Venturra Discovery Provides Funding Again for Vietnamese Startups

Lippo Group's affiliated venture capital unit, Venturra Discovery, has again provided funding for startups in Vietnam. This time they are involved in initial funding to platform developers EdTech local Marathon Education. The initial $1,5 million round was led by Forge Ventures (a fund managed by Alto Partners), backed by iSeed SEA.

Founded 6 weeks ago, Marathon Education provides a course learning channel (after-school education) for students in grades 6 to 12. Currently the focus is still on mathematics and science, following the curriculum standards of the ministry of education there.

Previously in June 2021, Venturra Discovery too involved in Infina investasi investment, an investment application development startup from Vietnam. And also startups social commerce there named Mio in May 2021.

"Our mission from the start was empowering entrepreneurs in Southeast Asia. And now is the right time for us to aggressively invest in Vietnam and also in Indonesia. Until the next 2-3 years, we still have enough fund to invest," explained Partner Venturra Discovery Raditya Pramana in a joint interview DailySocial.id.

He also said that this year his company has a target to invest in 10 startups in Vietnam and Indonesia. In Vietnam, Venturra also has a team tasked with exploring and exploring investments.

Actually, apart from those two countries, Venturra Discovery has also enter the Philippines market. Earlier this year they were involved in funding Podcast Network Asia.

Ecosystems in Vietnam

According to the Global annual report Startup Ecosystem Report (GSER) published by Startup Genome, Jakarta ranks second out of 100 cities worldwide on the list emerging startup ecosystem. Jakarta ranks highest compared to other neighboring countries in Southeast Asia, such as Kuala Lumpur (11), Manila (31-40), Bangkok (51-60), and Ho Chi Minh City (71-80).

Although it is still below several other cities, the ecosystem in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam is observed to continue to increase in terms of economic value performance, funding, and talent related to digital startups. To capture the momentum, a number of venture capitalists have also been there, including East Ventures and Patamar Capital.

The digital market share that is starting to take shape has also encouraged other startups in Southeast Asia to enter there, including from Indonesia, namely Gojek, Traveloka, and Ruangguru.

Meanwhile according to reports e-Conomy SEA 2020, GMV produced by the Vietnamese market ranks 3rd after Indonesia and Thailand. By 2020 the value of GMV generated from local digital ecosystems has reached $14 billion and is projected to grow to $52 billion by 2025.

Sector E-commerce make the biggest contribution, followed online media, travel, and transportation. Investments into startups also continue to grow, even very rapidly in the period of 2019 and 2020. Previously in 2018, the investment value was recorded at $351, then the following year it more than doubled to reach $2 billion.