Founder Spotlight: No Spotlight for the holidays. Enjoy a gift instead.

Network News: Beowulf, Elsa, MeridianLink,and POPS

Funding: Azota, Dat Bike, Antler Vietnam’s Second Cohort Companies

Vietnam Tech and Startup Environment: Investment pledges, Trade Milestones, Apple Manufacturing Increases, and More

Vietnam is likely to have a trade surplus every year for the next 30 years
This year, Vietnam took the lead in the internet economy among SEA nations
Vietnam has the fastest growing manufacturing industry in the world

Due to the holidays, SAVVi will not have a Founder Spotlight this month

As a special New Years gift specifically for the SAVVi Community and to celebrate their beta launch, AuMBER, the mobile cloud testing platform, is offering all SAVVi newsletter recipients free testing for 3 months. Go to portal.aumber.io and begin testing your organization’s app or website on any android or iOS device you want completely free without needing to input any payment information.

This is the first of many SAVVi Community benefits which will be available solely to SAVVi Community members and their organizations with the purpose of helping each other to grow and thrive.

Happy Holidays

UPDATES

Beowulf

Beowulf Blockchain, the global leader in decentralized communications and data cloud networks, announced today a strategic and comprehensive partnership with Saigon Postel Corporation (SPT) to deploy QUICKOM communication suite for SPT’s current customers and beyond. This partnership will effectively provide confidential and secure conference and communication to business and government sectors across all devices especially TV platforms at any time and anywhere. Mr. Ninh Vo, the CEO of the SPT Group said, “ This partnership will create a new kind of smartphone that can handle all kinds of communications securely and confidentially, which is critical for our business and governmental customers. Therefore, we are delighted to join force with Beowulf Blockchain to bring this communication concept to reality”.The partnership will create a new product called Quickom-SPT.

Elsa

ELSA Speak ‘launches’ a cost-effective English learning solution for Vietnamese students. After months of revealing information about the new school program, parents were delighted when ELSA Speak – the world’s top 5 AI-based English learning app officially introduced to users the “ELSA for Students” learning package. ” exclusively for Vietnamese students, from Grade 1 to Grade 12, combined with the English Discovery series of Pearson’s standard general education curriculum, bringing many outstanding advantages at a very reasonable cost. Sharing about the dreams for this launch, Mr. Michael Ngo – ELSA’s Country Director for Vietnam said: “Besides targeting students and working people, ELSA wants to provide access to opportunities. Native standard English for all Vietnamese students, supporting them to develop listening and speaking skills, which are still limited skills of Vietnamese students in the process of learning foreign languages. From there, it helps you confidently communicate in English to integrate and develop in the era of globalization.”

MeridianLink

The leading provider of modern software platforms for financial institutions and consumer reporting agencies announced the results of a nationwide survey of 1,000 Americans about home equity lending. The survey found that a fifth (21%) of respondents say they are likely to take out a home equity loan in the next 12 months, compared to 8% of respondents who reported taking out a home equity loan this past year. While more than half of respondents (52%) say they do have a strong understanding of the home equity lending process, 48% scored their understanding below a seven out of 10. Moreover, 13% had no understanding at all (scoring a 1/10). Although those under the age of 55 are more likely to take out a home equity loan in the next 12 months, they are less knowledgeable about how home equity loans work (30% scored a 1/10) compared to those over the age of 55 (only 9% scored a 1/10).

POPS

Sprout Leaves – a series of Vietnam’s leading children’s songs produced by POPS Worldwide was released on Netflix on the first of December. Esther Nguyen, founder and CEO of POPS Worldwide, is delighted that the release of Sprouts on Netflix Vietnam will continue to help empower more Vietnamese families with young children to develop important life skills through music. “We are proud to be Asia’s leading educational entertainment brand for millions of Vietnamese children and provide a wide range of engaging domestic and international educational and entertainment content,” said Ms. Nguyen. “We always do our best to provide children with highly educational entertainment that helps children develop important skills including intellectual, social-emotional, motor, language and ability. overall literacy,” she added.

