The things Nguyen Tran Thi does always take a lot of time and the profits are not big. But in the long run, if he does well, he will create "boosts" that will make the market explode.
Businessman Nguyen Tran Thi, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Koina Investment Group.
The times I left home to live alone
Nguyen Tran Thi graduated from Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology, class 52 (2007 - 2012) with a major in Computer Technology. Before founding Giao Hang Nhanh with a group of 7 friends at Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology in 2012, formerly known as F1 Delivery, Thi had worked at Epsilon Mobile and The Gioi Di Dong . However, he did not stay at both companies for more than a year. In 2017, Giao Hang Nhanh changed its name to Scommerce and owned many other subsidiaries and brands such as Giao Hang Nhanh Express, Giao Hang Nhanh Logistics, AhaMove, Gido. After 7 years of ups and downs with Giao Hang Nhanh and bringing the business to a certain peak, in 2019, Nguyen Tran Thi decided to leave. After that, he decided to join One Mount as Chief Operating Officer (COO)."Set any goal and play"
Kiss the Ground - one of the most inspiring documentaries on Netflix that has attracted a lot of viewers. The film tells the story of famous scientists and social activists deciphering the ways in which the Earth's soil can be the key to combating climate change and preserving the planet. This is one of the films that has become a great motivation for Nguyen Tran Thi to jump into agriculture 2 years ago with the Koina Project - a business model specializing in wholesale agricultural products.
“I have watched it three times, and every time I finish watching it, I can’t sleep because there is still so much work to do. This is also one of the reasons why we chose the name Koina (meaning balance) to remind us of the goal of the Koina Project,” Nguyen Tran Thi shared.
Most of the companies that Thi has participated in managing have links related to supply chains and logistics, because he sees his strength in building them. That is the ability to apply technology systems to control chains on a large scale. Or the way to manage people operating synchronously everywhere and closely linking these activities to help businesses not only reduce costs, but also become more efficient. In addition, the supply chain and logistics in the commercial, manufacturing, and retail sectors in Vietnam are quite fragmented and disjointed. In particular, new companies and models find it difficult to create breakthroughs in the market. That is why Thi sees many opportunities in this market.
“When choosing to do something new, I always try to take advantage of the above to continue building other capabilities for different organizations,” Thi said.
Since the beginning of the Koina Project, Thi and his colleagues have carefully chosen each step to enter the agricultural market. In Vietnam, the fruit and vegetable sector that Koina is choosing to work on is a very large market, but it has exposed many problems, such as the use of chemicals that affect the environment, and the repeated need for rescue.
Koina's goal is to make the market operate more efficiently. In which, the main components in the value chain are farmers, traders, state management agencies... need to have the desire to do better to bring common benefits.
From a certain perspective, Vietnamese agriculture has not been “industrialized” yet, because most farmers grow on a small scale, so the imbalance in each locality is not large. However, because the market is unstable, farming is too risky, leading to the abuse of chemicals to achieve large yields, affecting everything.
For Thi, this problem becomes more and more difficult and the goal seems more and more distant. Solving the problem of providing clean, quality food at a reasonable cost for everyone is difficult, but sustainable development is even more difficult, because it must ensure natural balance.
“It is difficult, but at least we still have the strength and the whole team is full of talented, united and competitive people. We can do whatever the goal is,” Thi affirmed.
Thi believes that seizing the right moment was a success. Many factors came together for Thi to start with Koina.
After many years and many painful lessons, at this time, farmers and the majority of actors in the agricultural value chain in Vietnam see the need for change and the need to look at the long term.
Vietnam is a country with many natural conditions suitable for agricultural production and is also receiving investment and support from many countries and organizations. This is an advantage that the founding team of Koina needs to take advantage of. Moreover, the team also has a lot of experience from large organizations and everyone is united and works together with the long-term goal of changing Vietnamese agriculture.
“Whether the upcoming work is successful or not, we still need to work hard, but with the above factors, the initial stage is also more favorable for Koina,” Thi shared.
To win in this market, Koina always finds ways to support two main subjects, farmers and small traders, so that they can operate more effectively and increase their income.
For small traders, retail outlets, and supermarkets, Koina not only provides quality goods at better prices, but also helps them adjust their business to increase customers, increase revenue per customer, and increase income. When the income of the point of sale is stable, Koina's output will be stable to be able to purchase for farmers.
For farmers, Koina not only ensures stable output, but also helps them with farming techniques, access to organic fertilizers, and more efficient farming technologies.
These things take time to implement, but in a short time, Koina has begun to gain the trust of customers and farmers. Currently, on Koina's platform, there are more than 2,500 farmers, more than 1,000 customers who are small traders throughout Ho Chi Minh City.
“I am fortunate to have many talented, experienced, and famous colleagues in many different fields participating in the development of Koina. Each person also sees their own responsibility in wanting to change the pressing problems of Vietnamese agriculture, wanting to join hands to create sustainable values,” Thi shared.
Principles of investor selection
After 2 years working for One Mount Group - a digital transformation project of Vingroup and partner Techcombank , the startup community as well as those who knew Nguyen Tran Thi were surprised when he announced his departure. Koina shows that Thi still loves being an owner rather than an employee.
The Koina.vn project was launched in October 2021. In addition to founder Nguyen Tran Thi, Koina also has a co-founder, Luu Hoang Khoa (formerly Grab's Automation Director in the region, VinID's Operations Director and held many important positions in the banking sector in Vietnam), Mr. Phu Vo (co-founder of The Coffee House chain, Development Director of Vinshop), and many other famous people.
In addition, in 2021, 4 other companies related to the name Koina appeared, attracting strong attention from the startup community and investors. They are Koina Agricultural Ecosystem Joint Stock Company (specializing in scientific research and technology development in the field of agricultural science); Koina Distribution Joint Stock Company (specializing in general wholesale); Koina Logistics Joint Stock Company, Koina Investment Group Joint Stock Company (management consulting activities).
Just six months after its founding, Koina announced that it had received investment from Glife Technology, a portfolio company of Heliconia Capital, a private equity firm under Singapore's Temasek.
In early February 2023, Koina continued to raise $1 million in seed funding from VinaCapital Ventures. The new investment from VinaCapital Ventures helped Koina expand its sales channels, thereby increasing the output it guarantees for farmers. The company also increased investment in technology to control quality and increase the value of Vietnamese agricultural products.
Explaining the choice of investors to accompany, Thi said that from the very beginning, the founders of Koina agreed on the principles for choosing partners to accompany Koina. The whole team understood that doing agriculture sustainably and valuable for many people is a long and difficult road, and it is difficult to bring high profits in a short time, so partners and investors must have a long-term vision.
At the same time, Koina also chooses partners with resources and commitment to accompany and support to go faster, not just financial investment. That could be expanding the market faster, having available resources so that we can build the necessary capacity in a short time.
Before starting Koina, Thi had invested financially in a number of start-ups. However, at the beginning, he focused all his resources on Koina. Over time, he realized that his strengths and interests were still working, building organizations and “fighting” every day for his goals, rather than investing.
As someone who likes to seek challenges, the things Thi chooses to do are often not something many people want to do. They take a lot of time, don’t sound interesting, and the profits are not that great. But in the long run, if done well, they can create many changes, helping the market operate more effectively.
Koina is still like a baby learning to crawl, there are still many things to learn and improve. According to Thi, one of the most important factors he is focusing on for Koina during this period is how to make the whole Company move quickly, but the apparatus must be very streamlined and flexible, able to change to quickly respond to the fluctuations of the times./.
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