It is forecast that investment funds will continue to pour capital into Vietnamese startups, and may reach an impressive level of more than US$2 billion in 2022.

Through the first four months of 2022, hundreds of millions of dollars of many investment funds have been announced to invest in Vietnamese startups. Especially, in April 2022, startup Dat Bike specializing in smart electric motorbikes of Vietnam successfully raised capital of $5.3 million from Jungle Ventures fund.

This start-up enterprise uses investment in technology development, and production scale, and expands the market to major cities to convert 250 million gasoline-powered motorbikes to electricity.

Previously, many investment funds announced to pour investments in Vietnamese start-ups, creating a new wave such as e-commerce application Rino, which has successfully raised $3 million, startup Infina successfully raised another $4 million in seed round and Startup OpenCommerce Group raised $7 million in Series A funding round.

The Report on Innovation and Technology Investment in Vietnam recently published by the National Innovation Center under the Ministry of Planning and Investment has shown that the total venture capital investment in innovative startups reached $1.4 billion.

Up to now, Vietnam has more than 200 venture capital funds operating and investing in startups including nearly 40 domestic investment funds. The total number of investment funds participating in activities in Vietnam increased by 60 percent.

According to the National Innovation Center, payment and e-commerce are still the top two sectors in attracting investment capital. The blockchain gaming-related online gaming industry has also risen to the third position among the most invested industries thanks to the global success of Sky Mavis and its Axie Infinity product.

Ms. Quynh Vo, Program Director of Zonestartups Vietnam, shared that the flow of venture capital into Vietnamese startups will continue to increase in 2022, but there will be differentiation. Investors were more cautious. However, once startups demonstrate their ability to attract large users like MoMo, and Tiki, investors will pour investment money into startups.

In addition, according to Ms. Quynh Vo, in 2022, there will be a wave of founders from previous years coming back to start a new business. These founders have accumulated a lot of experience in launching a startup company, and quickly gathering teams, so they will contribute to promoting this activity more strongly.

Ho Chi Minh City is a city with a large number of small and medium enterprises and more than 70 universities in the area, so this is considered a potential city for innovative start-ups.

Mr. Huynh Kim Tuoc, Director of the Center for Advanced Application of Science and Technology (SIHUB), said that Ho Chi Minh City is in the top 100 emerging innovation eco-systems in the world; thereby, it has been attracting the attention of world investors to the city's innovative start-ups activities.

The total number of startups in Ho Chi Minh City accounts for about 50 percent in the country  and about 70 percent of the country's capital calls. Morever, the Ho Chi Minh City market has attracted a large number of investments and investment funds.

According to Mr. Huynh Kim Tuoc, in order to continue to develop innovative start-ups activities, the next stage of the innovative start-up ecosystem in Ho Chi Minh City is to go into depth with programs and activities on the basis of assessment and classification of different groups including unicorn start-up companies, promising startups, small and medium-sized businesses to create a rich source of goods for investors, investment funds, and contribute more to the economy of Ho Chi Minh City.

The annual reports of ESP Capital and Cento Ventures also make very positive comments when affirming that by attracting investment capital into Vietnamese startups reaching more than US$1.3 billion in 2021, Vietnam has risen to the top third ranking in the ASEAN startup ecosystem. It is forecast that this year, investment funds pouring capital into Vietnamese start-ups can reach more than $2 billion.

Believing that startups will continue to attract investment capital, Director of the National Innovation Center (NIC) Vu Quoc Huy emphasized that NIC will study and propose outstanding mechanisms and policies, and experimental legal framework to encourage innovation activities on a national scale, ensuring regional and international competitiveness.

2022 will be the year that Vietnam's innovative ecosystem has breakthrough developments, opening up many opportunities for the next stage of development of innovative businesses and Vietnam’s digital economy.

The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Science and Technology has just cooperated with the Vietnam Innovative Startup Investment Management Company (ICM) and the Victory Incubation Center to organize an Investment Connection Program for startups with the participation of 31 startups from the Acceleration and Development Support Program for Innovative Startups (SPEEDUP) and some startups in the incubation and acceleration stage.

The SPEEDUP program has been launched by the Department of Science and Technology of Ho Chi Minh City since 2017. Up to now, many startups have gradually achieved many goals such as establishing a business, a suitable business model, having markets and customers, and having a complete output product to call for capital.

Therefore, the SPEEDUP program is an opportunity for startups to introduce and promote products to seek investment capital for the new development phase of an innovative start-up project and also contribute to promoting the spirit of entrepreneurship in the community.

This program not only provides an opportunity for startups to participate in raising capital for the next phase but also an opportunity for the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Science and Technology to acknowledge the opinions of many parties such as investment funds, incubators from which the Department will re-evaluate the quality as well as the development of the startups in the past time.