Since the Covid-19 pandemic, the global venture capital market has been in a difficult period. However, Vietnam has maintained investment capital flows for startups from both domestic and foreign sources. This shows the growth potential and attractiveness of Vietnamese startups to international investors.

According to Mr. Pham Hong Quat, Director of the Department of Market Development and Science and Technology Enterprises (Ministry of Science and Technology), in 2024, investment capital for creative startups in many countries will decline more severely than in 2023.

Almost all the world’s startup forums are mentioning the phrase “resilience”, but the startup ecosystem in Vietnam is still developing well. All creative startup centers are developing.

“ Although the ability to call for foreign capital is more difficult, in the first 9 months of 2024, Vietnam still recorded 38 investment deals in startups with a scale of 372 million USD, very high compared to other countries in the ASEAN region, because in most other countries, there are negative or no positive numbers ,” Mr. Quat said.

The Director of the Department of Science and Technology Enterprise and Market Development expects that from now until the end of 2024, the total investment capital for startups in Vietnam can reach nearly the same amount as in 2023 (529 million USD).

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Engineers are building a Made in Vietnam drone model. Photo: NVCC

Statistics from the Ministry of Science and Technology show that by 2024, Vietnam will have more than 4,000 innovative startups, including 2 unicorns, 11 businesses valued at over 100 million USD, more than 1,400 startup support organizations, and 202 co-working spaces.

Vietnam also recorded the presence of 208 investment funds, 35 business promotion organizations, 79 incubators and about 170 universities and colleges with innovative startup activities. Vietnam has formed more than 20 innovative startup centers at local and national levels.

Venture capital in Vietnam is showing a good development trend. This is shown by the index of “number of venture capital deals” improving from 77th in 2022 to 50th in 2024, in the Global Innovation Index published by the World Intellectual Property Organization. Vietnam’s index of “number of deals receiving venture capital” also increased from 54th in 2021 to 44th in 2024.

According to the assessment of the Ministry of Science and Technology, Vietnam's creative startup ecosystem has passed the movement development stage and is entering a new stage, expanding both in scale and depth.

This is the stage where the creative startup ecosystem in Vietnam needs to strengthen its connections both domestically and internationally. This requires Vietnam to adjust and change the roles and positions of the elements in the startup ecosystem.

Vietnam needs to further strengthen the role of the Government in building institutions, especially mechanisms and policies that are appropriate to the characteristics of creative startups. Large domestic corporations and enterprises need to be the ones to present topics and demands, but also investors and users of creative startup results.

Solving the pain of Vietnamese startups: Vietnamese startups are modest and do not match their potential . The Ministry of Science and Technology encourages localities to strengthen regional linkages in developing innovative startup ecosystems to create synergistic resources.