VinaCapital Ventures invests in cross-border e-commerce experience Dutycast

VinaCapital Ventures, the technology investment platform of VinaCapital Group, on September 27 announced that it has taken a stake in Dutycast, the creator of a tool that eases the cross-border e-commerce experience for shoppers by providing transparency around final prices, duties, taxes, and related logistics expenses. Details of the investment were not disclosed.

Dutycast is a browser/app value-added extension that enables customers to purchase goods from selected global e-commerce sites and marketplaces

In some countries, cross-border shopping can come with hidden surprises around foreign exchange rates, customs duties, and local taxes, as well as shipping and other logistics fees (for example creating and handling fees, insurance), making the online shopping experience unexpectedly expensive than planned and creating significant challenges for consumers.

Dutycast eliminates those surprises as well as other common hindrances such as language and payment methods. This innovative transaction processing tool provides users with a secure and transparent, end-to-end international shopping experience. They can shop multiple stores in different countries and checkout once, paying in their local currency via trusted payment methods and without the worry of FX fluctuations.

According to Hoang Duc Trung, partner of VinaCapital Ventures, e-commerce in Vietnam is rapidly growing, especially as a result of the pandemic.

“Anyone living here or in other countries knows how difficult and sometimes frustrating it can be to order from online retailers based overseas. Dutycast provides a very simple solution to that. It is a tool that will be very valuable and useful, not just in Vietnam but potentially in many countries in the region and around the world where online shopping is not as easy as it should be. We look forward to assisting the founders on scaling up and realising the full potential of their business,” said Trung.

The global cross-border e-commerce market was valued at $994 billion in 2020 and is expected to reach over $2 trillion by 2026, expanding at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17.4 per cent.

In Vietnam, e-commerce was valued at nearly $12 billion, or 5.5 per cent of all retail sales in the country, according to a report from the Ministry of Industry and Trade's Department of E-commerce and Digital Economy.

Vietnam ranks as one of the world’s fastest-growing e-commerce markets, testament to a young, digitally savvy population and a rapidly expanding middle class.

Dutycast was founded in 2020 to connect local shoppers with international e-commerce sites such as Amazon, iHerb, Sephora, and Ulta Beauty, with many more online retailers coming soon.