INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Vietnam startup ecosystem is making forward progress
Just a week after 500 Startups& local entity closed a $14 million fund for early-stage investments, one of the country elder statesmen of
startups — educational service Topica — has closed its $50 million Series D.
The round — which is one of the highest to date for a
Vietnamese tech company — comesfrom PE firm Northstar Group
Northstar, which manages some $2 billion in assets, is already linked to Topica via Openspace Ventures, the Singapore-based VC firm that is
already an investor in the startup and counts Northstar among its LPs
(Openspace rebranded from NSI earlier this year, prior to which it was an arm of Northstar.)
Northstar total ownership stake is described as
a minority, but the exact size, and the valuation of the Topica business, hasn&t been revealed.
Topicawas founded a decade ago at a launch
event attended by Bill Gates, and since thenit claims that it has helped more than one million adults through its online education
platform.The business counted Microsoft and Qualcomm among its original sponsors, and today it covers the six largest countries in Southeast
Asia — Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines
It offers a range of different services that include English-language tutoring and university-level courses, but it has expanded to less
traditional disciplines, including a &founders institute& accelerator program and a 3D &technologies& program.
On the higher-education
focus, Topica works with 16 universities to offer bachelordegree qualifications
That program has graduated some6,200 students, the company claimed
Its dropout rate is above 90 percent, according to its data.
Deputy Prime Minister Pham Gia Khiem, Head of Microsoft General Embassy Bill
Gates and other sponsors& launching the program in April 2006 [Image via Topica]More recently, Topica has also opened a marketplace that
includes over 2,000 &short skill courses& to help users learn to master Microsoft Office or video editing, for example.
Topicahas 1,700
staff and 2,000 teaching instructors across offices in Bangkok, Danang, Hanoi, HCMC, Jakarta, Manila and Singapore
There no specific aim for the investment other than to further the company ongoing mission of helping reach more students using digital
mediums.
&We have been blessed to work with great partners like Northstar and our existing investors, who are all enthusiastic about our
vision of investing in the long term to help bring quality education to millions of learners in Southeast Asia and beyond,&Dr
Tuan Pham, Topica chairman and CEO, said in a statement.
Topica employees regularly take part in marathons, Ironman competitions and more
across Southeast Asia
In particular, you can likely expect that Topica will continue to push its business-building initiatives as Southeast
Asia startup ecosystem continues to grow
A recent report co-authored by Google forecast that the digital economy for the region — which houses more than 650 million people —
will triple over the next seven years
Topicaclaims that already it is invested in one-third of the startups in Vietnam that raised seed or Series A funding in 2016, so it seems
entirely logical it&ll work to expand that to other markets.
Google report: Southeast Asia digital economy to triple to $240 billion by
