Why Vietnam?  A potential AI hub in ASEAN

AI story 

When the Soviet Union launched the first human-made satellite Sputnik 1 into orbit in October 1957, it had an instant and profound effect on the American psyche and government policy. The event sparked widespread U.S. public anxiety about perceived Soviet technological superiority, with Americans following the satellite across the night sky and tuning in to Sputnik’s radio transmissions. It triggered the creation of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), fueled major government subsidies for math and science education, and effectively launched the space race. That nationwide American mobilization bore fruit twelve years later when Neil Armstrong became the first person ever to set foot on the moon

AlphaGo scored its first high-profile victory in March 2016 during a five-game series against the legendary Korean player Lee Sedol, winning four to one. In May 2017, it continued to beat the Go champion – Ke Jie.

Machine learning—the umbrella term for the field that includes deep learning. Back in the mid-1950s, the pioneers of artificial intelligence set themselves an impossibly lofty but well-defined mission: to recreate human intelligence in a machine. That striking combination of the clarity of the goal and the complexity of the task would draw in some of the greatest minds in the emerging field of computer science: Marvin Minsky, John McCarthy, and Herbert Simon

Two camps: the “rule-based” approach and the “neural networks” approach. 

Researchers in the rule-based camp (also sometimes called “symbolic systems” or “expert systems”) attempted to teach computers to think by encoding a series of logical rules: If X, then Y. This approach worked well for simple and well-defined games (“toy problems”) but fell apart when the universe of possible choices or moves expanded.

The “neural networks” camp, however, took a different approach. Instead of trying to teach the computer the rules that had been mastered by a human brain, these practitioners tried to reconstruct the human brain itself.

During the 1950s and 1960s, early versions of artificial neural networks yielded promising results and plenty of hype. But then in 1969, researchers from the rule-based camp pushed back, convincing many in the field that neural networks were unreliable and limited in their use. The neural networks approach quickly went out of fashion, and AI plunged into one of its first “winters” during the 1970s. 

Current situation of AI in Vietnam:

Since 2014, AI has been included in the list of high-tech priorities for development investment in Vietnam. The Government has assigned the Ministry of Planning and Investment to develop a “National Strategy for the 4.0 Industrial Revolution”, identifying AI as one of the breakthrough and spearhead technologies that should be prioritized to focus on key groups. books to promote development. As a result, many national-level projects have been approved with the aim of bringing innovative and breakthrough technology ideas.

(Vietnam Law & Legal Forum 2021)

Major domestic technology corporations and innovative start-ups are accelerating their investments and making solid progress in AI research and application in many new business models. FPT, a well-known information technology services company in Vietnam, recently announced it will spend VND 300 billion ($13.16 million) on AI research and development over the next five years. This enterprise has invested in related research since 2013. Up to now, it has formed a diverse ecosystem of products, solutions and platforms to help other businesses optimize their operations and improve performance improvement, serving more than 14 million terminal users.

In an effort to realize the goal of becoming a national digital transformation leader, VNPT, a state-owned telecommunications enterprise, is promoting the development of AI technologies related to smart cities and e-government. Joining hands with localities, VNPT has deployed more than 30 intelligent operation and monitoring centers (IOCs) in provinces/cities nationwide, many of which have been put into operation.

Other technology corporations like Viettel, Vingroup are also spending heavily on AI research and development. To improve research capacity, Viettel and Vingroup have pioneered investments in supercomputer technology with the ability to perform over 20 million billion calculations per second to solve complex computational problems. While Vingroup focuses on technologies that apply AI in healthcare, smart cars and self-driving cars, Viettel focuses on investing in natural language processing technologies, converting Vietnamese voice and writing with high accuracy.

But not only large corporations are racing to AI, many Vietnamese startups or Vietnamese founders are also pursuing this field. Some have made their mark in the international market like ELSA Speak or Harrison-AI. Despite a sharp decrease from the previous year due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the investment capital in Vietnamese technology startups last year still reached more than 451 million USD, according to the Innovation and Public Investment Report. Technology Vietnam 2020. Many Vietnamese startups say that they have implemented or are considering implementing AI in their products in the future (Ministry of Industry and Trade of Vietnam 2021).

However, Vietnam’s AI has not really been developed to its full potential. Although AI is becoming an inevitable trend with great potential, the development of this field in Vietnam is facing significant challenges, such as limited human resources, data accuracy and firms’ access to capital.

Application of AI in Vietnam:

In recent years, a number of corporations, as well as the Government, have developed and applied artificial intelligence (AI) in a variety of industries, including education, telecommunications, retail, healthcare, and others, and have not only gradually controlled the market but also profited handsomely. The increase in the rate of AI adoption on a per-organization basis indicates rising interest in AI among businesses and industries. As reported, over 53% of surveyed organizations have put forth approximately $20 million each to invest in AI technology (VinAI 2022).

