRED founder Kunal Shah, Jupiter Bank CEO Jitendra Gupta and Google APAC senior executives Aurelien Pichon and Alap Bharadwaj also co-invested.

Lista will use the funds to grow the team and expand the product offering to reach more MSMEs.

Lista was founded by Aaron Villegas, an experienced entrepreneur with product experience, and Khriz Lim, a former Grab executive.

Also Read: BukuKas makes book-keeping easy for Indonesian MSMEs to save money and time

The Lista app helps MSMEs (freelancers, logistics operators and riders, and other small businesses) digitise their business. In addition, the app also enables them to manage their finances, such as debt tracking, transactions recording, and invoice issuing.

Since its launch in September, Lista claims to have helped collect about US$1.5 million in receivables from MSMEs in the Philippines.

MSMEs are vital to the Philippine economy as they comprise about 99.51 per cent of business establishments in the country and employ around 63 per cent of the country’s workforce, according to data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA). However, the COVID-19 pandemic severely hit them. The prolonged lockdown and quarantines led to the halting of almost 74 per cent of these MSMEs, according to the country’s Department of Trade and Industry.

“MSMEs are the backbone of the Philippine economy, and it’s time we stop leaving them behind. Through this app, we want to revolutionise the way MSMEs operate and provide them with a reliable digital partner,” said co-founder Khriz Lim.

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Image Credit: Lista

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Better HR, a cloud-based HR tech startup, has raised a six-digit USD funding in a bridge round from new and existing investors, such as Seed Myanmar Ventures, Blibros, and nexlabs.

The funds will be used to further fuel the expansion in other target markets across ASEAN and South Asia.

Better HR was conceived out of nexlabs, a digital agency in Myanmar. It later set up a separate entity, called Better Technologies, with Seed Myanmar Ventures as an angel investor in 2019 to push the product into the market.

Founded in September 2019, Better HR provides cloud-based enterprise web and mobile apps enabling organisations to streamline HR processes for SMEs, such as attendance, leave, overtime, and payroll.

Also Read: How your HR team can help with crisis management

The firm claims that more than 200 companies across Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam use its products to manage over 35,000 employees and process over US$2m salaries per month.

“Our clients are using Better HR to keep up with employee communications and HR processes going despite having to work remotely. That gave us the confidence to move forward and raise another round to accelerate the growth,” said Ye Myat Min, chairman of Better HR.

In 2019, Better HR raised a six-digit seed round funded by Seed Myanmar Ventures.

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Earlier this year, a report released by early-stage VC firm Do Ventures and the Vietnam National Innovation Center (NIC) revealed the state of startup investment in the country during the pandemic.

The report showed that the number of early-stage deals of less than US$500,000 rose 11 per cent in 2020 amidst the crisis. The deal size and number rose in H2 2020.

As we entered 2021, it became clear that the pandemic could do nothing to prevent the local startup ecosystem from thriving as companies continue to grow and investors keep on investing in the market despite challenges.

Just as we have done with the startup ecosystem in Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines, this time, we are listing down 27 Vietnam-based startups that have made headlines in 2021.

Below are the 27 startups that are making waves in Vietnam:

1. Bizzi

Bizzi, an AI-powered invoice processing automation solution, announced in October that it raised US$3 million in a pre-Series A round led by Money Forward, a fintech company headquartered in Japan. Other investors include Do Ventures and existing investor Qualgro.

With this new investment, the company plans to improve product features and functionality and expand to other Southeast Asian markets.

Also Read: A women-centric dating app developed by an ex-diplomat seeks to end Tinder’s dominance in Vietnam

2. Sky Mavis

Sky Mavis, the firm behind the popular NFT-based game Axie Infinity, announced a US$152 million Series B financing round led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). Accel Partners and Paradigm also joined this round.

The Vietnamese startup will use the money to build a global team, scale infrastructure, and build its distribution platform to support game developers in creating blockchain-enabled games.

3. Dutycast

Dutycast, the company behind the browser extension that helps consumers buy online globally with ease, scored undisclosed funding from Vietnam-based VinaCapital Ventures in January.

