Singapore’s Golden Gate sees bright future in Vietnam start-ups in push for growth in Southeast Asia

Singapore’s Golden Gate Ventures is opening two offices in Vietnam to invest in the country’s emerging tech sector that it predicts will spur Southeast Asia’s next phase of growth.

The Singapore-based venture capital firm is planning to set up posts in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, it said in a statement Monday. Founding partner Vinnie Lauria has moved to Ho Chi Minh City to head operations.

Vietnam, with a population of about 100 million, is attracting venture capitalists as the country’s economy expands and consumers adopt online and mobile services. Vietnam’s start-ups drew a record US$1.4 billion of investment last year and the number of newly established enterprises rose 32 per cent in the first four months of 2022 compared with two years earlier, said Vu Quoc Huy, director of National Innovation Centre, a unit of Vietnam’s Ministry of Planning and Investment.

“We are expecting investments to double in the next three years,” Vu said in Golden Gate’s release.

Founded by Lauria and former Silicon Valley entrepreneurs Jeffrey Paine and Paul Bragiel in 2011, Golden Gate was one of the earliest VC firms to target Southeast Asia’s nascent technology sector. It has since launched four funds and invested in more than 60 companies across the region, according to its website. They include online classified app Carousell, logistics platform Ninja Van and Appota Corp, a Vietnamese mobile gaming platform with more than 55 million users.

The move underscores an influx of capital into the booming Southeast Asian region as investors seek opportunities beyond the US and China. VC firms are targeting the region of about 650 million people where the internet economy is set to double to US$363 billion by 2025, according to a report by Google, Temasek Holdings and Bain & Co.