Some popular applications of AI in Vietnam are:

  • Fintech industry. Not only banks, Fintech companies are also very interested in investing in AI applications. Most companies and startups launch AI products or have partial AI applications, showing that AI is no longer a trend but the future of the economy. Most recently, on June 30, 2021, MoMo, a digital payment startup announced the completion of the acquisition of all intellectual property rights of Pique, a provider of AI solutions. MoMo’s representative said that it will continue to recruit to triple the number of AI personnel related to data and data science, in order to transform MoMo into a truly AI-first company. 

Previously, on June 25, 2021, Monfin application using AI algorithms to analyze user information and help these users better participate in financial and insurance products was officially launched. In December 2020, Zion Joint Stock Company (owner of Zalo Pay e-wallet) developed an AI product called Kiki for smart speakers after modeling the technologies of Siri (Apple) and Alexa (Amazon), etc. Along with IoT, the collection of data sources specific to each customer will help form a complete, up-to-date picture of customer needs. customer demand. When combined with AI solutions, fintech companies can fully proactively approach these changes in customer needs through the support of virtual assistants (Chatbots). Thus, in just an extremely short amount of time, possibly in seconds, fintech companies can give advice and recommendations that best suit customers’ needs or preferences right away. at the time they need it. This means that each customer will have a unique experience and receive advice tailored to their needs as quickly as possible. In addition, AI is a great tool to rank customer records, or recognize unusual transactions to help improve security more effectively for fintech (Bankingplus 2021).

  • E-commerce industry. AI solutions help sellers create an optimal journey for each customer, from the moment they have a shopping need to the time they complete the order. At some major e-commerce platforms like Lazada, based on data collected and analyzed by an AI-integrated tool, sellers can record appropriate offers based on age, gender, region. From there, they can recommend the most suitable products, come up with a reasonable business strategy, and know when is the right time to launch a “flash sale” offer. “golden hour”… to stimulate the shopping needs of customers. Not only eliciting demand, AI also supports sellers to “close orders” quickly with the CEM – customer interaction management feature. This is a special feature that helps to classify customer files into target groups. Sellers can actively access each file directly to encourage customers to complete the order; reviews of purchased products; suggesting new products or advertising promotions at the booth… thereby increasing revenue and brand recognition. In addition, AI now has another effect that is promoting the “Diderot effect” – a term that describes the tendency of users to buy additional things to complement the product they have just purchased. Taking advantage of this effect, AI helps sellers suggest products that go with the main item, contributing to increasing sales. Mr. Joris Kroese, CEO and founder of Hatch (an enterprise specializing in providing technology solutions for e-commerce), affirmed that in the next decade, AI will continue to be an important factor determining determine success in enhancing the customer’s shopping experience; and at the same time effectively support in increasing sales for brands and retailers (VnExpress 2021a).
  • Edtech industry. Currently, many educational institutions have been applying artificial intelligence (AI) to their management, renovating teaching methods and achieving initial results. Hong Bang International University has applied AI in face and voice recognition of students to serve for attendance purposes. FPT University even implements a deeper AI application when in addition to recognizing students’ faces, taking attendance, and managing students in the dormitory, the unit is also deploying AI in grading multiple-choice exams. Even more special is the research project “virtual teacher” applying ML (Machine learning) and AI (Artificial Intelligence) in Geography that teacher Le Van Anh and student Le Viet Dung (FPT High School) just announced, surprising many people by the efficiency and integration that AI brings. The “virtual teacher” will be used through two different, but linked areas: a chatbot and a video channel. Using chatbot will help users easily find information as well as ask questions related to the lesson for chatbot, users will get accurate information, in the shortest time (ETEP Vietnam 2020). 

By applying AI in education, we expect that the future education will be tailored to each student’s needs and own capacity rather than a general model that teachers are trying to target a whole group like now (Baodautu 2021). 

  • Medical industry: Since the COVID-19 pandemic broke out nearly three years ago, the application of AI in healthcare in Vietnam has become a bright spot in the AI development plan. During the pandemic, large telecommunications corporations such as Viettel and FPT developed AI-applied chatbots to automatically statisticize the epidemic situation in Vietnam in the form of a real-time map. The number of people hospitalized in isolation, the number of people being treated and recovered are also continuously updated. In addition, AI is also used in other applications such as Bluezone, NCOVI to help detect cases of infection or early contact and send it to the authorities, helping the health sector to monitor the disease and have a timely response plan (Suc khoe & Doi song 2021).

