Vietnamese edtechs attract international investor interest
Innovative educational technology companies (edtechs) in Vietnam are increasingly on the radar of international private equity firms as education gets more digitised not only in the country itself, but in the entire Southeast Asian region, partly as a result of Covid-19 lockdowns during the pandemic.
Two edtech startups in Vietnam raised $16 million in funding earlier in September, according to respective company statements.
Online tutoring platform Vuihoc raised $2 million in its latest funding round led by BAce Capital, a venture fund backed by Japanese digital financial services provider Ant Group, with the participation of Singapore’s Vulpes Venture, South Korean venture capital investors DT&Investment and Nextrans, as well as Japanese venture capital firm Colopl Next.
Founded in 2019, Vuihoc is an online platform which provides courses for elementary, middle and high school students and now has over 400,000 learning materials, including online courses, video lessons and quizzes. It hopes to reach one million subscriptions by 2024.
Self-learning platform for English
Meanwhile, English self-learning platform Edupia raised $14 million in a Series A round led by Singapore’s Jungle Ventures and with participation of eWTP Capital, a venture fund under Alibaba and Ant Financial, and Vietnam-based venture capital firm ThinkZone Ventures.
Edupia currently has five million users, including 400,000 paying students.
Tran Duc Hung, who founded the company in 2018, said Edupia is “on track” to exceed its $100 million revenue target in the next three years.
Most of the company’s users are in Vietnam, but it is also expanding into other Southeast Asian markets including Indonesia, Thailand and Myanmar and is adding more subjects, including mathemathics and coding, Hung said.
Edtechs expand into Vietnam
Many foreign edtech firms also plan to expand their operations into Vietnam.
For example, in August, Singapore’s leading online learning platform Geniebook announced plans to enter Vietnam, making the country its second market in Southeast Asia outside Singapore after Indonesia.
According to Geniebook, the expansion comes on the back of a profitable year 2020 when it recorded an annual recurring revenue of $10 million.
Launched in 2017, it is an edtech platform that uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to personalise learning by recommending assessment concepts and questions based on students’ strengths and challenges.
Large education market
Vietnam has a significant market for education, with 16 million students in primary and secondary schools and 1.7 million in universities.
It is one of the fastest growing education markets globally and its value would hit $3 billion next year, Hanoi-based industry researcher EdTech Agency said in a report in July.
Innovative educational technology companies (edtechs) in Vietnam are increasingly on the radar of international private equity firms as education gets more digitised not only in the country itself, but in the entire Southeast Asian region, partly as a result of Covid-19 lockdowns during the pandemic. Two edtech startups in Vietnam raised $16 million in funding earlier in September, according to respective company statements. Online tutoring platform Vuihoc raised $2 million in its latest funding round led by BAce Capital, a venture fund backed by Japanese digital financial services provider Ant Group, with the participation of Singapore’s Vulpes Venture, South Korean...
Innovative educational technology companies (edtechs) in Vietnam are increasingly on the radar of international private equity firms as education gets more digitised not only in the country itself, but in the entire Southeast Asian region, partly as a result of Covid-19 lockdowns during the pandemic.
Two edtech startups in Vietnam raised $16 million in funding earlier in September, according to respective company statements.
Online tutoring platform Vuihoc raised $2 million in its latest funding round led by BAce Capital, a venture fund backed by Japanese digital financial services provider Ant Group, with the participation of Singapore’s Vulpes Venture, South Korean venture capital investors DT&Investment and Nextrans, as well as Japanese venture capital firm Colopl Next.
Founded in 2019, Vuihoc is an online platform which provides courses for elementary, middle and high school students and now has over 400,000 learning materials, including online courses, video lessons and quizzes. It hopes to reach one million subscriptions by 2024.
Self-learning platform for English
Meanwhile, English self-learning platform Edupia raised $14 million in a Series A round led by Singapore’s Jungle Ventures and with participation of eWTP Capital, a venture fund under Alibaba and Ant Financial, and Vietnam-based venture capital firm ThinkZone Ventures.
Edupia currently has five million users, including 400,000 paying students.
Tran Duc Hung, who founded the company in 2018, said Edupia is “on track” to exceed its $100 million revenue target in the next three years.
Most of the company’s users are in Vietnam, but it is also expanding into other Southeast Asian markets including Indonesia, Thailand and Myanmar and is adding more subjects, including mathemathics and coding, Hung said.
Edtechs expand into Vietnam
Many foreign edtech firms also plan to expand their operations into Vietnam.
For example, in August, Singapore’s leading online learning platform Geniebook announced plans to enter Vietnam, making the country its second market in Southeast Asia outside Singapore after Indonesia.
According to Geniebook, the expansion comes on the back of a profitable year 2020 when it recorded an annual recurring revenue of $10 million.
Launched in 2017, it is an edtech platform that uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to personalise learning by recommending assessment concepts and questions based on students’ strengths and challenges.
Large education market
Vietnam has a significant market for education, with 16 million students in primary and secondary schools and 1.7 million in universities.
It is one of the fastest growing education markets globally and its value would hit $3 billion next year, Hanoi-based industry researcher EdTech Agency said in a report in July.
