Founder of Ca Men brand passed away at the age of 36

(Dan Tri) - Mr. Nguyen Duc Nhat Thuan once quit his job with a salary of nearly 2,000 USD/month to pursue his passion for his hometown cuisine. Ca Men once appeared on Shark Tank Vietnam, calling for 5 billion VND in investment capital.

On the afternoon of November 2, Mr. Nguyen Duc Nhat Thuan - founder of the "Ca Men" brand - suddenly passed away at the age of 36 (born in 1990) at his home in Ho Chi Minh City.

Ca Men brand has also officially announced on the company's website and fanpage.

Mr. Thuan once gave up his dream job with a salary of nearly 2,000 USD to pursue his passion for his hometown cuisine . In 2015, he founded the Ca Men brand from a small restaurant with Quang Tri flavor in the heart of Ho Chi Minh City, with the desire to "bring Vietnamese food further".

In the following years, Ca Men expanded its operations, officially launching a line of packaged frozen Vietnamese specialties in June 2022.

From 2023, Ca Men will officially export its first order to the US, opening the journey to bring Vietnamese specialties to many countries around the world . Currently, Ca Men products are available in the US, UK, Australia, Canada, Japan, Korea...

Mr. Nguyen Duc Nhat Thuan (second from left) brought the Ca Men brand to the Shark Tank program (Photo: SharkTank).

Ca Men currently provides many regional specialties such as snakehead fish noodle soup, eel vermicelli, turmeric-stirred eel noodle soup, crab noodle soup with spices... Up to now, the company has more than 400 points of sale in supermarket systems and agents nationwide. The enterprise owns a 1,000m2 factory with a production capacity of 200,000-300,000 products per month.

The image of the young and determined founder became more widely known when Mr. Thuan brought Ca Men to Shark Tank Vietnam season 7 (2024). The company wanted to raise 5 billion VND in exchange for 8.3% of shares to increase production, promote research, development and marketing.

Here, Ca Men representative said that revenue in 2023 reached 12.2 billion VND, in 2024 it is expected to reach 24 billion VND and by the time of participating in the program, revenue was recorded at 7.5 billion VND, with a Tet goods contract of nearly 10 billion VND.

Ca Men's products have received many compliments about their taste from investors. Shark Tillman Schulz, although not finalizing the investment, committed to supporting Ca Men in expanding distribution in his partner supermarket chain.

The sudden passing of Nguyen Duc Nhat Thuan is a great loss for Ca Men in particular and the Vietnamese culinary startup community in general.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/kinh-doanh/nha-sang-lap-thuong-hieu-ca-men-qua-doi-o-tuoi-36-20251103080228194.htm