Many technology startups successfully raise capital

Not depending on banks or domestic lending policies, many young entrepreneurs have proactively contacted and sought foreign capital to develop their businesses.

Ninety Eight representative shared at the Ho Chi Minh City Technology Festival - Conviction 2025 taking place in August 2025 - Photo: DUC THIEN

In July 2025, AI Hay - a knowledge search and research platform based on artificial intelligence (AI) - announced the completion of a Series A funding round worth 10 million USD, bringing the total capital mobilized to more than 18 million USD.

This round of funding was led by Argor Capital, with continued participation from existing investors Square Peg, Northstar Ventures, Appworks and Phoenix Holdings, all international funds.

Raising capital: success and pressure

Funding in the context of a volatile global economic situation can be considered a success for start-ups in Vietnam. However, to get the million-dollar capital announcements, young entrepreneurs have experienced many difficulties in finding investors.

Sharing with Tuoi Tre, Tran Quang Duc - CEO of start-up AI Hay - said that when we started our fundraising journey, we were encouraged by many friends that the world situation was getting better and AI was a "hot" industry with strong cash flow.

But this is actually only happening in countries outside of Southeast Asia, because the venture capital scene in the region is still quite skeptical about new technology industries.

"What needs to happen for a company to become a tech unicorn in five years? And how can AI Hay achieve that in just 2.5 years?", Duc recounted the challenging question from the investor at the first meeting.

"At first the question sounded too ambitious, especially for a Southeast Asian start-up, but it made us realize: In the new era of AI technology, global growth is skyrocketing. Leading AI companies can become unicorns within 1-2 years," Duc shared.

As a founding team, Duc and the founding team believe that they have to think bigger, further and deeper about how to build sustainable growth while keeping up with the world's rhythm. This pushes the AI ​​Hay team to learn new strategies, step out of their comfort zone and constantly challenge their own limits. "Ultimately, that spirit contributed to the fundraising success," Duc confided.

Meanwhile, co-founder and CEO of start-up Filum.ai Tran Van Vien is more emotional in his stories of seeking funding. "I'm not a good pitcher. I choose to share sincerely," Vien confided to Tuoi Tre.

But thanks to his sincerity, a Korean investor decided to invest right from the first meeting with Vien and the Filum team. According to this CEO, investors often look at people before looking at the business model or financial indicators.

Therefore, the sincerity and clarity of the entrepreneur is one of the very important factors when calling for capital. Previously in March 2025, Filum.ai received 1 million USD from investment funds Nextrans, VinVentures, TheVentures and some individuals.

This startup was founded in 2020, is a customer experience management platform based on AI application. For many people, raising capital is a success, but for Tran Van Vien, raising capital is just an advance of investor confidence. Receiving capital means greater pressure and responsibility.

"If you don't create a product with real value, your reputation will be lost immediately. True success is when the product helps customers succeed. And my team can live comfortably and happily thanks to this work," Vien said.

Perfecting the product to raise capital

Talking to Tuoi Tre, Nguyen The Vinh - co-founder and CEO of blockchain ecosystem Ninety Eight - said that after spending a lot of time carefully analyzing Solana's technology (an independent blockchain platform, similar to Ethereum) before deciding to participate, not only by buying tokens but also providing comprehensive support for the ecosystem from the very beginning.

"Coin98 Super Wallet is the first wallet to write a mobile library for Solana, paving the way for a more user-friendly experience. At that time, Solana wallet was extremely difficult to use, requiring users to have deep technical intervention. Ninety Eight proactively optimized the entire user interface (UX), upgrading the experience so that the community could access Solana more easily," Vinh recounted.

The Vietnamese startup’s contribution quickly attracted the attention of Sam Bankman-Fried, FTX and Alameda Research, all of whom are major international investors pouring capital into the Solana platform.

"Thanks to that active support, Alameda proactively contacted and offered to invest in Ninety Eight. This is the first investment cooperation between Alameda and Ninety Eight, paving the way for a series of other large funds to participate in the project's development journey," the 9X guy proudly shared.

Specifically, in April 2021, this start-up completed its first round of funding, receiving $4 million from the Alameda Research investment fund (USA). This was followed by a $1.25 million funding round with the participation of major funds in the world such as Parafi Capital, Multicoin Capital, Hashed...

For the third time, Coin98 Finance announced the completion of a strategic funding round totaling 11.25 million USD, led by Hashed and Spartan Group. In total, the Vietnamese start-up has received an investment of up to 16.5 million USD from many funds around the world.

Despite continuously receiving millions of dollars in capital, CEO Ninety Eight still believes that raising capital is always a big challenge for every start-up, especially in the context of a volatile world economic situation.

"Convincing investment funds, especially during an economic downturn, is still a journey that requires a clear vision, real products and a capable team to gain investors' trust," Vinh said.

According to this young man, the goal of fundraising is not to get money. "What Ninety Eight needs more is the power of large investment funds, organizations that can support, assist with strategies and spread the brand to the international market. Fundraising is a way to find the companionship of funds with the same vision, not simply exchanging money for tokens," Vinh shared.

The Vietnamese start-up co-founder also "revealed" that in the Web3 world, most founders and product builders (Web3 native) often do not think about borrowing from banks or seeking capital from traditional financial channels.

"The underlying cause is that the traditional financial system is too complicated, requires a lot of procedures and is not really favorable for decentralized technology projects, where speed and flexibility are vital factors," Vinh said.

Start-ups, whether big or small, play a very important role in the country's development.

"As an AI start-up, we are deeply aware of our role: bringing real value to Vietnamese users and businesses by promoting community and economic growth through synthesizing, analyzing and storing knowledge with the most advanced AI technology," said Tran Quang Duc, CEO of AI Hay.

According to Quang Duc, the biggest responsibility of AI startups is to accompany the country, build suitable, high-quality AI products and bring optimal benefits to more than 100 million Vietnamese people. Meanwhile, Nguyen The Vinh - co-founder and CEO of Ninety Eight - said that the role and responsibility of the Ninety Eight team towards the Vietnamese economy has been clearly defined.

The main motivation comes from the desire to contribute maximum value to the country, through: establishing a company in Vietnam, signing contracts and recruiting 100% Vietnamese staff, strictly complying with tax obligations and social benefits.

"This is not only a legal commitment but also a demonstration of social and economic responsibility, helping the Ninety Eight team make practical contributions to the development of the domestic economy," Vinh said.

VIRTUE

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/nhieu-start-up-cong-nghe-goi-von-thanh-cong-20251013223544103.htm