Besides the significant support of AI in dealing with the pandemic, AI is currently being applied in 4 areas: disease diagnosis, treatment, health monitoring, information management and training, according to Dr. Tran Thi Mai Oanh, Director of the Institute of Strategy, Ministry of Health (VnExpress 2021). Specifically in disease diagnosis, the VinDr system, developed by the Big Data Research Institute (VinBigData), applies AI in image diagnosis of lung diseases on chest X-ray images and breast cancer diagnosis on images, which has been tested at 3 major hospitals in Vietnam (108, Medical University; Vinmec). 115 People’s Hospital, 115 Gia An Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City and Phu Tho Provincial General Hospital are also the first 3 hospitals to apply AI in stroke diagnosis and treatment, allowing the emergency treatment to open from the previous 6 hours up to 24 hours which greatly improves the patient’s chances of survival. In short, AI applications help improve the quality and efficiency of medical examination and treatment, overcome medical risks and incidents, and reduce the load on hospitals. 

  • Tourism Industry: With the help of AI, the tourism industry also creates many attractive new products. Technology application helps tourism units reduce time, human resources and production costs, thereby reducing service costs. For example, Da Nang – a tourism hub in the central region has coordinated with the Hekate Technology JSC to develop and pilot the first automatic tourism information searching and support channel via text message conversation in Vietnam called Chatbot Danang Fantasticity. The app helps holidaymakers easily check information: famous destinations, events, weather, ATM locations, and hotlines, etc and helps turn Da Nang into the second city in Southeast Asia to apply chatbot to tourism (VietnamPlus 2022). Another interesting AI application in the tourism industry is the facial recognition technology developed by VinAI Research Institute of Artificial Intelligence. It is implemented in Vinpearl to help minimize waiting time for procedures and moving processes between internal areas (Times 2019).
  • Traffic: AI-supported traffic management projects were also initially applied in some metropolitan cities of Vietnam including Ha Noi, Ho Chi Minh City, Binh Duong, etc. One of the most noticeable AI applications in traffic is the Intelligent Transport System (ITS Solution) – a technology used to solve road traffic problems, including public security monitoring, traffic jam warning, current traffic violations, vehicle traffic counting system, etc. The system was first implemented in HCMC in 2019 with 5 main functions including Controlling the traffic signal system; Monitoring traffic situation; Providing online traffic information; Coordinating in handling violations of traffic order and safety, and Simulating traffic forecasting. In addition to the ITS Solution, Ho Chi Minh City also gradually builds a BMS solution, applying AI to improve efficiency in monitoring and managing the bus/route/passenger system. This solution package uses AI technology built on the foundation of technological solutions and devices such as information display LED panels at bus stations (bSmartLED), automatically analyze data and calculate the exact time the vehicle arrives at the pick-up/drop-off point (bSmartETA), digital map (bMap), navigation device (bGPS), AI Box device to help monitor passengers and drivers vehicle (bHub) and bus mapping software for passengers (ictvietnam.vn 2021).
  • Infrastructure: The most salient infrastructure project focusing on enhancing AI research and application is the Hoa Lac hi-tech park. With the scale of 1.586 ha and a total capital of 450 million USD, this park is expected to become a science city, a place that attracts investors in the research & development field; training and incubation; manufacturing hi-tech products in the fields: Biotechnology, Information – communication technology, New material technology and Automation technology (Hoa Lac Hi-Tech Park 2021).   

    Support for AI Development in Vietnam: 

In June 2021, the Prime Minister issued a national strategy on AI research, development and application until 2030. The strategy aims to “promote research, development and application of AI, making AI an important technology sector of Vietnam in the 4.0 Industrial Revolution”. Minister of Science and Technology Bui The Duy said the strategy targets that Vietnam will be among four leading countries in ASEAN and 50 nations globally in terms of AI research, development and application by 2030; build 10 prestigious AI trademarks in the region; and develop three national big data and high-performance computing centers (VietnamPlus 2021).

To promote research, development and application of AI, the Government of Vietnam has identified specific tasks and solutions to be implemented in the coming period as follows:

