B2B startup KiotViet lands $6 million from foreign investors

A woman paying at a check-out desk in a Ho Chi Minh City supermarket. Photo by VnExpress/Phuong D. Nguyen.

KiotViet, a store management software provider launched in 2014, offers cloud-based point-of-sale sales management solutions to small and medium-sized enterprises.

The $6 million would be used to accelerate its expansion, especially in remote areas, persify service segments and develop its leadership team, the company said.

Elsa Chandra, Assistant Vice President of Investment at travel booking startup Traveloka, and Grace Yun Xia, principal at Jungle Ventures, will join KiotViet’s management team.

KiotViet provides services to over 70,000 stores around the country.

It has been growing at 250 percent a year since its inception, and enlarged its payroll from 150 to 900 in 2019, said Cao Trong Kim Tri, Deputy General Director of Citigo Software, the company that owns KiotViet.

Jungle Ventures will help with the Vietnamese company’s expansion by advising on business strategy and hiring key personnel. It will also help KiotViet collaborate with more ecosystem players and explore future regional expansion.

"Vietnam is one of the most exciting markets in Southeast Asia to look at right now. Currently, around 66 percent of the country’s relatively young population of over 96 million people are connected to the Internet and we’re seeing an explosion in tech-focused retail areas such as e-commerce," said Yun Xia.

This is also the first time the Singaporean venture capital fund is investing in Vietnam, according to an official Jungle Ventures announcement.

Vietnamese startups raised a total of $899 million in 2018, most of which came to businesses targeting the consumer market such as e-commerce and fintech companies, according to Hanoi-headquartered multinational edu-tech company Topica.