Antler Vietnam’s Second Cohort Companies

7 of Antler Vietnam’s companies: AuMBER, BUYO, Edupops, Kyons, Neoloka, Petgotchi, and Shelfi will all be looking to entice investors on the 12th of January when the venture builder holds its second ever Demo Day. All companies can be found here https://www.antler.co/portfolio

Azota

Vietnam-based edTech platform Azota has raised 2.4 million USD in a Pre-Series A round led by GGV Capital, a global venture capital firm that invests in local founders. According to Tech in Asia, new investor Nextrans and existing backer Do Ventures also participated in the round. Founded in 2021 by Dai Nguyen, Hung Le, and Au Nguyen, Azota is an online platform that lets teachers create and grade tests automatically. It also offers real-time exam proctoring and student performance tracking tools.

Dat Bike

Dat Bike gets another $8M to put more e-bikes on Vietnam’s roads. The startup said it has raised $8 million led by returning investor Singapore-based firm Jungle Ventures, just seven months after its first round of funding was announced. GSR Ventures and Delivery Hero Ventures also participated in this round, along with Wavemaker Partners and Innoven Capital. The new round brings Dat Bike’s total raised to $16.5 million. It will use its new funding on tech and product development, hiring for its sales, support, R&D and product teams, and building more capacity in its factories.

Vulcan Augmetics

The prosthetic and human augmentation company, Vulcan Augmetics is looking to raise funds in order to enhance and accelerate their mission to empower the disabled in developing countries. They are raising $175,000 on Wefunder. To get in early, go to www.wefunder.com/vulcanaugmetics.

“A group of more than 40 VC firms yesterday pledged to invest US$1.5 billion in Vietnamese startups over the next few years.
They cemented the commitment at the Vietnam Ventures Summit co-organized by Golden Gate Ventures and the country’s National Innovation Center (NIC).
Apart from Vietnam, the participating VCs come from South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Indonesia, and the US.

“Free trade agreements and open foreign directinvestment policies have helped Vietnam achieve a new record of US$700 billion worth of foreign trade.”

“According to Bloomberg, Apple is considering scaling back its plans for high-end Mac Pro computers and moving production of the device to Asia. Instead of choosing China like most iPhone models and other products, the high-end Mac Pro will be made in Vietnam, where AirPods are already manufactured and, soon, laptops and Apple Watches. This shift is part of Apple’s efforts to reduce dependence on China.”

“India, Vietnam and Brazil could account for as much as 30% of Apple supplier’s Foxconn production in upcoming years as Apple seeks to diversify its supply chain out of China.
Key electronics manufacturers are moving faster to diversify their capacity globally, taking advantage of local incentive policies, according to Counterpoint Research analysts Ivan Lam and Shenghao Bai as cited by Bloomberg.”

“A national forum on the development of digital technology enterprises (Make in Vietnam Forum 2022), one of the biggest annual events of Vietnam’s digital technology industry, was held in Hanoi on December 8.”

“Many global companies have invested or announced plans to invest billions of dollars in Vietnam this year as they show continued interest in making the country a manufacturing hub.
South Korea’s Samsung Electronics earlier this month said it would increase its investment in the country from $18 billion to $20 billion.”

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Vietnam will be the 10th largest consumer market in the world by 2030
Estimated 7-10% of overseas Vietnamese to return to Vietnam permanently by 2030
By 2040, Vietnam’s passport will be in the top 30 most powerful

Christian Lee and Abhishek Kumar: Top 5% Selected by Premier Venture Builder, Antler

It was February 26th, 2020, five days after his 20th birthday, that Christian Lee boarded his flight to Vietnam alone. It was his first time leaving the United States. He went with a very specific purpose. For months beforehand, he’d researched places all over the globe, analyzing every bit of data he could to determine the absolute best place in the world to create and grow a startup. Ho Chi Minh City was the only place on Earth which matched all of his criteria, so he bought a ticket and he went without hesitation or any amount of reluctance. The timing couldn’t have been more perfect as COVID-19 was given pandemic status less than a month later.

Two months after his arrival, Christian managed to get a job as a data analyst at a new startup, where he stayed for over two years gaining experience which he could later use when founding his own company. Eventually, when he felt ready, he applied to Antler Vietnam’s second cohort.

He was drawn to Antler by the fact that they invested from day zero, helping founders to build startups from scratch. He originally applied with two other employees of the startup he worked at. They each submitted their applications and were some of the lucky or qualified few to get interviews, of which they had to pass two in order to finally be accepted into the program out of thousands of other applicants. Unfortunately, the other two employees had to drop out of the program before it started due to personal reasons, but Christian was still fully determined to continue on his own, aware that a big part of Antler’s program was about matching with the perfect cofounders.

