VIISA Graduated Batch 4 of Its Accelerator Program at the 4th VIISA Investment Day
HO CHI MINH CITY,Vietnam,Dec. 10,2018 -- On December 4,2018,VIISA announced that three startups havegraduated from Batch 4 of its Accelerator Program on the 4thVIISA Investment Day held at the Renaissance Riverside Hotel in Ho Chi Minh City.
The VIISA Investment Day featured five impressive startups from VIISA's portfolio coming from various industries,including cybersecurity,facial recognition,location intelligence platform,smart apartment ecosystem,and online ed-tech platform. More than 100 honorable guests,including investors,mentors,corporate leaders,and startup community figures attended the event.
The startups in VIISA Accelerator Program Batch 4 are SecurityBox,GOONG and PhyPass. By joining theVIISA Accelerator Progam,they receivedan investment of US$15,000 in cash and an undisclosed amount of in-kind services,such as co-working space,Amazon Web Services,HubSpot,Google Cloud,Mapbox,Zendesk,etc. The founders also underwent intensive training,from acquiring early customers to avoiding problems such as no market needs or product-mistimed to talking to investors,closing business and investment deals,as well asdeveloping scalable business models. They came on stageduring theVIISA Investment Day,presenting a real business with real customers that isrecording over US$200K in revenue growth and strong interests from top-tier investors in less than 3 months.
Long Nghiem,Founder and COO of GOONG,shared at theInvestment Day: "Before participating in theVIISA Accelerator Program,we focused on B2C (business-to-customer) model,but we could not find the monetization plan. We thought about changing ourmodel to B2B (business-to-business). However,we could not find customers. Joining the VIISA Accelerator Program wasa turning point to us,not only because we haveVIISA as a strategic partner,but also the network of partners that VIISA introduced to us. This hashelped us a lot in clearing the direction ahead and improving ourproduct-market fit!"
Looking at the future,Mr. Hieu Vo,CFO of VIISA,shared at theInvestment Day: "VIISA's Batch 4 has been most challenging yet exciting so far. We enjoyed various types of great-to-have 'issues' on both fronts working with the founders and closing further investments for the alumni. Most importantly,VIISA Accelerator Program doesn't end on theInvestment Day,but continue to support our founders for the life of their ventures and beyond. Having two full years in existence,the founding shareholders are convinced with the impacts we have created for the ecosystem. We are optimistic about the future batches to come,starting with VIISA Fintech Lab in early 2019."
CyHome and Ella Study - 2 startups graduated from VIISA Accelerator Program Batch 2 - was also pitching at the event,as the epitome of VIISA startups' development post-program. CyHome has a great period when the number of customers doubled compared to last year (with 42 apartmentshosting more than 18,000 residences); more than 10 business partners with various services such as payment,service,goods,etc.,adding great values to customers. Ella Study developed relationships with more than 50 partners worldwide,attracting over 2,800 alumni on its platform. In 2018,Ella has reached 400 students with new services covering students' overseas study needs: full consultation package until graduation,pick-up on arrival and study-tutor abroad.
Inthe Investment Day closing speech,Mr. Tran Huu Duc,CEO of VIISA and Head of FPT Ventures,officially called for startups to participate in Batch 5 of VIISA's Accelerator Program. Intersted startups can register on VIISA's website atwww.viisa.vn starting December 10,2018. VIISA Accelerator Program Batch 5 is scheduled to begin in the first quarter of 2019.
5 startups thathavepresented at theInvestment Day include:
SecurityBox: Supports Enterprises Organizations to have an overview of the cybersecurity problems,then offer optimal solutions to overcome all risks and problems.
GOONG: A mobile map platform,Goong helps users to quickly reach places,facilitates the process of going out with friends as well as keeping track of loved ones.
PhyPass: Human Recognition and Behavior Understanding for the Physical World using AI
Ella Study: Online Platform connecting students and Alumni for consultation to make global study simpler
CyHome: CyHome is a smart apartment ecosystem that aims to change the way people live by developing e-solutions for apartment and building management.
About VIISA
Founded by FPT Ventures and Dragon Capital,VIISA is an accelerator program and seed-stage fund that seeks to invest $6 million to build global-ready startups in Vietnam. VIISA believes entrepreneurs can take advantage of opportunities and change the world starting from Vietnam. In the first two years,VIISA has accelerated and invested into 25 startups,which have created more than 350 jobs and raised a total committed US$5 million from other investors.
CONTACT PERSON
Long "Leo" PHAM
Program Manager,VIISA
leo@viisa.vn
+84-969-111-472
