UNICORN STARTUPS OF VIETNAM

In Southeast Asia, from a modest number of only three unicorns in 2014, until now, this region has been recorded with 20 unicorns, including the presence of 2 startups from Vietnam: VNPay, and one of Southeast Asia’s first unicorns: VNG.

In Vietnam, if you have researched startups, you must have heard at least once the name VNG – Vietnam’s first “unicorn” start-up. In 2014, VNG was officially established, the forerunner of the business is VinaGame Company – the owner of “Vo Lam Truyen Ky”, the leading technology startup in the role-playing game industry in Vietnam. 

VinaGame used 2 years to collect an unbelievable revenue of 17 million USD. Although coming from a game publishing business, thanks to anticipating technology trends and grasping market needs, VNG has transformed itself when participating in areas such as cloud services, financial services, and mobile payments. The company’s products and services are divided into four business segments: online games, payments, Zalo (video call), and VNG Cloud. In 2014, World Startup Report valued VNG at USD 1 billion and it became only Vietnam’s Unicorn Startup at that time.

Source: Bao Dau Tu

The second unicorn startup mentioned by e-Conomy SEA 2020 is VNPay, valued at US$1 billion, ranked 12th in Southeast Asia, and among the top startups attracting the highest investment capital in the fintech industry in this region in 2020. Currently, VNPay’s system possesses impressive numbers such as:

• More than 15 million users access the app monthly to transfer money, pay utility bills and buy bus tickets
• More than 23,000 large and small businesses nationwide are using VNPay’s services
• Links with 40 banks and 5 Vietnamese telecommunications companies.

Not only that, at present, VNPAY is the only unit implementing payment by QR code from bank accounts. According to the 2018 consolidated report, VNPAY had revenue growth of 44% over the same period last year, recording VND 901 billion. Equity increased by 49%, at VND469 billion. A bright spot is probably the nearly 300 million USD in a successful funding round from Softbank Vision Fund and the Singapore government’s GIC investment fund, which pushed VNPAY to step into the ranks of the Top Southeast Asia Tech Unicorns. Called “unicorn”, VNPay proves its title with a growth rate of 300% over the same period last year in the context of the entire economy, which is heavily affected by the Covid-19 epidemic.

 Source: CellphoneS

Both VNPay and VNG took 10 years to step up to this position. To become unicorns in Vietnam, they have tried and demonstrated a lot more bravery than their counterparts abroad.