The list of 10 startups below is compiled based on public investment information. Major start-ups including Tiki, MoMo, Scommerce, VNPay are not put on the list though they are believed to have successfully raised from USD75 million to 300 million of capital as specific figures have not been revealed.
Sendo (Sen Do Technology JSC), an e-commerce platform, has just completed a Series C funding round with a value of USD61 million. In addition to the existing investors, EV Growth (Indonesia) and Kasikornbank (Thailand) are 2 new investors that invested a huge amount of capital to this start-up.
General Director of Sendo Tran Hai Linh informed that the new funding would be used to improve its services, and invest in developing AI technology as well as machine learning. Currently, Sendo's annual gross merchandise value (GMV) has exceeded one billion dollars.
Launched in 2013, Lozi was originally an application that allowed people to search for food, beverage and coffee shops. Currently, this startup owns 2 applications including Lozi and Loship. To be more specific, Lozi is a platform operating under the C2C e-commerce business model (Customer to Customer - users sell to users) while Loship provides several services including Loship - food delivery; Lomart - groceries delivery, Lozat – laundry, Lomed - medicine delivery, etc.
In early November, Lozi announced that it had successfully raised an 8-digit funding (from USD10 million) led by South Korea's investment firm Smilegate. With new funding, the company expects to bring in USD31 million in revenue in 2020. This startup is also expected to launch Lo-car service in the near future, officially joining the fierce ride-hailing market and becoming rivals of Grab, Be, GoViet.
YOLA is a company founded by Ngo Thuy Ngoc Tu, Pham Anh Khoa and a number of other former international students. The company specializes in English test preparation training program (IELTS, TOEFL, SAT, GMAT), English training program for teenagers, organizing summer camp in the US and courses on skills and extracurricular activities.
In 2016, YOLA was invested USD4.9 million by Mekong Capital. In August of this year, this start-up received a USD10-million investment from Singapore- and India-based education fund manager Kaizen Private Equity (Kaizen PE).
Elsa Speak is an English-speaking learning application launched in 2015, co-founded by Van Dinh Hong Vu (Van Vu) and Dr. Portuguese Xavier Anguera - an artificial intelligence and voice recognition specialist. The startup currently has 4 million users from 101 countries around the world, and is among 5 leading AI applications, along with Microsoft's Cortana and Google's Google Allo.
In February this year, Elsa successfully secured USD7 million in Series A funding from a number of investors, led by Gradient Ventures - Google's AI fund. Up to now, the total amount raised by the company is USD12 million.
Leflair is an online shopping website in Vietnam founded by two French entrepreneurs - Loic Gautier and Pierre-Antoine Brun. Following the successful flash-sale model in Europe (Vente-privee.com) and China (vip.com), this startup distributes fashion, beauty and home products from medium and high-class brands all over the world in Vietnam with preferential prices.
Leflair is being operated in Ho Chi Minh City, with representative offices and warehouses in Vietnam, Singapore and Hong Kong (China).
In January this year, the start-up raised USD7 million in series B funding led by South Korea-based GS Shop and Cambodia-based Belt Road Capital Management.
KiotViet - a startup specializing in providing POS management software solutions - received an investment of USD6 million in a Series A round of funding in August this year. Through this investment agreement, Ms. Grace Yun Xia - Head of Jungle Ventures and Elsa Chandra - assistant vice president of investment in Traveloka became members of BOD of KiotViet.
Logivan was founded by Pham Khanh Linh (Linh Pham in November 2017. It is a logistics platform that connects shippers who want to transport inter-provincial cargo. The company's solution is estimated to reduce transport costs by 20% to 30% compared to the traditional method.
Logivan’s total funding is USD7.9 million.
Kobiton was launched in 2016 by the UpStar Labs Incubator, a startup investment arm of KMS Technology, developed by a team of five Vietnamese engineers. On cloud computing platform, Kobiton creates solutions for businesses to remotely manage, access and test mobile applications, optimizing product development costs and shortening the time to launch their products to the market.
With an addition of USD5.2 million capital, Kobiton said it would focus on customer support and application development to enhance Vietnamese products in the US market.
In early April, healthcare startup Jio Health raised USD5 million in Series A funding round led by venture capital fund Monk’s Hill Ventures. Founded in 2014, Jio Health leverages technology to deliver on-demand healthcare services, including home doctor visits, nursing care, remote health advice and electronic medical records management.
In 2019, the Luxstay home rental connection application completed a bridge round of USD 4.5 million. At the end of November, this startup also signed an investment and strategic cooperation with Mr. Nguyen Thanh Viet - President of Intracom; Mr. Pham Thanh Hung - Vice Chairman of CenGroup and M-TP Entertainment company of singer Son Tung M-TP. However, the specific amount was not disclosed.
Previously, Mr. Nguyen Thanh Viet and Mr. Pham Thanh Hung had pledged to invest (USD2 million each) in this startup in a reality TV show about entrepreneurship.
Read more: Factors used by investors to rate startups
Source: vietnamnet
