Sapo receives investment while local startups flounder

May 18, 2020 | 18:16

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As local startups have been experiencing a crisis due to COVID-19, Sapo – a startup specialised in providing sales tools – has just received a million-dollar investment from South Korea's Smilegate Investment Fund (SGI) and domestic Teko Ventures Fund.

sapo receives investment while local startups flounder

Sapo is a startup specialised in providing sales tools

The fresh flow of capital will be poured in the payment sector and cushion its financial performance, aiming to turn Sapo into the most used multi-sales channel for businesses in Vietnam and Southeast Asia.

Tran Trong Tuyen, founder and CEO of Sapo, said, “Teko has many advantages in the local market while SGI’s investment network is quite large outside of Vietnam. Furthermore, the foreign fund also has long experience in investment in the sector where Sapo operates. Therefore, their investment will benefit us a great deal. Partnering up with SGI and Teko will help us accelerate the progress and completing our products.”

Sapo (DKT JSC in full) was founded in August 2008 and specialises in providing management platforms and multi-sales channel platforms. In January 2014, Sapo received a large investment from Japan-based Cyberagent – a fund specialised in investing companies working in the internet sector.

As major startups are experiencing hardships due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Sapo getting its hands on additional capital is a surprise.

According to Business Startup Support Centre’s survey on 254 startups across the country, about 50 per cent of them maintain operations at a bare minimum. 23 per cent are lacking opportunities to call for investment and expanding the scale, and 20 per cent cannot maintain operations.

The health crisis has hampered the development of local startups. The total estimated damage to startups during the first four months of this year is about VND152.6 billion ($6.63 million), equaling VND200-500 million ($8,700-21,740) for each startup.

By Van Anh

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