Founded in 2020, Dutycast aims to improve the cross-border e-commerce experience for shoppers by providing transparency and security around final prices, duties, taxes, and related logistics expenses.

4. Mobicast

Masan Group subsidiary The Sherpa Company acquired a 70 per cent stake in local mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) Mobicast for VN295.5 billion (US$12.96 million) in September.

Under the new transaction, Mobicast, operating under the brand Reddi, will gain exclusive access to the group’s consumer base and physical and online contact points across the country.

5. Clevai

After-school tutoring platform for K-12 students Clevai secured US$2.1 million in a pre-Series A financing round led by Singapore-based Altara Ventures in September. Existing backers, including Vietnam- and SEA-focused VC FEBE Ventures and New York-based marketplace investment firm FJ Labs also joined.

Clevai will use the funds to strengthen Clevai’s live-streaming infrastructure and improve personalised learning capabilities.

Also Read: How gamification is supercharging Vietnam tech startups’ growth potential

6. CoderSchool

Online coding courses CoderSchool secured US$2.6 million in pre-Series A funding led by Monk’s Hill Ventures in September.

The funding will be used to create more educational content and tech infrastructure for the school’s technical education programmes. It also plans to hire an additional 35 instructional staffers by Q4 2022 to support online operations.

7. GlobalCare

Insurtech provider GlobalCare received an undisclosed amount of funding from VinaCapital Ventures in September.

Launched in 2017 by Niem Thi Ngoc Dinh and Loi Minh Hang, the platform allows insurance companies and agents to sell policies via a cloud-based and on-premises app. It aims to enable end-to-end service management.

8. KiotViet

KiotViet secured US$45 million in a Series B funding round led by global investment firm KKR in September. Jungle Ventures, Kasikorn Bank, and Vietnamese family investment holding company Cao Viet My also co-invested.

KiotViet intends to recruit international talent to support new businesses and expand to global markets.

9. Vietcetera

Digital media network Vietcetera secured US$2.7 million over two successive rounds led by media-focused VC firm North Base Media in August. Gojek’s corporate VC firm Go-Ventures, East Ventures, Summit Media, Genesia Ventures, Hustle Fund, and Z Venture Capital, besides several Singaporean and Vietnamese family offices also participated.

The firm also plans to launch new shows and podcasts with underserved topics targeting the country’s emerging middle class.

10. Medici

Healthtech company Medici secured an undisclosed amount in seed funding led by early-stage investor Insignia Ventures in August.

The startup aims to foray into the insurance industry. It allows Medici to act as a middleman between insurance firms and the general public, which will receive suggestions and guidance from the broker to make the right financial decisions.

Also Read: Challenges of AI development in Vietnam: Funding, talent and ethics

11. Vuihoc

In August, Do Ventures announced an investment in the education platform VUIHOC. The startup plans to utilise the funds to strengthen its technical capacity, upgrade product features, and improve the quality of learning materials.

VUIHOC currently offers more than 150 courses, nearly 9,000 video lectures, and a repository of 240,000 quiz questions.

12. Rever

Rever is a tech-enabled real estate brokerage platform. In August, it announced a US$10.2 million funding round from Mekong Enterprise Fund IV (MEF IV), bringing its total funding to US$16.5 million.

The company will use the fresh investment to grow its management team, strengthen corporate culture, and accelerate the development of technology features.

13. VNG

Vietnamese internet giant VNG Corporation is considering going public in the US via a merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) at a US$2 to US$3 billion valuation, Bloomberg reported in August.

The technology giant is working with financial advisers and is holding talks with several SPACs for a potential merger.

14. Loship

One-hour e-commerce delivery startup Loship secured US$12 million in a pre-Series C round of equity financing co-led by BAce Capital and the direct investment unit of Sun Hung Kai & Co., a Hong Kong-listed leading alternative investment company in August.

The round comes close on the heels of Loship’s undisclosed bridge funding round led by MetaPlanet in February 2021.

15. VNLIFE

VNLIFE Corporation, which owns fintech unicorn VNPay, has bagged over US$250 million in its latest Series B round led by General Atlantic and Dragoneer.

For the investors involved in this funding round, this investment marks their maiden investment in Vietnam.

