The co-investors include Pavilion Capital and existing shareholder VinaCapital Ventures, the company said.

Founded in 2017, UrBox is a digital gifting and loyalty platform for enterprises with a network of more than 200 suppliers and 15,000 points of acceptance online and offline.

Its clientele includes more than 500 domestic and international brands in a number of industries.

“The COVID-19 pandemic is a catalyst for digital transformation in Viet Nam, especially in customer acquisition, retention and employees’ rewards among many industry incumbents,” Nam Bui, its co-founder, said.

“We have a track record in providing enterprises with more efficient distribution channels, robust customer management tools and a more effective employee benefit programme enabler.”

This round of funding would enable UrBox to build other innovative solutions for enterprises and optimise end-user experience such as a closed-loop payment eco-system where goods and services from brands are tokenised and offered in bundles/packages or in exchange for other goods and services from other brands, he said.

Khanh Tran, managing partner of Touchstone Partners, said: “With more than 30 times growth in revenues since 2019 despite the pandemic, UrBox has demonstrated it has a strong technical product and business development capabilities to provide long-term value to its enterprise clients. Starting out with an interesting but quite new offering in an emerging market, UrBox has now become a valuable partner to many local and international corporate clients.”

According to Allied Market Research, the global digital gift industry generated $619.25 billion in 2019, and is expected to rise to $1.9 trillion by 2027.

In Viet Nam, key market drivers include digital transformation willingness across the economy and substantial digital spending by GenZ.

Google and Temasek’s ‘e-Conomy SEA 2021’ report forecast the Vietnamese digital gift and lifestyle industry to be worth $2.4 billion by 2024 and the digital retail market, $57 billion by 2025. — VNS