VinaCapital pushes into IT

The emerging IT sector is exciting a raft of investors

The initial $50 million DFJ VinaCapital L.P. fund, is a venture between VinaCapital and Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ), a top international venture capital firm based in Silicon Valley. The two parties have both participated in raising funds, sourcing deal flows, and creating values for its portfolios.
Louis Nguyen, the fund’s managing director, said the new fund would look into investment opportunities in the secular growth of the Vietnamese internet and wireless markets as well as companies to go public in the near future, including VMS – the operator of MobileFone, Vinaphone, FPT and VNPT.
He said the fund would add value to its portfolio companies by tapping both the local expertise of VinaCapital in Vietnam and the network of international affiliates and proven track record from DFJ.
“With the government’s pro-IT position, acceleration in equitisation of SOEs, and the boom in IT startups in Vietnam, we believe that Vietnam is ready for a very optimistic future in technology investments,” Nguyen added.
“With the combination of DFJ as a renowned international technology investor and VinaCapital as the established local partner, we see this partnership will help building very successful technology enterprises, while at the same time create intrinsic values for the IT industry in Vietnam.”
Tim Draper, founder and managing partner of DFJ, is confident about the potential of the venture investment industry in Vietnam.
“Vietnam is now ripe and ready for venture capital investing. Hence, we at DFJ have decided to pursue the obvious opportunity created by the opening up of this extraordinary and very entrepreneurial country. We definitely look forward to the exciting market in Vietnam and are happy to be part of this growth,” said Draper.
Don Lam, co-founder and managing partner of VinaCapital, added: “We are at a very early stage of a steep technological growth curve in the industry. It is a very exciting time for both Vietnam and us.
“We would certainly look forward to collaboration or co-investments with other funds and partners to serve the technological growth in the country and the fellow entrepreneurs want, together with DFJ VinaCapital, to make a great difference in this country,”
Prior to its official launch, the fund has already made its first investment, worth $2m, in a Yahoo-like internet portal called TimNhanh.com, which maintains various sections, including news, lifestyle, sports, mobile, music, entertainment, real estate, autos, classifieds, men and cafés.
“The fund is evaluating around 20 additional deals for its investments,” Nguyen told Vietnam Investment Review, adding that one deal could amount to between $500,000 to $10m.
Along with this new fund, VinaCapital has already managed two others in Vietnam, namely the $244m Vietnam Opportunity Fund, which is mobilising an extra $100m, and the $205m real estate VinaLand, which is investing in more than 10 projects around the country.




No. 784/October 23-29, 2006