  • Develop and complete additional legal documents on intellectual property rights related to artificial intelligence.
  • Expanding projects to build community data in the form of the project of the Digital Vietnamese Knowledge System; connecting artificial intelligence and open science communities in Vietnam; supporting research mastery tasks, building domestic platforms for high-performance computing, cloud computing, fog computing; regularly organize activities to connect academic and research communities; professional community developing and applying artificial intelligence and data science at home and abroad.
  • Strongly deploying public-private partnership, co-financing training centers, research and development centers and artificial intelligence application centers; invest in forming a number of key research groups on artificial intelligence and data science in a number of universities and public research institutes; invest in facilities for a number of key data science and data science laboratories in universities and public research institutes; promoting the construction of a number of data science innovation centers, forming a number of Vietnamese brands in data science in the world.
  • Organizing basic research in data science, decoding technology, mastering technology, catching up with advances in data science, and initially contributing to data science method development new in a number of research institutions in mathematics and information technology; focus on investing in research and development of a number of artificial intelligence products based on data sources and specific knowledge of Vietnam; implementing a national key research program on artificial intelligence associated with graduate student training; deploying research and development of a number of important artificial intelligence product and service delivery platforms such as natural language processing, computer vision, automated processes, artificial intelligence technologies based on on data, robotics and practice vehicles, in some data-ready fields,
  • Promote the formation of open professional groups in the fields, allowing to shorten the time to complete research results; promote the sharing, sharing, openness of data, technology and application of artificial intelligence in a multi-disciplinary, interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral direction to accelerate the formation of results and improve output efficiency of research and development activities in other fields; extensive training of open platforms on data and artificial intelligence applications; promoting open source communities and forums on artificial intelligence; encourage enterprises to order research institutes and universities to research and develop specific artificial intelligence products of Vietnam.
  • Organizing events on artificial intelligence; support domestic individuals and organizations to participate in international seminars, exhibitions and competitions on artificial intelligence; participate in organizing and implementing bilateral and multilateral scientific research cooperation programs and projects on artificial intelligence; Promote the development of artificial intelligence research cooperation facilities and centers; cooperation projects on technology transfer, exploitation of inventions and industrial property rights between Vietnamese enterprises and foreign enterprises in artificial intelligence; high-quality artificial intelligence training centers and programs serving domestic and global markets; exchange of experts, researchers, students of Vietnamese organizations and enterprises with foreign research and training organizations and artificial intelligence enterprises. 

As a result of the State’s specific strategy for investing in AI, for the first time, Vietnam’s AI readiness score (51.82 out of 100) exceeds the global average (47.72). Vietnam rose 14 places last year in a global ranking for AI readiness to 62nd out of 160 countries and territories and rose one spot to sixth among ASEAN member nations (VnExpress 2022). 

Challenges:

(rubikAI & Nexus Frontier Tech 2018)

According to a research conducted by Nexus FrontierTech, rubikAI and G&H Ventures in 2018, the three biggest challenges with the development of artificial intelligence (AI) technology in Vietnam are talent shortage (59%), followed by limited data access (47%) and fundraising (35%) (rubikAI & Nexus Frontier Tech 2018).

Talent shortage. It is quite understandable because In the AI ​​race, human resources are the decisive factor. Not only Vietnamese companies compete for the best Vietnamese AI engineers and researchers, but also international corporations and the world’s leading AI companies want to take advantage of this elite force. The participation of these companies is a good sign. It has created a momentum, attracting Vietnamese AI experts and engineers from all over the world. Regular seminars with the participation of foreign experts are helping to gradually form AI communities in the country (Ministry of Industry and Trade of Vietnam 2021).

Despite the thirst for talent in AI, the training of professional AI human resources in Vietnam is still weak and lacking. The main source of educating and providing high-quality AI human resources – Universities have claimed to encounter enormous difficulties in designing good enough Artificial Intelligence training programs. The first difficulty is the lack of lecturers – who have the experience and ability to design lectures that meet international standards with up-to-date and methodical content in both theory and practice. The second difficulty is that research groups in universities are lacking the minimal computational tools that allow them to develop and practice AI algorithms. According to Dr. Nguyen Phi Le – Executive Director of BK.AI Center under the University of Information and Communication Technology, “The AI ​​industry requires a dedicated computer and server system with GPU graphics cards worth hundreds of millions of dong, usually only large enterprises can afford to invest.” (DNHN 2021)

Although universities are accelerating, they have even signed cooperation agreements with major technology partners from Korea, Japan, the US, Australia, etc in order to open international AI research centers in Vietnam, the speed and quality of training is also considered “difficult to keep up with demand” because the number of universities that actually train well in this field is only counted. on fingertips as well as the aforementioned entry barriers to access AI in Vietnamese universities.

The lack of human resources in the AI industry is so severe that even training IT human resources, which is considered an “outside” for the development and application of new digital technologies, is still short of 100,000-200,000 people per year. According to the report of Nexus FrontierTech in 2019, Vietnam’s AI human resources currently only meet 1/10 of the market demand. In an AI talk at the end of 2020, Prof. Ho Tu Bao, an expert in research and consulting on AI implementation in Vietnam, said that in fact, the number of human resources to understand algorithms and create AI tools only accounts for 2-3%, while the majority of 70-80% are those who use that tool to apply in professional fields (finance, insurance, healthcare, information, manufacturing, manufacturing, retail, services…).