Christian met the person who would become his cofounder, Abhishek Kumar, on the first day of the program. Abhishek had lived in Vietnam for over a decade and had years of experience in everything that makes a great business leader. He shared his startup idea with Christian, who thought it was incredible. Within weeks, they were actively working on the idea. The program from the start to the end was extremely useful even for those who didn’t end up getting funding, consisting of networking, masterclasses, boot camps, endless pitch refinement, and business validation. Christian and Abhishek worked tirelessly to stand out, attempting to have the best problem and solution validation in the cohort, as well as preparing a tech demo to prove their capability to execute their plan.

By the end of the intensive 10 weeks, the two ambitious founders’ hard work had paid off. They were able to pass Antler Vietnam’s IC and get funding to create their company, which they called AuMBER. Both founders have unwavering confidence that they will build the world’s best, most innovative cloud testing platform. They are motivated to do so by the industry’s stagnation over the last few years, the desire to create value from that which had once been considered worthless, and to elevate Vietnam’s IT industry and digitization. Their current focus is to build traction with their product in order to raise additional funds at Antler Vietnam’s Demo Day in January.

UPDATES

OnSky

OnSky Health Launches DreamBe™ Contactless Health and Safety Monitoring Pad for Baby Care. It senses babies’ heart rate, breathing, sleep quality and more with no wearables or attachments. Parents can rest easy knowing that no electromagnetic wave radiation will contact baby’s skin. As the industry’s first contact-free baby monitoring pad with all-in-one health sensing capabilities, “DreamBe gives parents peace of mind knowing their babies are safe and comfortable,” says founder Hung Nguyen.

Otrafy

Otrafy was one of five companies to win $1 million in investment from 43North’s competition, in which aach had three minutes at Shea’s Performing Arts Center to convince a panel of judges why their company deserved $1 million. They then had four minutes to answer the judges’ questions. This is the first year 43North has given out five $1 million prizes. Looking at the strength of the companies that pitched this year, President Colleen Heidinger said the change has definitely paid off. The five winners must move their company to Buffalo for a year beginning in January and give 43North a 5% equity stake. Otrafy is modernizing that with its artificial-intelligence powered supplier management software. The company has seen 300% growth this year, founder Nhat Nguyen said. He predicts his company will reach $2 million in revenue by the end of next year.

PhucLabs

The Mass Technology Leadership Council announced its Tech Top 50 list, where PhucLabs, a company founded by brothers Phuc Vinh Truong and Phuc Thien Truong which breaks down e-waste for valuable materials which can then be sold or used again, earned the prestigious placing as one of 6 companies in the ‘Tech to Watch’ category. As PhucLabs puts it, “most waste streams contain valuable resources, and our company was founded to sort and capture it all.” They have a very strong team with a history of exits and value creation at every level. But in the end, it’s their technology which has garnered the most praise and is likely to contribute heavily to the reduction of e-waste globally.

Vulcan Augmetics

Vulcan Augmetics is one of the rare startups in Vietnam that focuses on Robotics technology, developing body- worn tech to help people become stronger, faster and more durable. From 2022, the company plans to expand R&D into software engineering, which is the bridge between technology and the human body. The company was born in 2018, focusing on Robotics technology with the mission of building people. To date, the company has launched its first commercial product – a robotic hand for the disabled. Products are currently distributed in 17 centers and hospitals nationwide. In the future, Vulcan Augmetics aims to develop product lines for people with paralysis or weak muscles, then those without disabilities but want to be more durable and flexible in special physical activities.

VietnamWorks

VietnamWorks, a member of the leading human resource recruitment service provider Navigos Group Vietnam, organized the “Exhibition and Sharing on the topic of Happy Career Journey” in Hanoi. It is a continuation and expansion of the success of the recent series of relocation activities in Ho Chi Minh City. Representative of VietnamWorks, Mr. Gaku Echizenya, Chairman and CEO of Navigos Group Vietnam, shared: “The series of events “Exhibition and Sharing on the topic of Happy Career Journey” not only marks the transition of VietnamWorks but also an opportunity for participants to better understand the needs of the market, themselves; towards meaningful values that contribute to society, contributing to the creation of “Happiness Career Journeys”.

Auctify

Auctify has developed a wearable analytics platform called Specs. It’s a pair of prescription smart glasses with a built in image sensor that uses computer vision to track your diet and gauge your health. They seek to raise funding for the purpose of increasing production of Specs.

