Billionaire Vuong's investment fund seeks ways to unblock capital sources for Vietnamese startups

(Dan Tri) - In the context of increasingly selective venture capital, capital for startups needs to come from banks, credit institutions and more flexible models such as venture loans, fintech...

Startup highlights in Southeast Asia

According to a report conducted by the Department of Startups and Technology Enterprises ( Ministry of Science and Technology ) in collaboration with StartupBlink, Vietnam has moved up one place compared to last year, reaching 55th place in the world and maintaining 5th place in the Southeast Asia region. This is the third consecutive year that Vietnam has risen in rank, affirming its continuous efforts in building and developing an innovation ecosystem.

Notably, Vietnam’s three major startup hubs have made spectacular breakthroughs. Ho Chi Minh City entered the top 5 Southeast Asian startup ecosystems for the first time, reaching 110th place globally – the highest level ever. Hanoi also rose 9 places, reaching 148th place. In particular, Da Nang made a strong impression with a 130-place increase, reaching 766th place, becoming the fastest growing locality in the country.

Not only improving its ranking, Vietnam also scored in many key indicators such as total private investment capital, number of unicorn startups, scale of startup staff, global technology company branch network and number of businesses supported by international programs.

The Vietnamese Government has also been actively issuing many tax incentive policies and creating an open environment to attract foreign investment capital, creating favorable conditions for venture capitalists to participate in the market.

These investors not only provide early-stage financing but also bring international networks and mentoring programs, helping Vietnamese startups expand globally.

Ms. Le Han Tue Lam, CEO of VinVentures Fund under Vingroup, shared on the sidelines of the Venture Forum 2025 High-Level Dialogue: “The market has many positive points when the Government has many moves to support the startup and innovation ecosystem. Issues regarding mechanisms and institutions are considered more quickly than before.”

Ms. Le Han Tue Lam - Executive Director of VinVentures Fund (Photo: BTC).

Need to diversify capital sources for startups

The majority of funding for startups today comes from venture capital funds. However, this source of capital is becoming more difficult to access than before. The Vietnam Innovation and Private Equity 2025 Report published by NIC in April also pointed out this problem.

After the formation period before 2017, the private capital market accelerated strongly, peaking in 2019. Private capital grew rapidly in value and transaction size, peaking in 2019 at $4.8 billion in investment value across 167 transactions.

The Covid-19 pandemic disrupted this growth momentum, causing large PE transactions to slow down while Venture Capital (VCF) investment remained stable. Total VC investment peaked at $1.4 billion in 2021. This period shows investors' long-term confidence in Vietnam amid global uncertainty.

However, by 2024, tightening global investment and valuation adjustments will cause VC-PE investment to decline by 35%, to $2.3 billion in 2024.

Venture capital funding for startups will gradually decrease from 2021 (Source: Vietnam Innovation and Private Equity Investment Report 2025).

In 2024, total venture capital investment fell to $398 million, marking a 24.7% decline from 2023. The number of deals also fell slightly to 118, reflecting investor caution amid global economic uncertainty.

Average deal sizes fell across all funding stages. Series B rounds, which peaked at $26 million in 2021, plummeted to $10 million. Series A rounds also fell to $2 million, the lowest since 2018, while pre-A rounds fell to $0.3 million.

“This source of capital is currently very limited. At the present time when the market is quite difficult, venture capital funds will have stricter regulations and mechanisms. That is why we organize this forum to find other capital channels for startups, the closest of which is banks. However, startups' access to banks is not easy,” said Ms. Tue Lam.

VinVentures representative said that the theme of Venture Forum 2025 is “Redefining Capital” with the aim of opening a space for open and substantive dialogue to promote effective investment capital flows. One of the discussion topics is about venture debt - a capital model that has not yet appeared in Vietnam.

Mr. Vo Xuan Hoai - Deputy Director of the National Innovation Center (NIC) (Photo: BTC).

Mr. Vo Xuan Hoai - Deputy Director of NIC - said that this forum was organized with the desire to open up new perspectives on how to finance, operate and connect capital, not only from investment funds, banks or credit institutions, but also from more flexible models such as venture capital, fintech and cross-industry linkages.

Mr. Hoai emphasized that it is time for all parties to think beyond the old framework to shape a financial ecosystem that is more innovative, comprehensive and adaptable to the increasingly diverse development needs of the startup community.

VinVentures is a technology investment fund sponsored by Billionaire Pham Nhat Vuong and Vingroup Corporation. The total assets under management of the Fund are 150 million USD, of which 100 million USD is the investment portfolio inherited from Vingroup and 50 million USD is expected to be disbursed in the next 3-5 years.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/kinh-doanh/quy-dau-tu-cua-ty-phu-vuong-tim-huong-khoi-thong-nguon-von-cho-startup-viet-20250529162848141.htm