Limited data access. An important obstacle that Vietnam needs to overcome is building data and computing infrastructure. AI is a data-driven field, therefore, without good and regularly updated data, we will be at a dead end. Meanwhile, the computing infrastructure that is the “machine” for AI to run is also very important, because as the speed of AI development and application increases, the amount of computation and resources for computation must also increase accordingly.

Vietnam’s data and computing infrastructure is still in its infancy. Vietnam does not have many good quality datasets; The data is often fragmented, less connected and limited in terms of access. Talking about the AI ​​Strategy, Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Bui The Duy affirmed that in order to well implement the set goals, Vietnam needs to quickly form a culture of data sharing and open access.

The Government of Vietnam’s efforts to promote data sharing and centralization have been demonstrated through the launch of the National Data Portal (data.gov.vn) to share data from ministries, sectors and localities; as well as establishing a digitized Vietnamese Knowledge System to collect data from the community, label and preprocess that data to apply for artificial intelligence.

However, for AI to be researched and applied more widely, the culture of sharing, connecting and opening needs to spread to the whole business sector. Vingroup is pioneering when opening a dataset of 18,000 X-ray images collected and labeled by reputable radiologists. Soon, they open-sourced the labeling software so that research groups or startups can quickly develop their own math problems on medical AI. According to the technology development communities, such willingness to share data is valuable and should strengthen across more areas.

Fundraising. According to the AI landscape report of rubikAI (2018), AI businesses also face many difficulties when starting a business, with 59% of companies established under 2 years and only 34% raising more than $ 200,000 in capital from outside.

Most AI companies are still in the early stages, so the scale is relatively small, accounting for 68% of companies with less than 50 employees and 70% of companies with less than 10 AI engineers. Therefore, corporations and venture capital investors are important partners that can support in terms of capital, access to big data as well as market access.

AI popular startups/companies in Vietnam:

According to Mr. Nguyen Chi Dung – Head of Ministry of Planning and Investment Vietnam, AI has strongly developed. In 2018, the AI industry increased more than 70% compared to 2017 equalling to approximately USD 200 billion. AI has the potential to become the most disruptive and breakthrough technology within the next 10 years and we need to further promote its potential (VietnamCredit 2021).  

Some of the most AI popular startups/companies in Vietnam are (Tracxn 2022; TPS 2022):

VNLIFE

VNLIFE is an omnichannel banking and distribution software solution. It provides banks with technologies that allow them to deliver digital banking services to their consumers. It implements digital banking channels, payments, and solutions for travel and retail organizations using a variety of technologies such as AI, blockchain, IoT, and big data.

FPT AI

FPT AI is a subsidiary of FPT Software, a renowned worldwide technology, outsourcing, and IT services company based in Vietnam. The FPT.AI Artificial Intelligence Platform, developed by a team of top AI developers and specialists at FPT, offers tools to assist organizations to automate repetitive and sophisticated processes, improve operations, and deliver better customer service.

Zalo AI

Zalo AI is a subsidiary of Zalo, one of Vietnam’s largest tech firms. With an emphasis on Computer Vision, Speech Processing, Natural Language Processing, and Data Mining, the company has competence in virtual assistants and data analysis. Zalo AI has a huge database of 60 million active users in Vietnam thanks to social network Zalo. This gives them a huge advantage in developing and improving AI products and services.

VinAI

VinAI Research is a renowned research institute in Vietnam, with offices in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Its objective is to undertake high-impact research that pushes the knowledge frontier in AI and to expedite AI applications in Vietnam, the Asia Pacific region, and beyond. It is funded by VinGroup, Vietnam’s largest corporation by capitalization.

GRDAI – VNG

GRDAI R&D Department is funded by VNG Joint Stock Company. Founded in 2018 with the purpose of creating high-applicability artificial intelligence solutions. GRDAI’s products have received numerous honors in artificial intelligence competitions such as the Vietnam AI Grand Challenge and the National Grand Finale 2019.

Casting Asia

CastingAsia Platform, CastingAsia Marketplace, and CastingAsia Engagement are the 3 primary services offered by this firm, which was founded with the goal of offering data-driven insights to influencers. It’s all about ensuring that brands and influencers can market in a smart and secure manner.

DropDeck

Drop Deck ranks and evaluates all startups using AI algorithms. It earned recognition and support from world-class AI professionals as part of the IBM Watson AI Xprize competition.

Sero.ai

Sero.ai is a crop intelligence firm that uses full-cycle data analytics to optimize rice production. Sero.ai uses mobile internet to link farmers and agricultural specialists. Using photographs, the company monitors crop health and finds pests nearly quickly.