Otrafy

The company which acts as an AI-powered supplier management software that ensures supplier compliance and manages risks to mitigate disruptions and build a resilient supply chain is looking to raise funds in order to improve their product and dominate the industry,

PhucLabs

Backed by MCJ Collective, Climate Capital, URBAN – X, and AiSprouts, PhucLabs is an innovative E-waste sorting and value extraction company which now looks to raise $3 million for their seed round. These funds will go towards PhucLabs’ mission of profitable and sustainable rare metal recycling. Their details can be found on Republic.

Vietnam’s very own prosthetic and human augmentation company, Vulcan Augmetics is looking to raise funds in order to enhance and accelerate their mission to empower the disabled and eventually augment those who just want to be faster, stronger, and more durable.

“Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh is confident Vietnam’s growth will exceed expectations this year, and retain the title of Southeast Asia’s fastest-growing economy through next year, as it emerges from the pandemic.”

“We are not just the first and only ‘made in Vietnam’ product in the market, we also provide high performance with the best price and the fastest charging bike.” This combination of technical proficiency combined with personal inspiration is what Nguyen believes fuels the difference in Dat Bike.”

“Forty-two per cent of European firms anticipate they will raise foreign direct investment (FDI) in Vietnam by 2022 end, a survey has found. Respondents indicated Vietnam could bolster these FDI levels by reducing administrative difficulties (68 per cent), improving infrastructure (53 per cent), developing human resources capacity (39 per cent) and reducing visa barriers for foreign experts (39 per cent).”

“According to HSBC, the Vietnam economy stands out in the region in terms of GDP growth, with a predicted growth rate of 6.9 percent for 2022. It is expected to become the 10th largest global consumer market by 2030, surpassing Germany and the UK.”

“We will continue investing in early-stage startups in not only emerging sectors such as property technology and financial technology but also seek opportunities in sustainable growth areas such as electric vehicles, food waste and food safety solutions,”

“Vietnam’s digital economy offers a great deal of opportunities for disruption at scale. Fintech, edtech, proptech, e-commerce, and enterprise solutions are the key sectors in the country’s startup space. It’s worth noting that foreign investors and the recent improvements to streamline investment regulations surrounding foreign investors such as VCs have played a key role in fueling the growth of Vietnam’s startup ecosystem.”

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Founder Spotlight: Loi Nguyen of Inphi Exits Second Time For $10 Billion, Join us for an insider’s Zoom interview with Loi Nguyen on October 28th, at 8:30 am PST.

Network News: Dat Bike, Elsa, POPS, and Toong

Funding: AuMBER, Dat Bike, OnSky Health, POPS, Tititada

Vietnam Tech and Startup Environment

Estimate value of Viet tech exits in the last 5 years reached $50 Billion
Total number of patents by Viet inventors surpasses IBM
Vietnam is the fastest growing economy in Asia for 2022

Loi Nguyen of Inphi Exits Second Time For $10 Billion

Nguyen was born in Vietnam and excelled while studying at Cornell. However, Nguyen’s professional path didn’t take him back to Vietnam until 2019 when Inphi acquired eSilicon, including its Vietnam assets, for

$216M. One year later, in 2020, Inphi acquired Vietnam-based Arrive Technologies, a company founded in 2001 by the late Lac Trinh.

Outside of work, Nguyen is an accomplished wildlife photographer with a passion for wildlife conservation. His images have been featured by leading nature and wildlife organizations such as Nature’s Best, North American Nature Photographer Association (NANPA), National Wildlife Federation, Defenders of Wildlife, National Audubon, among others.

Outside of work, Nguyen is an accomplished wildlife photographer with a passion for wildlife conservation. His images have been featured by leading nature and wildlife organizations such as Nature’s Best, North American Nature Photographer Association (NANPA), National Wildlife Federation, Defenders of Wildlife, National Audubon, among others.

Come join us later this month when Nguyen is interviewed by SAVVi’s Chairman and President, Huy Do. We look forward to sharing Nguyen’s Inphi adventure and lessons learned to all aspiring entrepreneurs.

Mark your calendar, October 28th, 10am PST for a Zoom interview with Loi Nguyen.

