Five start-ups win Grab Ventures Ignite support

Grab Vietnam on Tuesday announced bePOS, Stringee, GoDee, Papaya and Vbee as the five winners of the first Grab Ventures Ignite, an accelerator programme dedicated to Vietnamese early-stage start-ups. — Photo Grab

Launched in July this year, Grab Ventures Ignite has been supporting 13 start-ups by equipping them with practical knowledge and experience for their businesses to thrive in the new normal.

All participating start-ups have had the opportunity to learn how to raise funds and rapidly scale, better market their products and protect their bottom lines as well as to deepen their understanding of Viet Nam’s macroeconomic landscape to emerge even stronger from the COVID-19 crisis. They also got the opportunity to join mentorship with senior leaders of Grab and world-class experts of its programme partners.

Grab Ventures Ignite helps Grab realise its aim to accelerate tech entrepreneurship and grow a thriving tech start-up ecosystem in Viet Nam.

Viet Nam is the first country in Southeast Asia that Grab launched Grab Ventures Ignite, in support of the Government’s national strategy to create 10 technology unicorns by 2030.

The programme is implemented in partnership with Viet Nam National Innovation Centre under Ministry of Planning and Investment, in association with Singapore’s Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), Gobi Partners, Toong, YKVN, Microsoft and Amazon Web Services.

Speaking at the award ceremony, Vu Quoc Huy, Deputy Director of Viet Nam National Innovation Centre, said: “Viet Nam’s technology start-up ecosystem is on the rise and the environment for investment is also very advantageous for tech start-ups to flourish. This is a strong foundation and a motivation for the government and leading tech companies to continue developing Viet Nam's start-up ecosystem."

Nguyen Thai Hai Van, Managing Director of Grab Vietnam said: “Many start-ups have challenges over scaling past the early stage due to difficulties in optimising funds, scaling effectively in a high-growth and dynamic market, pivoting business models to cope with the rapidly changing landscape.

“As Southeast Asia's homegrown tech company that has successfully built a pan-Southeast Asia business, we understand the problem, we know how to scale and we would like to share that with Vietnamese start-ups through Grab Ventures Ignite. Batch one of Grab Ventures Ignite ignites a next chapter for all to dream bigger, innovate better and scale up faster to create an outsized impact on the entire tech start-up ecosystem in Viet Nam.”

Pham Nguyen Bach, CEO of bePOS, one of the five winners, told Viet Nam News the programme offered potential partnership opportunities with winning start-ups.

“It enables us to access and leverage Grab's vast market access, technology capabilities and expertise in Viet Nam to expand our suite of products and services,” he said.

Tran Duy Dong, Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment, said: “Viet Nam targets to create 10 technology unicorns by 2030 and over the years, the Government has been introducing a lot of initiatives to help promising Vietnamese start-ups flourish. But there is an increasing need for better, stronger participation of private companies like Grab to help start-ups develop business opportunities and grow the tech ecosystem in the country.

“When we are entering the new normal and international economies are shifting in a way that benefits Viet Nam, the opportunity is ripe for us to become a tech start-up hub in the Southeast Asia region where we can drastically promote innovation and digitalisation and our star-tups can internationalise their fast-growing business to succeed in the long term.” — VNS