Foody displays big appetite

CyberAgent Ventures’ Vietnam manager Nguyen Manh Dung said he could not disclose the exact amount of investment capital, but said it was less than $500,000 and would be used primarily to facilitate further growth in the website’s users and contents.

Ho Chi Minh City-based Foody Company was set up in June and launched in August as www.foody.vn, an online gourmet searching and user review media in Vietnamese and English. The website has reached over 7,000 restaurants, with over 5,000 reviews.

“CyberAgent Ventures believes that Foody has strong potential to become the leading media in such kind of content in Vietnam and will take advantage of CyberAgent Inc.’s wide network of resources to enhance the company’s growth and value,” Dung said.

This September, Foody acquired Nhahang.com, another online food guide. The Nhahang.com development team had also launched Orderfood.vn a few months before. MJ Group has taken over Orderfood.vn and renamed it Hungry.vn.

Dung added CyberAgent Ventures was targeting online services like Foody, e-commerce, mobile service, online media, online advertising, online games, social networks and online travel.

The fund’s average investment in Vietnam ranges from $200,000 to $1 million and a company could receive more than one investment round, depending on its growth, Dung said.
 

Vietnam was among the favourite investment destinations of companies from Japan, where domestic demand was declining, Hironobu Kitagawa, director of the service industry support division at the Japan External Trade Organization, told Vietnamese firms at a meeting in Ho Chi Minh City.

Japanese firms were also looking to investment opportunities in mergers and acquisitions.

In February this year, Japan’s confectionery maker Ezaki Glico bought 10 per cent of Vietnamese group Kinh Do’s chartered capital to become a strategic holder. Japan's Mizuho Corporate Bank acquired a 15 per cent stake in Vietcombank for $565 million last year.