VeXeRe, Vietnam’s bus ticketing platform, books series A funding from CyberAgent Ventures

If you’ve ever been to Vietnam during the Lunar New Year, you’d know that major cities like Ho Chi Minh city and Ha Noi empty out completely. They turn into deserted ghost towns. And that’s mainly because every year there’s a massive wave of Vietnamese people who migrated from the cities back to their rural hometowns. The streets are empty. The restaurants are all closed. It’s literally the best time to drive a motorbike in Vietnam.

In the midst of these familial festivities, new economics are at work. In order for the cities to empty out like this, millions of people book buses to get home to see their families. And since there’s this ongoing rush to book, it’s a logistical nightmare. People book on the phone, or worse, in person. They book private buses, and they have to pick from the most common bus brands or settle for the newer brands. The logistics are a big bottleneck. VeXeRe tackles this problem by letting people book online.

Since July 2013, VeXeRe (meaning “cheap bus tickets”) has worked closely with bus operators to plug their software directly into their systems so that customers (on select bus lines) can directly book the seat that they want.

Last year, VeXeRe received a small seed fund round from Japanese VC CyberAgent Ventures. Now, it has raised a series A round from the same investor. Here’s what Dzung Nguyen, head of Thailand and Vietnam at CyberAgent Ventures, has to say about competitors:

The biggest difference between Pasoto and VeXeRe is the bus management system (BMS). VeXeRe spent almost two years to build the BMS, and it’s now used by more than 30 bus operators.

That’s 30 out of 1,000 bus operators in Vietnam. It’s a small start, but the bus management system gives VeXeRe the ability to allow users to book directly on their site. This will go a long way towards VeXeRe’s inevitable path of going beyond Vietnamese borders. Currently, VeXeRe has over 700,000 monthly visitors, with obvious surges during holiday seasons. Nguyen elaborates:

[Next for VeXeRe] is to become the biggest BMS provider and online bus ticket platform in Vietnam before expanding to Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar.

The ticketing and booking space in Vietnam is still robust, with other competitors like startup Baolau.vn (which does general travel transport booking) and larger conglomerates like Vietnam Airlines (arguably one of the biggest travel booking sites in Vietnam). VeXeRe’s therefore got a ways to go but this new round will give it enough runway to conquer the booking market ahead of younger competitors like Baolau.vn and Pasoto.