23 startups raise funding of $200 mn
More than 330 Vietnamese startups were established in 2018 with 34 industry verticals represented, according to the e27 Southeast Asia Startup Ecosystem Report 2018 released by startup-focused website e27 on January 21.
Of these, 23 startups across eleven industry verticals raised a total of $193.8 million in funding, with the average deal being $8.4 million.The top 5 industry verticals by number of fundraising deals were E-commerce (7), Enterprise Solutions (3), Education (2), FinTech (2), and Travel (2).
The top 5 industry verticals by average deal size raised were Consumer ($51 million), Education ($26.6 million), E-commerce ($10.5 million), Travel ($3.2 million), and Logistics/Supply Chain ($2.4 million).
According to e27’s data, e-commerce was the most common vertical for entrepreneurs. The sector leads the industry with the most deals but ranks only fourth in total fundraising. This implies there is a lot of interest and activity in the industry, but no player has grown to become a regional player.
The most money has been poured into Hardware companies, with the Consumer and Education verticals rounding out the top-three. There is a significant money gap between the top-3 verticals (Consumer, Education, and E-commerce) and others. Education is a particular strong point for Vietnam and it has more startups than comparable markets such as Thailand and the Philippines. Other active verticals were Consulting, Advertising, Design, and Enterprise Solutions.
According to the 2018 report from Google/Temasek, Vietnam’s e-commerce industry has grown seven-fold since 2015, while the BBC has reported that the country has 3,000 startups. Moving forward, two figures from Google/Temasek stand apart as being particularly intriguing.
The internet economy market size is $9 billion, only $1 billion less than Singapore - a much smaller but far wealthier country. The annual gross merchandise value (GMV) as a per cent of GDP is 4 per cent; the highest in Southeast Asia.
Vietnam has moved beyond Frontier Market status and is firmly a growth market. The Vietnamese Government passed a new decree recently that gave clear guidelines on how to incorporate and operate a venture capital (VC) fund in the country. More new VCs are expected to pop up, which will hopefully lead to more funding opportunities for startups.
Leave your comment on this story