TINYpulse

Tinypulse was built to assist firms enhance employment retention by using NLP (neuro-linguistic programming) and sentiment analysis. Puget Sound magazine named the company one of the greatest places to work in 2017.

Sentifi

Sentifi, a Swiss fintech business, is a global leader in Crowd-Intelligence for financial markets. Sentifi’s big data and AI-based technology provides insightful research, allowing millions of investors to make smarter investment decisions by being better informed. Sentifi has won the Swiss FinTech Award for 2016.

Reference list

Bankingplus 2021, AI tăng sức mạnh cho các Fintech, Thời Báo Ngân Hàng.

Baodautu 2021, Ứng dụng rộng rãi trí tuệ nhân tạo trong giáo dục, baodautu, viewed 29 April 2022, <https://baodautu.vn/ung-dung-rong-rai-tri-tue-nhan-tao-trong-giao-duc-d154106.html>.

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― 2022, AI application proves useful to improving tourists’ experience | Sci-Tech | Vietnam+ (VietnamPlus), VietnamPlus, viewed 25 April 2022, <https://en.vietnamplus.vn/ai-application-proves-useful-to-improving-tourists-experience/222478.vnp>.

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2019 Vietnam startup investment look back

Just some of my random notes about world startup investment and Vietnam so please make sure that you double check when I use my article.

Six years ago, Aileen Lee – founder of Cowboy Venture created the term “Unicorn” to illustrate the start-up companies which have the value of over $1 billions. 

At this time there were not many companies which were worth a billion dollars. Thus “Unicorn” was the dream name for many start-up since this term was introduced. However, the industry landscape has changed dramatically. The world of venture capital has been blooming, there has been a huge amount of money invested in the start-up company. 

In recent years, the number of “Unicorn” has increased exponentially. Total investment in the unicorn companies is up to 1.1 thousand of dollars. 

 

An analysis about 326 unicorns in the world

  • Overview about “Unicorn” in 2019

According to CB Insights of Unicorn of Unicorn Tracker – the company does research about the unicorn according to their industry, valuation and country. 

ByteDance is currently the largest unicorn with the valuation of 75 billion dollars. The China-based company operates many products such as: Vigo, Toutiao, TopBuzz and more, but the most special raising platform which is currently used by many millennia’s: TikTok. ByteDance uses AI to adjust the content to fit with the customer behavior. 

Source: Pixabay

Expert estimates that in 2019, there are more than 100 unicorns will conduct IPO – (The Initial Public Offering), including Uber and AirBnb. Recently, Lyft and Pinterest have conducted IPO. Another Unicorn is Zoom Video – an online video call platform is also in the IPO process, with the stock price increasing at 120% since its impressive release in the middle of April. 

  • Unicorn start-up by industry 

Internet Software and Service and E-commerce are the most popular industries with many potential start-up. On-demand services such as Uber, Didi  Chuxing and DoorDash attract more investors to invest in this area. 

  • Unicorn start-up by geography 

Over a half of unicorns come from the USA, but China has many start-up companies which have high value. While most of the unicorns come from 6 countries: USA, China, UK, India, Germany and Korea, other countries in the world have 32 unicorns approximately 10% of total unicorn in the world.

  • Unicorn by the valuation
    Uber, Wework, AirBnB and ByteDance have the largest amount up to 30% of total unicorn worldwide.  

According to the pyramid, there are 280 unicorns at the bottom – unicorns which have value from 1-5 billion dollars. The sum of those are 461 billion dollars, as 43% of the total unicorns. 

  • Vietnam Startup Investment Overview vs world investment

In 2019, the amount of capital flowing into technology startups in Vietnam accounts for 18% of all of Southeast Asia, while that of Singapore is 17%. However, as a whole, the remaining startups only raised US $ 670M, much less than in 2018 (nearly US $ 890M). This fact shows that the start-up race has entered the stage of refinement, many emerging industries have also led to the recession of many old and expensive businesses of investors.

In January 2019, Momo successfully raised funds  in the Series C 100 USD from Warburg Pincus funding. Momo is the first payment-app with more than 12 million users in Vietnam. 

In January 2019, Lefair – an ecommerce site which sells boutiques, has called for $7 million in the Series B from GSShop and Belt Road Capital Management. This success has helped the company total investment round to 12M USD. However, they just announced to quit the Vietnam market on 2020.

In February 2019, Elsa has raised fund successfully $7M USD Series A from Gradient Ventures – the specialized fund for AI of Google. Now, the total investment for the company is $12M. 

In March 2019, Tiki raised $75M from NorthStar Group and are the top 2 players in the e-commerce Vietnam market. Tiki is on its way to focus on increasing its service quality and user experiences. 

In April 2019, Jio Health has raised $5M Series A from Monk’s Hill Venture. 

