After Covid-19, investors’ interest in the startups has not waned. 3 days TECHFEST, the National festival for innovative startups has attracted a total investment of about 14,000,000 USD. A number of investors shared their comments about Vietnamese startups and their taste in the festival.
– My Huyen
Deputy Minister of Science and Technology, Mr. Huynh Thanh Dat addressed that Vietnam has attracted 108 venture capital funds local as well as overseas into its startup ecosystem. This number is a significant growth in the past years. Foreign venture capital funds account for the majority of this figure. There are only 23 Vietnamese VCs and 23 VCs with Vietnamese legal entities.
K-GROUP likes startups with expertise
Currently, technology startups focus only on a few industries such as retail, logistics and healthcare, according to CEO of K-Group Vietnam, Mr Nguyen Duy Khanh, therefore, there is large room in other markets. If the local startups do not seize the opportunity, global technology companies will place their game will take this advantage.
K-GROUP developed a portfolio of 12 subsidiaries applying technology in many different fields. K-GROUP will invest over 65% of the capital of each of the startups it chooses to cultivate talent.
Startups that grew from a certain industry with experience are attracted to K-Group because of their experience and understanding of the weaknesses in the industry. This will help them to scale up and gain the investors’ trust. The investors will be more confident to invest in the real market and demand.
On the contrary, investors will be frightened by startups that wait until their finance is gone before calling for investment. In addition, startups that have no plans to deal with the volatile market like Covid-19 are less attractive too. Therefore, the startup should consider a short-term or long-term cooperation with investors as early as possible to demonstrate its long-term vision.
Crypto is still tempting
Ms. Lynn Hoang, Director of Binance Vietnam, Co-Head of Finance and Technology Village at TechFest, said that the future of decentralized finance will most likely lie in the cryptocurrency initiative issued by the central banks of each country.
“Cryptocurrency issued by the central bank is inspired by Bitcoin but will not be conventional digital money as it is today. It will be controlled by the Government. In particular, the governments of China, Sweden, and Uruguay have started testing this kind of currency this year and other Governments are also promoting new research,”Ms. Lynn shared.
Mr. Robert Vong, CEO of FathLabs, said that decentralized finance can improve SMEs’ access to the credit market “If regulators facilitate SMEs to approach the market, crypto by blockchain can help with efficiency and transparency. This will improve loan quality while at the same time providing access to about 800,000 SMEs that are left behind by the lending market.
Cryptocurrency is still catching in the eyes of investors, although bitcoin’s up and down situation has burned many pockets. Binance is ready to invest in potential Blockchain projects and decentralized finance in Vietnam with the available investment fund of 100 million USD.
Long road to go global
“It’s a long road for Viet startups to go global. They have to put a lot of effort to demonstrate their capacity to research and develop their ideas,”said Ms. Le Diep Kieu Trang, AREVO’s CFO. AREVO is investing in foreign technology startups with new inventions to bring opportunities for Vietnamese technology engineers to commercialize these inventions. By this, AREVO offers them access to core technology and international innovation trends while researching and developing the products.