Are you looking to build Southeast Asia’s next market leading company in Vietnam?

What do we invest in?

The teams we look for:

You’re ambitious but also ready to roll up your sleeves and do it yourself
You’ve convinced others who complement one another and trust each other to join you on your unproven mission
You’re committed to building a strong engineering culture and a team that is disciplined in using data across all areas of the company
You’re pragmatic and you optimize for speed and efficiency rather than perfection

You're early in your journey:

You’re an idea stage founder who has assembled a team with a proven track record and has developed unique insights or capabilities that are hard to find. You’ve gathered data on your potential customers, mapped out the competitive landscape, and designed a product that aims to efficiently validate the business.
You have more than just an idea and have developed technology that will allow you to compete and win against existing market leading companies.
You’ve launched a product and have seen early but strong signs of traction but have yet to find product-market-fit.

The problems you're aiming to solve:

You’re solving a large and existing regional or global problem using software and data
You’ve imagined a large shift in consumer or business behavior and see a growing need for your product
You’re addressing the needs of the large growing Southeast Asia middle class or helping the millions of Southeast Asian SMEs use technology and data in their businesses

How do we invest?

We want to be your first large investor. We can move quickly, take the role of lead investor, and maximize our networks to fill the rest of your round with the best and most effective investors. We invest on fair, understandable terms and ensure transparency every step of the way.

Pre-product market fit

Less than ~$2M raised

Typical investment size of $500k to $2M

How can we help?

The Southeast Asia region continues to mature and there exists sufficient capital across all stages for founders. We were one of the first institutional seed funds in Vietnam and witnessed first hand how the ecosystem has evolved. It is at an inflection point where what it took companies of yesterday to be the regional or global winners of today is insufficient for the winners of tomorrow. Our strong operational experience and our deep networks in Silicon Valley set us apart. Founders choose to partner with us not just for our investment but also for the world class support, networks, and guidance.

We help companies build advantages in three critical areas. While these competencies are formed within the first 18 months of a company’s life, they span the entire life of a company to serve as differentiators in an increasingly competitive world:

People

Great people are the foundation of iconic businesses. What values does the founding team represent? How do you curate, celebrate, and grow this culture? How do you build a recruiting brand that reflects that culture and attracts exceptional talent? How do you unleash that talent while keeping them engaged, aligned and incentivized towards the right objectives?

Growth

Authentic growth creates sustainable value. Which customer segments should you target first? How do you find capital-efficient, repeatable, scalable growth through deeper customer understanding, robust analytics, and effective experimentation? What adjacent markets or game-changing partners can 100X your business?

Capital

Smart, well-timed capital multiplies impact. How can you best articulate your vision to investors? How can you find a clear path for your capital journey? How do you get the right money from the right investors on the right terms at each stage of your business? And, when the time is right, how do you transition your company to the next phase?

Women Led Startups

We believe in the great potential of women entrepreneurs in Vietnam and beyond. However, for different reasons, relying solely on organic deal flow and providing mere financial investment may be insufficient to fully realize that potential. Different structural reasons make it:

Harder for women to start a business
Harder for women-led companies to become a high-growth and high-risk startup rather than small scale and low-risk conventional startup
Harder for women to access the experience, resources, and support they need to take their best shot

We believe a combination of venture-building, investment, and acceleration will improve the quantity and quality of women-led startups. Through our partnership with Investing in Women, we will be providing Technical Assistance and investment to help realize the potential of women entrepreneurs. We are aiming for at least 20% and preferably up to 40% of our initial-invested capital to be into women-owned and/or women-led startups. This is in line with our long standing informal mission to support women entrepreneurs.

SHINE Program

SHINE is an incubation program dedicated to supporting women founders of early-stage startups. Through 12 weeks of training & mentorship, we help women founders overcome the many uncertainties they might face in the beginning of their startup journey and gain the clarity and confidence they need to move their businesses forward.

SHINE’s goal is to help you build compelling narratives that bring people together

Customer narrative: identifying your first 1,000 customers. Select training topics: business model hypotheses, customer empathy, and customer development
Team narrative: strategizing for your next 10 hires. Select training topics: leadership, team culture & values, and strategies to hire & manage teams
Investor narrative: mapping your capital journey. Select training topics: VC vs. non-VC funding paths, fundraising process, and pitching

What women get from SHINE

10x line of sight. Work with top-notch mentors to produce a Startup Playbook that outlines your propositions and strategies for growth, hiring & fundraising
10x founder capability. Improve your essential founder skills via our exclusive ‘founder master classes’
10x support system. Become part of a community built to support you on your startup journey including fellow founders, mentors, investors, and more

ESG

As one of the few leading seed funds that solely operates and focuses on the Vietnam market, we are committed to making impactful and socially responsible investments that contribute to a better future for Vietnam and its future generations. This commitment comes not just from addressing risk and seeking higher returns but also from a sense of obligation borne from family history and personal experience.

Addressing environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors early can be critical in mitigating risks including reputation, regulatory, and financial risk. We consider ESG throughout our entire investment process and measure the social impact of all our investments.

It is not just the right thing to do but also a sound investment strategy. Based on our investment experience, we have observed that our investments that generate positive social impact have also been our best performers.

Our Mission

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