Ms. Hoang Thi Kim Dung, Country Director of Genesia Ventures Vietnam: Building endurance to run a marathon with venture capital
For Ms. Hoang Thi Kim Dung, Country Director of Genesia Venture in Vietnam, the journey of becoming a venture capitalist is a marathon that requires strength, perseverance and long-term vision.
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| Ms. Hoang Thi Kim Dung, Country Director of Genesia Ventures Vietnam |
1.
Mr. Thong Le Anh Tuan, Founder and CEO of Selly (a start-up operating on the model of e-commerce using community interaction applications) called the founders of the "Genesia Ventures" start-ups excellent seniors. Most of these start-ups overcame the difficult year of 2023 with positive cash flow, profits, and good growth. Buymed alone, with an investment round of more than 50 million USD, has shouldered the majority of venture capital flowing into Vietnam in the past year.
For the founder of Selly - also a start-up under the "Genesia Ventures family", if any start-up wants to find a good, dedicated and long-term visionary investor to accompany and develop sustainably, Genesia Ventures Vietnam is the optimal choice. "Thanks to the investment portfolio with good performance, in 2024, this venture capital fund will still actively invest in the Vietnamese market", Mr. Tuan shared.
Ms. Hoang Thi Kim Dung, Country Director of Genesia Venture Vietnam, admitted that the Vietnamese startup community has gone through many emotions in 2023. As a venture capitalist who has been with them for nearly a decade, Ms. Dung shares the same "pain" when witnessing the "wave of decline". That is, the decrease in total demand due to tightening customer spending, making it difficult for startups to achieve important financial targets and business milestones, or to achieve them requires more time and resources.
Investors becoming more cautious with new investments has led to a decrease in both the number of investment deals and the amount of investment disbursed into startups, not only in Vietnam, but also on a global scale.
The above two issues have caused startups to focus on building internal strength to solve the problem of “survival” over the past year. But looking to the near future, Ms. Dung believes that the challenges startups have faced in the past are the premise for important changes in 2024 and the coming years.
Start-ups need to operate with a more efficient and sustainable business model. Accordingly, instead of focusing on growth, they focus on customer retention, business performance, and capital efficiency. “These are the most important indicators besides the profit index, showing the strong internal strength for start-ups to survive and break through in the upcoming period,” Ms. Dung shared.
By doing these important things, startups can create truly meaningful exit opportunities for investors. That important push creates momentum for the Vietnamese startup community to move to new heights, increasing the confidence and optimism of both founders and investors in the true potential of the Vietnamese startup ecosystem.
2.
Ms. Hoang Thi Kim Dung received the news of her appointment as Country Director of Genesia Ventures Vietnam in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic. In her new position, in order to help Genesia Ventures Vietnam achieve its long-term goals, she determined that she must prioritize focusing on the most important things. That is, planning and implementing the Fund's development strategy through building core values, teams and key advantages to be able to successfully deploy investment activities in Vietnam.
Genesia Ventures Vietnam is directly leading investment and supporting more than 10 startups in Vietnam, with names such as eDortor, BuyMed, Vietcetera, Fundiin, Selly, M Village, Rootopia, Wareflex… Currently, Ms. Dung cannot answer the question of which is the most promising investment, because venture capital has many variables. “I hope to be able to confidently answer everyone in the next 3 years,” she said.
If Vietnam does not have many successful people with startups, then not many people believe in startups, no one dares to embark on startups to create more jobs and innovative products and services. 
When deciding to pursue a career in venture capital, Ms. Dung had a consistent goal of supporting as many founders as possible to achieve success. Success depends on each person's definition, but from the perspective of a startup investor, she believes that success in startups lies in building businesses with high growth potential, the ability to scale, grow continuously and sustainably, creating a large and positive impact on the market. Finally, creating meaningful exit opportunities, bringing profits to all shareholders.
Entrepreneurial spirit is an important driving force for national development. To nurture the entrepreneurial spirit, we need many truly successful entrepreneurs. Meanwhile, the road to success is fraught with difficulties for founders. Understanding that, Ms. Dung wants to connect resources, from finance, human resources, information, partners, etc. to support them.
The mentality of resignation is pervasive in every corner of life, but as an optimistic, alert, and disciplined person, Ms. Dung finds the principles in building strong inner strength for each individual and start-up. First is vision - something that many people find unrealistic and theoretical, but it is the foundation for building the inner strength of any individual and organization.
Why do you and your startup exist? What is the real driving force that makes you and your team wake up early every day and work late at night? What makes you always want to achieve no matter how many difficulties are right in front of you? By answering these questions, founders will clearly see the vision, thereby shaping their own direction.
Next is to connect your vision and goals to the important people around you. This vision helps each person have the greatest motivation to overcome difficulties, even temptations throughout the journey towards the goal.
Once a vision is defined, the discipline to pursue it consistently is required. From individuals to start-ups, disciplined people, disciplined thinking, and disciplined action are needed. This is an important driving force to create a “flywheel” effect that will help the company break through. It may take years of persistence to get the “flywheel” running, but once the “flywheel” is spinning and accelerating, the company can sustain breakthrough performance for a long time.
3.
The venture capital profession is highly competitive and selective. In a quality start-up ecosystem, venture capitalists are not the ones who choose the start-ups, but are in a position to give the best founders of the most potential start-ups the opportunity to participate in investment. To do that, venture capitalists must have certain advantages.
On the other hand, venture capital is a profession that must be "durable", at least needing to go through most of the development life cycle of a start-up, the life cycle of a small fund within the fund to know whether the investment is successful and brings profit to the investment partner or not.
Mr. Soichi Tajima, founder of Genesia Ventures in Japan, became an inspiration in Ms. Dung’s “enduring” journey with the venture capital profession. He has “enduring” in this profession for 17 years, building his first venture capital fund in 2006, currently has a total of 29 invested companies, of which 9 companies have IPO (a rate of more than 30%).
Talking with Mr. Soichi Tajima, Ms. Dung realized that he is a person with clear ideals, passion and great vision for the venture capital profession. He is always willing to go all out, accompanying the start-ups he invests in even in the most difficult times. He talks frankly with the founders so that both sides can maintain a relationship of trust and long-term companionship.
Ms. Dung believes that a big vision, clear goals, and a spirit of dedication to accompany startups are the most important factors in building a venture capital career. “If Vietnam does not have many people who are successful with startups, who are true examples of success, then not many people will believe in startups, no one will dare to embark on startups, to create many jobs and innovative products and services,” Ms. Dung confided.
- Born in Hanoi , working in Ho Chi Minh City.
- After graduating as valedictorian of the Faculty of Foreign Economics (Japanese), Foreign Trade University, she received a full MEXT scholarship for undergraduate level from the Japanese Government to study abroad from 2012 at the Faculty of Economics, Osaka University.
- After graduating from university, she joined IBM Japan as a Sales Representative with clients being large financial institutions in Japan.
- At IBM, within the framework of the IBM Blue Hub program, she was involved in supporting start-ups using IBM's ecosystem and technology solutions.
- In April 2019, she joined the Genesia Ventures Investment Fund in Tokyo (Japan). 5 months later, she returned to Vietnam to open the Fund's first representative office in Ho Chi Minh City.
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