TheVentures raises $11.5 million fund to invest in Vietnamese startups

TheVentures, an early-stage investment firm, is launching an $11.4 million investment fund in Vietnam to focus on the region.

Founded in 2014, TheVentures is a venture capital firm that has invested in more than 150 domestic and international startups, including Riid, Gbike, heydealder, and Parking Square. Since 2020, the venture capital firm has expanded its investment focus to Southeast Asia and has made a total of 26 investments in startups in developing countries such as Vietnam, Malaysia, Cambodia, Bangladesh, and India, with a total investment of approximately $6.9 million.

The Impact Collective Korea Fund, which was launched in 2020 with a focus on investments in Southeast Asia, is currently performing well with returns of over 30%, including Vietnamese creator platform Ecomobi, in which TheVentures invested and closed a $450 million (KRW 500 billion) deal in 2022, and Indian travel startup TravClan, which saw its valuation increase fivefold within a year of the investment.

Building on this success, TheVentures is launching a focused investment fund for Vietnam, one of the fastest growing economies in Southeast Asia. The size of the fund is $11.4 million. To further expand its investment activities, TheVentures has established a legal entity in Singapore and obtained a Singapore Venture Capital License to operate the fund. In addition, Associate Sunghun Kim from RMIT in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam has joined the local team and Partner Daehyun Kim, the lead fund manager, will be based in Ho Chi Minh City to invest and manage local startups. In addition, Mike Tran, who founded and successfully sold Ticketbox to TIKI, and Thanh Truong from Ecomobi, a portfolio company of The Ventures Vietnam, have joined the team as investment advisors to strengthen their expertise in the Vietnamese market.

By signing business agreements with proven law firms in Vietnam, such as Lee & Ko’s Vietnam and OPINES Vietnam, TheVentures has prepared a system for prompt and transparent investment due diligence and post-management. The strategy is to fully manage risks in the Vietnamese market while providing post-investment support to startups that are expected to experience explosive growth.

Investor response to the fund has been enthusiastic. The first round of the fund has already been closed with successful Korean entrepreneurs who have recognized the growth potential of the Vietnamese market. Investor response to the fund has been enthusiastic. The first round of the fund has already been closed with successful Korean entrepreneurs who have recognized the growth potential of the Vietnamese market. Jungho Cho, CEO of Meal ticket ledger, which was recently sold to Hyundaiezwel; Hyunho Park, CEO of Moonlight Partners, who was an early member of Tictoccroc and led the company’s growth; and Hwisang Kim, former partner of Hashed, who was an early founding member of Hashed. In addition to their role as investors, the founders will share information from the investment process and support the full growth of the companies in Vietnam’s B2B SaaS, Kids and Fintech startups based on their own successful experiences.

“2023 is the year of digital economy growth in Vietnam, when the country’s transition to a digital economy begins, and the current startup ecosystem in Vietnam is similar to that of Korea in 2010, when Korean unicorn startups such as Toss, BAEMIN, and MUSINSA began to emerge,” said Daehyun Kim, a partner at TheVentures who serves as General Manager of the Vietnam Fund. “The Vietnamese government is very willing to nurture startups and the startup environment is active, with five unicorn startups already emerging, so now is the best time to invest in Vietnamese startups.”

글: 김 문선(english@platum.kr)

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