In May 2019, Uber has failed since its first stock issues, which causes the loss of $6.5B. 

In June 2019, Logivan – 4.0 logistic service, which connects the shipper and the empty returned truck nationwide, raised successfully $5.5M from Matrix Partners, David Su and Alpha JWC Ventures. 

In August 2019, Wework – the largest co-working space US-based, which has an unpredictable fate. Although Softbank has invested $10B in Wework, they have stopped working with each other. 

In August 2019, KiotViet – a start-up providing software solutions for POS managing, announced receiving $6M Series A from Jungle Venture.  

In September 2019, Compass – a real-estate buy and sell start losing its direction, although Softbank has invested $450M and later fundraising $775M.  

In October 2019, Scommerce – logistic provider with 4 business units: GHN Express, Ahamove, GHN Logistic and GIDO has received $100M from Temasek – Singapore government investment fund. 

In November 2019, Softbank poured $500M into Fair – a car leasing company which is revolutionizing the car-as-a-service concept. However, Fair has failed and cut 40% of employees in the not “Fair” way. 

Also in November, Sendo announced its raising fund successfully with total investment in Series C is $61M from EV Growth, Kasikornbank, SBI Group, BEENOS, SoftBank Ventures Asia, Daiwa PI Partners and Digital Garage. 

This month, Lozi has also raised $10M+ from Smilegate Korea. 

Vnlife – mother company of VNPAY has become the second unicorn in Vietnam after VNG with $300M investment of Softbank Vision Fund and GIC Singapore 

In December 2019, Telio – Vietnam’s first B2B platform has raised $25M Series A from Tiger Global, Sequoia India, GGV Capital, and RTP Global.

In January 2020, OYO – a hotel booking start-up received $1.5B from Softbank has lost 65000 rooms and cut off 3000 employees. 

The world 2019 economic climate has significant slowdown, however Vietnam’s economy is growing.

Vietnam economic growth is projected to decrease in 2020

Collected from many sources:  Jeff Desjardins, Visual Capitalist, WEF, May 2019, ESP Capital

FIRST CROWDPITCH VIETNAM 2019: TRAVEL STARTUPS ARISE, WHILE ENVIRONMENTAL ONE DRAW MORE ATTENTION

I reposted the content of some events that my company ran in order to spread the message further.  In the 1st CrowdPitch Vietnam 2019, 5 Vietnamese startups had presented their ideas, learned from expert mentors in the ecosystem and gained exposure, as well as built and engaged with the community.

Mr. Thang Huynh – CEO & Co-Founder Innovation Lab

Most-voted: Saving environment solution

Vietnam is one of the worst polluters of ocean plastic waste in Asia and the globe, with 13 million tonnes of waste released to the ocean every year. Fortunately, Vietnamese starts to get aware of this massive pollution and therefore, green initiatives emerge. Obviously, eco-minded entrepreneurs in Vietnam are not out of the picture.

Ms. Linh Le – Founder & CEO AYACUP

Startup AYA – REUSABLE CUP with the plastic waste solution was the most-voted idea in 1st CrowdPitch Vietnam 2019. AYA REUSABLE CUPS creates convenience idea for users which enable them to use and return the cup rather than throwing single-use plastic cup.  More specifically, with AYA you can request an eco-friendly cup at any participating coffee shop or smoothie bar with your ID code. With the so-called “Life Time Membership Pass”, you also can drop the AYACUP at any participating locations. AYA has achieved 85 vendors, 135 locations and 5,495 plastic cups saved.

Linh Le, Founder of AYA Reusable cups shared that she was very surprised and happy when people were very interested in her project and concerned about the environment. It is a good sign that more people want to change their habits to protect the environment.

According to the report 2018 by UN Environment, one million plastic drinking bottles are purchased every minute around the world; up to 5 trillion single-use plastic bags are used worldwide every year. In total, half of all plastic produced is designed to be used only once – and then thrown away.

Mr. Tuan Tran – Founder Airiot VietNam

With the same mission to save the environment; startup Airiot VietNam provides solutions to save energy for Airbnb hosts by a self-designed device. With IOT device working based on Bluetooth low energy 4.0, Airiot helps Airbnb hosts to turn off the air-conditioner automatically when people are not in the accommodation.

Travel tech – Top trendy startups in Vietnam

According to a report recently released by Topica Founder Institute (TFI), eight major travel tech deals worth $64 million were signed last year. The travel tech market is full of potential as increasing numbers of Vietnamese seek to travel and enjoy life.

The trend was well demonstrated in May section of CrowdPitch Vietnam as 3 out of 5 start-up ideas is technology-based travel startups including LandedVibe, Gody.vn and CheepCheep.

