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SAVVi Newsletter (Dec 2022)

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NEWSLETTeR

DECEMBER 2022

All the latest news about Viet tech, startups, founders, investors, and unique investment opportunities

Issue 3, December 2022

SAVVi

HIGHLIGHTS

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

DID YOU KNOW?

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

FOUNDER SPOTLIGHT

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

SAVVI NETWORK NEWS

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.

FUNDING

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.

VIETNAM TECH AND
STARTUP ENVIRONMENT

VCs Pledge to Invest $1.5 Billion in Vietnamese Startups

https://www.techinasia.com/foreign-vcs-pledge-us15-billion-vietnam-startups
“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.

Another Apple Product Manufactured in Vietnam

https://vietnaminsider.vn/another-apple-product- assembled-in-vietnam/
“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.”

Vietnamese digital technology industry’s revenue estimated at 148 billion USD in 2022

https://en.vietnamplus.vn/vietnamese-digital-technology- industry-s-revenue-estimated-at-148-billion-usd-in- 2022/245196.vnp
“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.”

$700B: Vietnam’s new trade milestone

https://e.vnexpress.net/infographics/economy/700b-vietnam-s-new-trade-milestone-4550885.html
“Free trade agreements and open foreign directinvestment policies have helped Vietnam achieve a new record of US$700 billion worth of foreign trade.”

Vietnam to become one of Apple’s main manufacturing hubs

https://e.vnexpress.net/news/economy/vietnam-to- become-one-of-apples-main-manufacturing-hubs- 4550758.html
“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.”

Foreign investors continue to pump investment into Vietnam

https://e.vnexpress.net/news/economy/foreign-investors- continue-to-pump-investment-into-vietnam-4549366.html
“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.”

STRATEGIC ALLIANCE VIETNAMESE VENTURES INTERNATIONAL

venture capital organizations
in vietnam

Antler
Website: antler.co
Contact: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonssonej/
Pre-seed to Seed
Every sector

Ascend Vietnam Ventures
Website: https://ascendvietnam.com/
Contact: contact@ascendvietnam.com
Every sector
Pre-product market fit

Cocoon Capital
Website: cocooncap.com
Contact: will@cocooncap.com
Seed Round, Series A, Series A
AI, Enterprise Application, Fintech, Insurtech, SaaS, Machine Learning

Do Ventures
Website: https://doventures.vc/en
Contact: https://doventures.vc/en/contact
Early stage
Every sector

East Bridge Partners
Website: https://www.eastbridge.asia/
Contact: info@eastbridgelp.com
Mid-cap investment
Every sector

Gaw Capital Partners
Website: http://gawcapital.com
Contact: info@gawcapital.com
Real estate sector

Golden Gate Ventures
Website: goldengate.vc
Contact: hello@goldengate.vc
Early stage, series A, B
Tooling, consumer apps, SaaS, logistics, e-commerce

Jungle Ventures
Website: https://www.jungle.vc/
Contact: contact@jungle.vc
Pre-seed, seed, series A
Technology startups

Monk’s Hill Ventures
Website: monkshill.com
Contact: ir@monkshill.com
Series A
Technology startups

Patamar Capital
Website: https://patamar.com
Contact: https://www.linkedin.com/in/geoff-woolley-b0665/
Technology startups

Quest Ventures
Website: https://www.questventures.com/
Contact: info@questventures.com
Seed to Series A
Multi

SoftBank Ventures Asia
Website: softbank.co.kr
Contact: b_plan@softbank.co.kr
Enterprise Software, Mobile

ThinkZone Ventures
Website: thinkzone.vn
Contact: contact@thinkzone.vn
Seed, pre-series A
Fintech, Edtech, Logistics, Ecommerce, Nanotech, Lifestyle, Service

Trihill Capital
Website: https://www.trihillcapital.com/
Contact: INFO@TRIHILLCAPITAL.COM
Early to growth-stage
Solution-oriented companies and transformative founders across sectors and stages.

Vietnam Investments Group
Website: https://ventures.vinacapital.com/
Contact: investment.vc@vinacapital.com
Multi

Wavemaker Partners
Website: https://wavemaker.vc/
Contact: pitchsea@wavemaker.vc
Seed Round
Tech

Full List Coming Soon To https://www.savvicode.com/