Selex Motors Joint Stock Company, a start-up company in the field of designing and manufacturing of electric motorcycles, batteries and battery replacement stations, successfully raised $ 2.1 million in the seed round. Led by Touchstone Partners, this round also included investors such as ADB Ventures, the venture capital fund of the Asian Development Bank and Nextrans, one of the most active Korean venture capital funds in Vietnam.

According to Selex, the capital received in this round will be used to expand research and development (R&D) activities and expand production scale at a new factory in Hanoi.

Selex is cooperating with Viettel Post and Lazada Logistics to "electrify” the delivery fleet of these firms and set up battery exchange stations across the country.

Earlier, social commerce platform ON successfully raised $1.1 million in a seed round, led by Touchstone Partners Venture Fund, with the participation of ThinkZone Venture Fund.

ON is a capital-free sales platform launched in early 2021 in Vietnam by co-founders Nguyen Hoang Giang, Luu Tien Dung and Nguyen Tien Minh. ON aims to help people start a business, and increase income easily with zero VND capital.

ON currently has a community of more than 1 million interested people. This platform has attracted more than 10,000 sales partners, of which 90% are women, most of whom live in rural areas and small cities. Through the platform, on average, each seller can earn income up to 7 million VND/month.

According to a recent report by BambuUP, investment in the technology sector in Vietnam has quickly returned after a turbulent year. Notably, the number of transactions in the first nine months of 2021 increased to the highest level in the past five years, with 108 transactions. Meanwhile, the total investment capital in the first nine months of 2021 was 604 million USD, reaching nearly 70% compared to the highest level recorded in 2019.

Mai Lan

Vietnam to be Asia's next startup hub

In an interview with Bloomberg recently, Binh Tran - co-founder of Ascend Vietnam Ventures - said that Vietnam's nascent start-up sector is developing and Vietnam is becoming the next technology hub of Southeast Asia.