Monkey Junior, a children’s English teaching software which ranked among the top 18 at the Vietnamese Talents Awards, has been selected to the final round of the Global Innovation through Science and Technology 2016 competition.

This was the first time a Vietnamese software developer has reached the final of the annual GIST Tech event held in the tech-heartland of California’s Silicon Valley.

The Tech-I competition attracted 1,075 entries from more than 100 countries. Three products sent by Vietnam, Fundy, Monkey Junior and MediFree reach the semi-final, with Monkey Junior by Dao Xuan Hoang selected along with 14 other products for the final round, which will be held from May 20-24.

Monkey Junior is English teaching software for children aged from four months to 10 years old. It is expected that Vietnamese, French, Spanish and Chinese will also be included from May 2016.

The 34-year-old developer said he was delighted to have done so well.

"Although I was confident enough to send Monkey Junior to the competition, I know that the results depend on many criteria," Hoang said. "I’m very happy and proud that English teaching software developed by a Vietnamese company has proved popular with users in English-speaking countries.

Monkey Junior has become one of the most favourite programs on App Store and Google Play, ranking among the 100 most downloaded applications with over 500,000 downloads.