Vietnam is a rising star of Southeast Asia startup scene and will become the third-largest ecosystem in the region in 2022. In 2021, investment poured into Vietnamese startups reached more than $1.3 billion. Fintech was the leading sector in terms of total deal value, with two deals worth over $100 million. Notably, VNLife successfully raised more than $250 million in a Series B funding round in July. In December, Momo followed suit with an investment of $200 million. After Fintech, e-commerce is the second most attractive sector to investors. Tiki made the largest contribution with a Series E funding round of $258 million led by AIA. Undoubtedly, Vietnam has emerged as a startup hub that is catching up with countries like Indonesia and Singapore.
The country was ranked 44th out of 132 countries in the Global Innovation Index and 59th out of 100 regarding the startup ecosystem in 2021. It also came third in the list of most-active startup ecosystems in Southeast Asia. Last year’s first nine months saw a record high number of $500K-3M deals in fundraising, 2.58 times higher than the same period of 2020. There was a shift in the investment allocation ratio at different stages as well. The proportion of rounds $500K-3M and $3M-10M went up whereas investments in pre-seed and seed stages fell. Nine-month Series A investments hit a record of 37 deals, the highest in years. As for Series B, the deals reached the largest average value ($13 million) since 2013. Vietnamese startups are expecting the Government to step up investment in digital infrastructure to make business operations faster and more efficient. The Government was also urged to supplement and clarify more detailed regulations to support domestic firms in terms of facilities, equipment, and tax incentives. The Government was recommended to use public procurement as a stimulus to foster technology innovations.