Mr. Le Duy Hoang – Founder LandedVibe

Becoming the winner chosen by judges, LandedVibe offers a platform for diversified offline skill-sharing and entertainment activities. They build a network where anyone can turn shareable values of their profession, skill or hobby into payable activities for locals, expats and travelers alike to book, via a sharing-economy platform.

Explained about the decision, Mr. Bobby Liu – CrowdPitch Vietnam judge and Co-director of Topica Founder Institute said: “LandedVibe will change the way of travel a lot. It is about the experience, about travelers getting and sharing their own experience. It could be popular with young travelers. Because of that, LandedVibe has development potential and will attract investors.”

Mr. Pham Viet Anh – CEO & Founder CheepCheep

Ms. Ngoc Anh – Founder Gody.vn

Other startups are CheepCheep, an online platform to book attraction tickets through a hundred places in Vietnam, and Gody.vn, a social travel platform to personalize trips based on AI’s recommendations.

2019 CrowdPitch Vietnam is an initiative for startups to raise their brand awareness, identify their market, attract potential investors and engage actively with future customers.

5 startups chosen to pitch each month will receive 1.000USD AWS credits, technical support, and free online training besides the voting cash by audiences’ entrance tickets.

Mr. Bobby Liu emphasized the prominence of CrowdPitch to startups in the ecosystem because of its benefit and recalled himself as a winner of this kind of crowdpitch five years ago.

From the participant’s perspective, Founder of AYA, Linh Le claimed that pitching in CrowdPitch was a valuable opportunity for early-stage startups to validate their idea and cheer them up. “It is also a good place for them to interact with other startups and investors,” Linh said and personally, CrowdPitch made her more confident, gave her great feedback from other entrepreneurs, and connected her with the community.

The 2nd CrowdPitch Vietnam 2019 is going to present on June, 26th 2019.

The CrowdPitch Vietnam is powered by Innovation Lab.

Opening Speech of Final round of Lead the Change 2018 competition

My honor guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is such a pleasure and honor for me to be here and mark the final round of Lead the Change 2018 competition.

As mentioned before, I dream of the Vietnamese young generation with good English and soft skill, great attitude and mindset. UEH Connected was founded with that dream and we have incubation programs and activities that attract not only the Vietnamese but also the foreigners.

Mr Cong-Thang HUYNH, Mr Rick Yvanovich, Mr Eddie Thai, Ms Nguyen Phi Van,Mr Mike Tran, Mr Gaku Echizenya, CG Kyle Nunas & CG Mary Tarnowka –
Lead the Change is the new way of leadership incubation which we used it as a tool to bring the youth abroad. We are proud to share that we brought 32 young Vietnamese to Singapore in July of this year for intensive training
Lead the Change 2018 competition is also a good tool for us to nurture talents with good ideas and potential; and equip them with training, mentorship, networks to open their mindset so that they can lead the change to drive Vietnamese economy.
We have 800 qualified applications this year from more 40 universities and organizations. If someone follows us from the beginning will recognize that it is the big transformative journey for the youth. They came to us with a big dream without necessary skill and right mindset. Through 8 intensive trainings and 8 mentoring sessions covering from business plan, finance to how to make the pitch deck and presentation. They are now totally different and stronger than they were before our competition. You can read hand writing feedback to feel what I meant.
And we can not do it alone without any support. We would like to express our thank you message to
  • Consul General of US Ms Mary Tarnowka  – our good friend
  • US Consulate General
  • Startup Campus from Korean Goverment (Ms Dorothy & Mr Collin),
  • KIMC (Mr Ted Kim),
  • Consulate of Italy,
  • ITP (Information Technology Park) under National University
  • University of Economics Ho Chi Minh city,
  • Arizona State University,
  • RMIT and
  • Ms Nguyen Phi Van – Founder & CEO Retail & Franchise Asia​
  • Mr Rick Yvanovich – Founder & CEO của TRG International​
  • Mr Kyle Nunas – Consul General of Canada
  • Ms Ngo Phuong Thao – Founder  Anbooks
  • Ms Thi Anh Dao – CEO Isobar Vietnam
  • Mr Eddie Thai – Partner 500 Startups​
  • Mr Gaku Echizenya – Chairman of Navigos Group
  • Mr Warren Eng – Leaders create Leaders
, many judges, mentors, trainers of 5 rounds and especially my Lead the change team who spent months for this project and making it happen with me. I know that my thank you message here is never enough for what you have contributed to this community and competition but history will remember you all. 😀
There’s an old African proverb that says “If you want to go quickly, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” But We can not be slow in this 4.0 industrial revolution, we have to go together further quickly.
Thank you for going together with us and making us stronger day after day.
Hope you will have a great day!!!
Thank you,