Korean recruitment platform enters Vietnamese market


SaraminHR, a Korean recruitment platform, announced a strategic investment with local firm TopDev on February 17. The deal’s value was not disclosed, but some insiders thought it could be worth seven figures.

CEO of Saramin, Kim Yong Hwan (left) and TopDev CEO Nguyen Huu Binh at the signing ceremony. — Photo courtesy of TopDev

SaraminHR, a Korean recruitment platform, announced a strategic investment with local firm TopDev on February 17. The deal’s value was not disclosed, but some insiders thought it could be worth seven figures.

CEO of Saramin, Kim Yong Hwan, said: "The investment in Viet Nam is the first step of the firm to expand around the world."

Nguyen Huu Binh, founder and CEO of TopDev, said the KOSDAQ-listed firm will contribute to the company's development strategy in the near future.

Mentioning the reason for the Korean partner’s investment, Binh said: “TopDev is a recruiting platform specialised in the IT field, with 300,000 developer profiles and 5,000 regular customers who are technology companies in Viet Nam and around the region.”

Viet Nam's IT industry has strong development momentum, resulting in a sudden increase in demand for human resources in the start-up community.

According to a TopDev report, the demand for human resources has increased 1.5 times per year, along with the participation of companies in the region coming to Viet Nam to find employees, which has caused a serious shortage of IT personnel in the country.

Viet Nam currently has from 350,000 to 400,000 programmers, but only 20 per cent are active in seeking opportunities on online job sites. At the same time, Viet Nam faced a shortage of 70,000 to 90,000 developers in 2019, the TopDev report said.

The local demand for IT jobs next year is estimated at 500,000, meaning a shortage of up to 190,000.

Binh hoped the capital and experience gained from the leading recruitment platform in Korea will help solve the supply-demand issues for IT human resources, discovering and nurturing Vietnamese talents and developing and expanding to Southeast Asia.

In 2013, en-Japan, an online job service provider in Japan, invested in Navigos Group, which operates the two largest job websites in Viet Nam – VietnamWorks and Navigos Search. — VNS

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