East Ventures, a Jakarta-based joint venture firm, invested in Circo, a start-up on co-working space in 2018. (Photo: cafebiz.vn) Hanoi (VNA) – Indonesianstart-ups and venture capital funds are pouring more capital into Vietnam,especially in digital technology, due to the similarity in businessenvironment between the two countries, the Dau tu (Investment) newspaper reported.
East Ventures, aJakarta-based joint venture firm, has participated in the 2.7 million USD fundinground of Vietcetera, a Vietnamese digital media startup at the end of August.
The newspaper quoted Melisa Irene, a partner of East Ventures, as saying that it was the firms’ fourthinvestment in Vietnam. She added that earlier it has invested in Circo, a start-up on co-working space in 2018,Sendo in 2019 and Kim An in 2020.
The similarities betweenVietnam and Indonesia’s startup ecosystems have led them to look foropportunities in potential areas like co-working space, lending, commerce andmedia, Irene was quoted as saying.
Indonesian fintech platform Kredivo has recently announced itspresence in Vietnam by partnering with Phoenix Holdings, a companywith a diversified portfolio in consumer, financial services, retail andtechnology sectors, to form Kerdivo Vietnam JSC.
Accordingto Velery Crottaz, managing director of Kredivo, the launch of Kredivo inVietnam, the first market outside Indonesia, is a milestone for the businessthis year.
Vietnam came as a logicalchoice given the low penetration of credit cards in the country and a rapidlygrowing middle class, he said.
Crottaz also mentionede-commerce market which is growing very fast and the similarities indemographic and consumption patterns to Indonesia.
Kredivo is not only theIndonesian start-ups that have ventured into Vietnam. Gojek, Indonesia’s very firstunicorn, is expanding its operation in the country. The startup has introduced GoCar- itsfour-wheel ride-hailing service – in HCM City to serve frontline healthworkers. It plans to roll out a cashless payment service by the end of this year.
J&T Express, anotherIndonesian unicorn, is also building up its presence in Vietnam to meet thee-commerce delivery demand. the Jakarta-based company boasts more than 1,900 post offices across Indonesia.
Irene from East Ventures said big cities of Vietnam and Indonesia like Jakarta,Hanoi and HCM City have pushed the digital adoption, adding that they might baseon this characteristic to predict the directions for pouring investment inpotential fields,
“We thought Vietnam’s digitaleconomy might be 3-4 years behind Indonesia but the gap might be closedrelatively fast,” she said./.