UPDATES

ELSA

The English learning app founded by Van Vu with more than 10 million downloads in Vietnam has appeared offline, in collaboration with the FAHASA bookstore and tiNiStore, to put the learning packages on the app into direct sale at many stores, making it easy for Vietnamese people to approach solutions to improve English communication skills. This cooperation between ELSA Speak and offline sales channels is considered a new breakthrough in the field of EdTech, helping remove barriers between online and offline approaches.

POPS

The leading digital entertainment company in Southeast Asia is going on content for children, sourcing shows and movies from many regions, especially the US. Already having over 523 million subscribers, their strategy for grabbing an even more significant portion of the market appeals to children and parents. They’re investing heavily in streaming rights of popular children’s shows worldwide and localizing them to POPS’ core markets. The tactic appears to be working, with solid month-over-month subscriber growth.

EVENTS

Dat Bike

The electric motorbike company recently unveiled its new project meant to enhance its existing product, Dat Charge; an electric motorbike charging station which, in only 20 minutes, can charge Dat Bike’s vehicles to travel up to 100km. This is the fastest electric motorbike charging speed ever in Vietnam. The aim of this launch is to close the gap between gasoline-fueled and electric motorbikes, making it more convenient to own and drive the latter. The launch event of Dat Charge is a step that marks the development and perfection of the Vietnamese startup’s technology. Realizing that the Vietnamese market currently does not have a common standard for a fast charging port for electric motorbikes, Dat Bike hopes that the launch of Dat Charge will make them a pioneer in the research and application of standardized fast charging ports for all electric motorcycles in the Vietnam market for the future.

Toong

The co-working space chain has just expanded to a new location at OfficeHaus building, Tan Phu district, Ho Chi Minh City. Tan Phu is an increasingly popular location for small businesses and startups to set up their offices, which is why costs for office leases are skyrocketing there. Toong is capitalizing on this demand by opening yet another co-working space there, bringing its total to 18 spaces in Ho Chi Minh City and 20 overall. It is sharing the venue with the likes of Mercedes.

AuMBER Raising Seed Round

AuMBER, a crowd-sourced cloud testing platform, will begin raising its seed round sometime before February 2023, following their initial customer acquisition and generation of revenue. Pre-seed funding was supplied by VC firm Antler in their second cohort in Vietnam.

Dat Bike Closed Series A Round

Led by Jungle Ventures and Wavemaker Partners, Dat Bike, the leading electric motorbike company in Vietnam, closed a $3M series A round this past summer. It is growing exponentially as the pandemic has settled and is expecting to raise a growth round later this year.

OnSKy Health raises pre-Series A Round

Having raised over $850K in Pre-Series A from angel investors over the past few months, OnSky is now raising the remaining $1M on the largest crowdfunding platform, WeFunder, which will provide a huge marketing and lobbying arm for its products to expand through its base of investors.

POPs Closed Bridge Round

In preparation for its Series D round, POPs closed a bridge round of

$1.5M to finance its growth. The round closed in September 2022. POPs has already secured a lead investor for its Series D round expected to open in late 2022/early 2023.

Tititada Raising Capital

Tititada is a micro-investments platform that allows you to start your investment journey with as little as 10,000 VND. Easy, smart and safe, the platform is designed to help every Vietnamese achieve financial security and freedom. They have already raised $1.5 million from Golden Gate Ventures in their seed round.

“Vietnam is investing in technological innovations and pursuing techno-developmentalism, a developmental model that prioritizes technological advances, R&D, and industrial upgrading.”

“Vietnam is predicted to lead the region with annual growth of 7.2%, up from 5.3% in the April forecast.”

“In 2021, investment capital in start-ups hit a record level of 1.35 billion USD, making Vietnam the most attractive startup valley in the region.”
“Golden Gate Venture said that Vietnam is a “rising star” of Southeast Asia and will become the country with the third largest startup ecosystem in the region by 2022.”

“Vietnam is creating favorable conditions for the birth of Asia’s next tech start-up unicorns, according to the Asian Development Bank (ADB) July 2022 report entitled “Vietnam’s Ecosystem for Technology Startups”.”

“Given a solid pipeline of early-stage companies and the positive environment created by the Vietnamese government, Vietnam’s startup ecosystem is poised to enter a more mature stage and reach new heights in 2022.” “Venture capital going into Vietnamese startups reached a record high in 2021 amidst market uncertainties and upheaval caused by Covid-19.”

“Vietnam’s start-up ecosystem often draws comparison with that of Indonesia and China some years back, but investors in the market face different opportunities and exit options, say VC experts.”

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