South Korea-headquartered conglomerate Hanwha Group and Vietnam-based financial services firm BIDV have partnered to set up the Vietnam Innovative Startup Accelerator (Viisa), DealStreetAsia reported on Wednesday.
The initiative is also supported by IT company FPT Corporation and investment group Dragon Capital. It will invest in startups from a $4m open-ended fund, providing $15,000 to each company in exchange for a 5% equity stake.
Startups will be able to seek up to an additional $500,000 from the corporates’ networks upon graduation.
The four-month accelerator is expected to launch in March 2017 and will target Vietnam-based startups with the specific aim of helping them expand into Singapore, South Korea and beyond. The first cohort will consist of 10 companies.
Viisa’s mentors include Dragon Capital executives as well as Tran Huu Duc, head of FPT’s investment unit FPT Ventures; Jeffrey Pain, managing partner at Golden Gate Ventures; Hian Goh, partner at NSI Ventures; and Ryu Hirota, principal at IMJ Investment Partners.
Adrian Tan, program director of Viisa, said: “Vietnam is one of the most vibrant ecosystems in Southeast Asia. We believe Viisa plays a decent role in helping accelerate the startups from the idea stage to doing real business, which will boost the entrepreneurship ecosystem here and ultimately create values to a wider society.”