"Go global " is a phrase that many Vietnamese startups aspire to. For them, it's not only an opportunity to challenge themselves, but also a desire to showcase Vietnam's image to the world.
Looking back, we can be proud that Vietnam has also achieved remarkable feats and conquered demanding markets. The aspiration for a strong and prosperous Vietnam will not remain just a dream.
When talking about the image of Vietnamese digital technology companies venturing into the global market, Rikkeisoft cannot be overlooked.
For a Vietnamese-based technology company like Rikkeisoft to successively conquer demanding markets like Japan and the United States is no easy feat.
Founded in 2012, Rikkeisoft used a small amount of capital, entirely provided by its founders, six young men who were all students at Hanoi University of Science and Technology.
Fortunately, Rikkeisoft's leaders all studied in Japan, so they were able to see the potential for business growth in this market.
Through years of perseverance, hard work, and dedication, Rikkeisoft has gradually won over Japanese customers.
In 2016, four years after its launch in Japan, Rikkeisoft had grown significantly in size, from 100 people to over 1,000.
Starting with mobile application development, Rikkeisoft quickly expanded into new areas, from website systems and cloud storage to large-scale business systems, production management systems, finance, accounting, banking, IoT systems, and more recently, projects using new technologies such as AI and blockchain.
As of December 2022, the company had over 1,600 employees, many of whom were studying and living abroad. Rikkeisoft's growth rate was 1.5 to 2 times per year, with a large customer base primarily in Japan and international markets.
Rikkeisoft also has a technology incubator ecosystem, investing in more than 10 startups in various fields to jointly explore international markets.
Since 2022, Rikkeisoft has established a separate company, Rikkei Digital, to target the digital transformation market. This company specializes in providing digital transformation solutions for businesses. After the Covid-19 pandemic, Rikkei Digital has doubled in size.
Along with continuously expanding its resources, Rikkeisoft will focus on major goals in 2023, including penetrating deeper into the US and Asia-Pacific (APAC) markets.
While Rikkeisoft chose Japan as its pioneering market from the beginning, GotIt is one of the rare Vietnamese startups that launched in the US and achieved resounding success.
Starting as an educational app based on the sharing economy model, GotIt allows users to take photos of what they need answers to, such as lectures or practice questions, and then share them on the platform. They will then receive detailed answers from experts within about 10 minutes.
This seemingly simple model actually requires a great deal of knowledge and skills, both in terms of expertise and management.
Dr. Tran Viet Hung (commonly known as Hung Tran), CEO and founder of GotIt, is a talented young man. He has shared many inspiring stories with the startup community and hopes that his story will motivate young people on their journey to conquer the "American Dream".
He once asserted that what one gains in America is not money, but a change in mindset.
"That made me realize my fatal weaknesses, prompting me to learn and change," CEO Tran Viet Hung shared.
Starting his business in 2011 while still a PhD student in Computer Science at the University of Iowa (USA), after 8 years, Hung Tran's company has offices in 3 countries: Silicon Valley (USA), India, and Vietnam, with approximately 85 employees, many of whom are talented leaders and engineers who have worked in leading global technology corporations.
In 2016, GotIt successfully raised over $9 million in seed and Series A funding rounds. Capricorn Investment Group was a Series A investor, while Brad Bao represented Fosun Group in the seed round. This investor has previously funded groundbreaking ideas such as Tesla, QuantumScape, and Planet Labs.
At that time, the Vietnamese app ranked 5th in the Top 10 educational apps on the US App Store.
As of 2021, GotIt had successfully secured and raised over $20 million from renowned global investment funds.
To date, GotIt is the first company founded by Vietnamese students who studied in the US and stayed to work there, and it is also the company that has gone the furthest.
Unlike the startups mentioned above, Stringee did not choose to start in international markets, but instead built a solid foundation in Vietnam before taking bold steps.
Speaking of Stringee, we are familiar with its Service-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform, which was sponsored by the Ministry of Information and Communications and has won numerous prestigious startup competitions, such as the Vietnam Talent Award and the Sao Khue Award.
According to assessments, Stringee is one of the fastest-growing Vietnamese tech startups. Shortly after its launch, this startup has proven its position and role with very impressive figures.
Specifically, from October 2019 to October 2021, Stringee's monthly recurring revenue (MRR) grew by 1500% while the market remained challenging due to Covid-19. Just under four years after its launch, this startup reached its break-even point and began generating significant profits.
By the end of 2021, Stringee reached 55 million users with 2.5 million minutes of calls made daily on its system. To date, the SaaS startup has over 1000 customers, including Fortune Global 500 companies and many leading businesses in the VNR500 ranking.
In April 2023, a Vietnamese startup announced it had received Series A funding from the DAIWA-SSIAM III Vietnam Growth Investment Fund (DSVGF), co-managed by SSI Fund Management Company Limited (SSIAM) and Daiwa Corporate Investment Co., Ltd (Daiwa Securities Group - Japan).
Prior to DSVGF's involvement, this communication programming platform startup had already received funding from Zone Startups Ventures (Canada) and $2 million in its Pre-series A round, helping the business grow by 400%.
In addition to the domestic market, Stringee is aiming to provide solutions for overseas markets such as the US and India.
"Stringee already has offices and customers in the US and India, and the newly raised capital will also be used to expand business in these two markets," said Nguyen Ba Luan, Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Stringee.
Sharing the secret to this success, co-founder Dau Ngoc Huy said it was the focus on developing the core value of the product.
"We don't diversify into many things or fields; instead, we focus all our resources on developing and creating a product suite that addresses just one business need: 'digitizing communication'," Mr. Huy said.
Stringee chose to go against the trend of many startups by focusing on medium and large enterprises, rather than small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
According to this startup, software that serves large businesses with a large user base (potentially tens of millions of users), complex business problems, and very high demands for stability and security, will also easily serve SMEs.
Indeed, a single decision by Stringee has helped the company reach almost every customer segment in Vietnam, without completely ignoring the SME sector, which makes up the majority of the Vietnamese economy (approximately 98% according to statistics from the Ministry of Information and Communications).
Obtaining certifications from major corporations regarding its effectiveness also gives Stringee a significant advantage. This is especially true when SME clients require strong digital transformation and demand solutions with proven effectiveness; Stringee is fully capable of meeting these needs.
To date, Stringee serves over 1000 corporate clients across various sectors with 55 million end users.
These three startups, with their different directions, in different markets and fields, all share a common aspiration to put Vietnam on the global technology map and prove that Vietnamese people are fully capable of competing intellectually with any nation.
Vietnam can absolutely compete with world powers, and "Made in Vietnam" digital products can conquer the global market. From there, the value of Vietnamese technology will be increasingly enhanced and affirmed.
May 29, 2023
Dantri.com.vn
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