Representatives of Luxstay, the Vietnamese homestay booking start-up, said the total capital raised could rise to $5 million as negotiations are still ongoing with interested investment funds. CyberAgent Ventures (CAV), a Japan based investment firm specializing in incubation and investment in early-stage companies, played a leading role in directing the structure and execution of this funding round, the third for the firm after the seed and pre- Series A rounds. This is also the second time the firm has injected capital in Luxstay, after its initial investment in the company’s pre-Series A round in early 2018. Dzung Nguyen, CyberAgent managing director for Vietnam and Thailand, believes that the "sharing economy" is a development trend in many business areas, and it will impact both tourism and real estate markets. "We believe the Luxstay model capitalises on this trend, and will create a major impact on the market in the coming time," he said. According to Luxstay, there … [Read more...] about Vietnamese Airbnb startup raises $3 mln from venture capitalists
Startups raising capital
AI-powered travel startup raised $1.2 million
The Seed investment was led by Singapore-based venture capital firm SeedPlus, along with a leading, travel-focused venture capital firm based in the US. Several industry veterans including Dan Lynn and Vikram Malhi (ex-Expedia senior business leaders and founders of Zuzu Hospitality Solutions), David Ko (President & COO of Rally Health), and Jarrod Howe (Regional Operations Director at Hyper Island Singapore) were also part of this round of funding. Travelstop has raised $1.2 million from leading investors in Singapore and the U.S. Travelstop is a modern AI-powered software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform aimed at simplifying business travel for corporates in Asia. It provides easy to use tools that simplifies the business travel booking process, while automating expense reporting and providing meaningful insights to business owners. "Travelstop is led by an experienced team of founders who have significant experience in solving complex consumer problems." says Michael Smith … [Read more...] about AI-powered travel startup raised $1.2 million
VN’s technology startup raises $860,000 from investment funds
JAMJA is a platform for discount discovery on restaurants, fashion and beauty products. — Photo courtesy of JAMJAViet Nam News HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese technology startup JAMJA Joint Stock Company has raised VNĐ20 billion (US$858,369) from international investment funds in the pre-Series A round. Four investment funds from the Republic of Korea and Japan participated in this round, namely Korean KB Investment, Nextrans, Bon Angels and Japanese information technology corporation Framgia. JAMJA is a platform for discount discovery on restaurants, fashion and beauty products. The company also received investment from Foody.vn and homegrown venture capital firm ESP Capital in 2016 and 2017. According to JAMJA’s general director Lê Hùng Việt, this success will help JAMJA focus on investing in product development, vertical integration, market expansion and customer growth. Explaining why they invested in JAMJA, Taihei … [Read more...] about VN’s technology startup raises $860,000 from investment funds
Startups raise huge capital from foreign investors
VietNamNet Bridge - Many technology startups have received funds worth tens of billions of dong after their first calls for capital. In early 2016, Standard Chartered Private Equity and Goldman Sachs poured $28 million into M-Service, which owns the e-wallet MoMo. MoMo is the leading e-wallet service provider in Vietnam, with more than 100 services and 1 million users. With huge investment capital, M-Service can push up the development of MoMo by providing new services and strengthening the connection with banks. In March 2015, Coc Coc, a startup founded by three Vietnamese software programmers, received an investment worth $14 million from German Hubert Burda and Hubert Burda’s senior managers as individual investors. The rapid increase in the number of users and the high quality of the search engine and web browser were factors that attracted foreign investors. Just several months later, Coc Coc succeeded in adding tools useful for Vietnamese documents. This … [Read more...] about Startups raise huge capital from foreign investors
VN hotel startup raises $3m
HCM CITY - Vietnamese online hotel booking start-up vntrip.vn yesterday said it got US$3 million from a group of foreign investors led by Fenghe Group and Hancock Revocable Trust. The company told Việt Nam News this is the largest investment by foreign investors in a series A round - financing a startup in the growth stage - in a Vietnamese online startup. The funding comes less than six months since the website www.vntrip.vn was launched, it added. The website provides Vietnamese consumers a localised platform to make international hotel bookings by tying up with global leaders like Booking.com and YieldPlanet. It connects to 6,000 hotels in Việt Nam and 900,000 in the world. FengHe Group is led by John Wu who began his career in Silicon Valley in the late 1980's and most notably was an angel investor and CTO of Alibaba. Scott Hancock has more than 20 years private-equity and early stage investing experience while holding senior positions at Oak Hill Capital, Continuity … [Read more...] about VN hotel startup raises $3m