3 Vietnamese startups get funding from Malaysia’s 1337 Ventures

1337 Ventures CEO Bikesh Lakhmichand (2nd to the left) with Alpha Startups Vietnam Batch 1.

Malaysia’s 1337 Ventures announced today it invested in three Vietnamese startups from its pre-accelerator program Alpha Startups, which recently debuted in Ho Chi Minh City.

Each team received US$25k worth of funding and services.

Each of the teams received US$25,000 worth of funding and services, and will immediately undergo the Malaysian VC’s three-month accelerator program to help them hit the ground running and be seed-ready.

The teams include Saloneses, a mobile-first beauty booking service; Perkfec, a platform that allows businesses to track employee achievements and reward them; and Navi, an hourly booking marketplace for space such as meeting rooms and hotels.

The startups were chosen out of 10 teams that were selected to pitch at Alpha Startups’ demo day.

Alpha Startups is a five-day intensive bootcamp, where startups must validate their ideas. In Vietnam, the program saw over 100 applications for the first batch, of which 25 teams were selected for the bootcamp. A second batch will run in Hanoi in September and participants can start applying as early as today via this link.

Apart from Vietnam, 1337 Ventures has introduced Alpha Startups in Malaysia – its home market – then Singapore, the Philippines, and Indonesia. It’s also doing lighter fintech initiatives in Indonesia and Thailand. The VC’s growing network bodes well for its investees because it allows them to find partners and scale in the region.