Vietnam Venture Summit 2020 to take place this week

$425 million was committed to provide leverage innovative startups in Vietnam in 2019-2021 at the Vietnam Venture Summit 2019

Vietnam Venture Summit 2020 (VVS) is the annual policy dialogue between international and national venture funds with the government and the startup ecosystem in Vietnam, co-organised by the Ministry of Planning and Investment, Ministry of Science and Technology, and Golden Gate Venture.

Vietnam Venture Summit 2020 has significant meaning to motivate the development of innovative enterprises, finding solutions and opportunities for Vietnam's innovation ecosystem to integrate into the global market. The summit creates opportunities to bridge investors with startups and innovators who have unique and potential ideas. Through the summit, with the support of ministries, departments, sectors, domestic, and foreign experts, Vietnamese innovation enterprises will find directions and reach success in the time to come.

The summit this year is expected to have the attendance of about 800-1,000 delegates, leaders of several ministries and branches, nearly 50 international and domestic speakers, leaders of technology groups, investors, and startups home and abroad, representatives of institutions and universities across the country. Leaders of well-known corporations such as VNG; Grab Vietnam; MoMo; GoJek; VNPay, Tiki, and Sendo, as well as representatives of major investment funds such as Golden Gate Ventures, Softbank Venture, Sequoia, ADB Venture, and Quiming Venture.

Held in the form of live seminars combined with online streaming to overseas investors, the contents are expected to be discussed at the summit include (i) Unicorns and Unicorn hunters: A Startup and Investor Perspective; (ii) Edtech: A Promising Space in Vietnam; (iii) Fintech and Payment in ASEAN; (iv) Logistics in ASEAN.

In the summit framework, there will be activities connecting innovative businesses such as Startup-Pitching and Business-Matching, where potential startups will be connected with more than 100 investment funds to attend the programme and introduce their ideas on the event day. VVS 2020 creates a great opportunity for startups with outstanding ideas that have been selected through a series of competitions in the past to meet and exchange directly with giant investment funds in the region and the globe.

Before the event, there were two online seminars with the topic Reimagining ASEAN’s Emergence from the Pandemic (November 18) and Social Commerce in Vietnam & ASEAN (November 20).

Previously, VVS 2019 attracted more than 130 international investment funds and more than 70 domestic investment funds to attend as well as over 600 startups participating in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, more than 40 supporting startup organisations and business incubators in Vietnam. In terms of connection value, at VVS 2019, 18 domestic and international investment funds committed to investing $425 million in innovative startups in Vietnam in 2019-2021. So far, the amount of investment in Vietnam's innovation startups has reached over 50 per cent of the committed capital, despite experiencing the epidemic in 2020.

Vietnam is a destination for international investors in both FDI and innovative startups. In 2019, investment in innovative startups in Vietnam increased significantly compared to 2018. The potential of Vietnamese innovative startups remains high. Therefore, this is the right time to continue connecting investors, financial funds, and the innovative ecosystem in the region to expand opportunities for cooperation and investment. At the same time, it also affirms the initiative in attracting investment in innovation of the Vietnamese government in the current context.

The Vietnam Venture Summit 2020 is an annual event organised by the National Innovation Center (NIC) in collaboration with Golden Gate Ventures and the participation of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), as well as the US Agency for International Development, Grab Vietnam, Qualcomm Corporation, McKinsey Vietnam, Do Venture, ThinkZone, and Publicis Groupe.