Golden Gate Ventures, a VC fund founded by Silicon Valley natives based in SEA for over a decade, announced the opening of two new offices in Vietnam on 30th May. For the news, the company was joined by the Vietnam NIC, National Innovation Center, and founders of leading startups in the country.
The founding partner of Gold Gate Ventures, Vinnie Lauria, also signed an MoU, Memorandum of Understanding, with the Vietnam NIC to cement a long-term partnership to help the country grow its startup ecosystem and support Vietnamese entrepreneurs. The MoU aims to see the VC firm bring investments into the market, foster exchange, grow innovations and new ideas, and catalyze force to help domestic startups build regional businesses.
Gold Gate Ventures now has offices across Vietnam, Indonesia, and Singapore, mirroring the SEA “Startup Golden Triangle.”
“When Golden Gate Ventures co-hosted the first Vietnam Venture Summit in 2019 to help accelerate the rise of Vietnam’s relevance in the ‘Startup Golden Triangle,’ we began our plans to open offices in Vietnam. Regardless of the pandemic, we were determined to get ground forces and focus our efforts on the grassroots,” said Lauria, who has relocated to Vietnam to open new offices in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi.
“We spent the previous year working around COVID-19 constraints so that my family and I could relocate to Vietnam, learn and appreciate the local culture, and ensure that senior leadership was present on the ground. We are ecstatic to be here,” Lauria added.
Growth Looking Tremendous for the Startup Golden Triangle
Vietnam
Vietnam is on its way to becoming a jewel of the region, joining Singapore and Indonesia, with a record high of 1.4 billion USD in Vietnamese startups in 2021, 1.6 times greater than the previous record of 874 million USD in 2019.
While Vietnam has been on the minds of entrepreneurs and investors for the past decade, the next few years will be crucial due to the convergence of the country’s increasing consumer class, youthful and educated workforce, and post-pandemic increased digital demand.
Singapore
Meanwhile, despite its size, Singapore’s digital economy keeps expanding at a breakneck pace. In 2021, the GMV, gross merchandise value of its internet economy was predicted to be 15 billion USD, up a staggering 35% year-on-year.
E-commerce, e-grocery, and digital banking services have grown by 45% in the last year. With 97% of Internet users also using digital services, its Internet economy is expected to reach 27 billion USD by 2025, with a 16% CAGR.
Indonesia
The third arm of SEA Startup Golden Triangle, Indonesia, saw the pandemic fuelling its digital growth and domestic innovations like never before. Between the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the first half of 2021, Indonesia added 21 million new digital consumers, with 72% of them coming from non-metro areas, indicating rapid penetration in the region’s largest market.
Last year, its digital economy had a GMV of 70 billion USD, up 49% YoY, thanks to a 52% surge in ecommerce. By 2025, there are expectations that the whole digital economy of Indonesia will be worth over 146 billion USD, with a 20% CAGR. Indonesia continues to draw substantial global capital inflows as one of the region’s most vibrant digital services economies, with the e-commerce, fintech, health tech, and edtech segments capturing the spotlight.
