After increasing selling prices, a rice-paper enterprise sold more products and expanded its market. Conversely, a coffee brand slashed its expected profits to expand its scale.

With ambitions to become a destination for global technology capital, the central coastal city of Da Nang is introducing stronger mechanisms to attract investors and create greater opportunities for startups and innovation-driven enterprises.

The Ministry of Education and Training has issued a plan to implement a programme on supporting student entrepreneurship in the 2026-2035 period, aiming to develop a comprehensive startup ecosystem across the education sector.

Ho Chi Minh City is steadily strengthening its position as one of Southeast Asia’s leading innovation and startup hubs.

With the launch of the Ho Chi Minh City Venture Capital Fund, startups in the city will no longer need to “relocate” to Singapore to polish their profiles in order to secure investment.

The Government has issued Resolution No. 86/NQ-CP promulgating the national strategy on innovative start-ups, aiming to foster a wave of innovation-driven entrepreneurship across society, grounded in science, technology and digital transformation.

Resolution No. 86, issued by the Government on April 5, sets a goal of placing Vietnam among the world’s top 30 countries in innovation and startup development by 2045, backed by breakthrough mechanisms in legal frameworks, human resources & capital.

Seeing a Korean-style cafe crowded with customers, Hung borrowed nearly VND2 billion from a bank to open a similar shop. Less than a year later, the shop had to close.

Many businesses founded by Vietnamese people choose to register their legal entity status in Singapore. The product development, main operations, and technical teams, however, remain located in Vietnam.

The People’s Committee of Ho Chi Minh City has approved a plan to establish a 500 billion VND (about 19.7 million USD) venture capital fund to mobilise social resources for the city’s innovation startup ecosystem and technology enterprises.

Without real estate as collateral, startups are not able to borrow capital to research and expand production. In some cases, approval emails have arrived after more than a year when the companies had already been forced to close.

Venture capital investment in Vietnam’s start-up ecosystem fell sharply in 2025, with funding increasingly concentrated on companies that had demonstrated their feasible business models, signalling a clear restructuring phase for the market.

More than just a money-making idea, this innovation also helps limit the harmful practice of rice straw burning across Vietnamese fields.

Vietnam continues to face a long-standing paradox as the startup failure rate remains very high. Many projects stop before generating any revenue, while many families lose assets by placing their trust in ideas that lack a solid market foundation.

The city’s bold move embraces risk and innovation, positioning Hanoi as a future leader in Southeast Asia’s tech scene.

Vietnamese biotech startup Growlab has been crowned the winner of the National Innovative Startup Talent Search 2025 and will represent the country at the 2026 Startup World Cup in the United States.

Tiny pine forests, nativity scenes and winter gardens crafted in glass terrariums are helping one Vietnamese startup sell over 2,000 gifts a month and earn more than USD 80,000.

Da Nang has made its debut in the world’s Top 1,000 startup ecosystems, a milestone that underscores the city’s accelerating innovation agenda, according to StartupBlink’s 2024 global ranking.

Vietnam is inviting foreign startups to establish operations in the country and grow into unicorns in the near future.