Also Read: Thai e-commerce fulfilment firm MyCloudFulfillment raises US$7.4M Series B to expand to Vietnam, Philippines

16. Kamereo

Kamereo offers an online platform for F&B companies to optimise their sourcing and purchasing processes. The company received US$4.6 million in a Series A round of funding, co-led by conglomerate CPF Group, Quest Ventures, and Genesia Ventures.

The startup will use the funds to expand its team and operations into Hanoi next year and build a new warehouse management system to optimise daily operations.

17. MoMo

Payments app MoMo acquired local startup Pique for undisclosed details in June. With this deal, MoMo plans to capitalise on Pique’s 25 million user database to improve its product offerings.

18. Infina

Investment app Infina, which aims to become the Robinhood of Vietnam, announced a US$2 million oversubscribed seed funding round from several investors. With the new funding, Infina aims to fuel its growth and expand its product offerings.

19. HANET

HANET, a startup offering AI-powered surveillance cameras in Vietnam, received an undisclosed amount of investment from G-Group Technology Corporation at a US$5 million valuation in June.

The startup will use the funds to take its business into global markets, said a press statement.

20. SAMO Holding

SAMO Holding, the company behind the financial comparison platform thebank.vn, secured US$5 million in a Series A round led by UOB Venture Management, the investment arm of Singapore’s United Overseas Bank (UOB), in October.

With this new funding, the firm aims to broaden its agent network and offer more extensive financial products covering loans, wealth management, and insurance.

Also Read: eJOY snags seed round led by ThinkZone to enable English learning via Youtube, Netflix in Vietnam

21. Nano Technologies

Nano Technologies (Nano), a fintech startup that allows workers to access their wages immediately, raised US$3 million in seed capital in May. Existing investors Golden Gate Ventures and Venturra Discovery led the round with participation from new investors FEBE Ventures, Openspace Ventures, and Goodwater Capital.

22. POPS Worldwide

Digital entertainment company POPS Worldwide is planning to raise US$50 million in Series D by the end of 2021. The funds to be raised will be used for expansion across Southeast Asia, including the Philippines, and deepening its footprint in Indonesia.

Since its inception, POPS has established a foothold in key markets such as Vietnam, Thailand, and Indonesia, thus becoming one of the region’s largest digital entertainment industry players.

23. Base.vn

FPT acquired a majority stake in local SaaS company Base.vn for an undisclosed sum in May. As per a press note, this cooperation will enable the two sides to promote the comprehensive digital transformation ecosystem for 800,000 enterprises.

Founded in 2016 by Stanford University alumnus Hung, Base.vn has developed over 20 apps covering two verticals: HR and productivity.

24. POC Pharma

Pharmacy Online Concierge (POC) secured US$4.5 million in an equity financing round in April.

Established in 2020 by Thomas Miklavec and Charles Defrance, POC helps the stakeholders in the pharmacy field (pharmacies, drug manufacturers, distributors, wholesalers, payers) to digitally manage their interactions and collaborative workflows.

Also Read: Vietnam’s stock trading app Anfin nets US$510K from early investor of Facebook, LinkedIn, Slack

25. Homebase

In March, Homebase became the first Vietnamese startup to get accepted into Y Combinator. This came off the company’s funding announcement from Troy Steckenrider III (COO of Zerodown), Darius Cheung (founder of 99.co), VinaCapital Ventures, Class 5 Global (Silicon Valley-based venture fund), Pegasus Technology Ventures, 1982 Ventures, and Antler.

26. ELSA

ELSA, a mobile app that uses AI and speech recognition technology to help language learners improve their English speaking skills and pronunciation, secured US$15 million in Series B funding in January, co-led by Vietnam Investments Group and SIG.

This new funding will go towards R&D to further develop its voice recognition AI, build a scalable B2B platform and hire new talent.

27. Sipher

In October, blockchain-powered gaming studio Sipher completed its US$6.8 million seed round of financing, co-led by Arrington Capital, Hashed and Konvoy Ventures.

Founded by prominent entrepreneur Nguyen Trung Tin, Sipher aims to unify blockchain tech, artwork, storytelling, multiplayer gaming with decentralised financial technologies.

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