Investors with US$1,000 can invest in the realty platform RealStake. — Photo courtesy of the firm

The tech start-up RealStake announced it has closed seed funding from the 500 Startups Vietnam venture capital fund, as well as angel investors in realty, retail and banking industries.

Aiming to digitise and democratise consumer investment in Southeast Asia, RealStake first launched in Viet Nam last year as a realty investment platform where investors with US$1,000 can invest. The platform’s rate of selling a property has increased 200 per cent in less than a year since its launch.

RealStake plans to eventually offer a wide range of sophisticated investment products, such as ETFs, bonds, term deposits, as well as tech-driven, personalised expert financial planning and portfolio optimisation to diversify and maximise returns for each customer’s hard-earned money.

RealStake’s unique value is the use of technology to enable easy, cheap and smart investing as well as access to previously inaccessible financial products for more diversification and better returns.

According to the e-Conomy SEA 2019 report by Google, Bain, and Temasek, digital investment will be the fastest-growing in Southeast Asia’s digital financial service segment, which will increase from $10 billion in 2019 to $75 billion by 2025.

RealStake’s founders are experienced entrepreneurs and investors. Its co-founder & CEO, James Vuong, whose prior company was acquired by LINE Corp while the other co-founder & CFO Calvin Lam has been an entrepreneur and investor in start-ups and local businesses in the US, Singapore, and Viet Nam.

Eddie Thai, General Partner of 500 Startups Vietnam, said: “Financial literacy and digital financial engagement are accelerating rapidly in Viet Nam and the region. The booming middle classes will seek increasingly diverse and sophisticated ways to protect and accumulate wealth. The team of operators and investors behind RealStake have a real shot at unlocking this massive potential.” — VNS