Today, Vietnam’s finally got a crowdfunding platform. The full-time team of seven come from a motley crew of startups based out of Hanoi including Dynabyte and The Missing Corner. IG9, a cheeky version of the english word “ignite”, will be the first crowdfunding platform of its type in Vietnam – operating in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh city.
Crowdfunding is not a new concept to Asia, there’s at least nine across the region from Japan to Indonesia. The IG9 team hopes to be at the forefront of this in Vietnam, so I talked to Lew Yin How, CEO of the project, to get the lowdown.
In a largely cash economy like Vietnam, how are you actually going to get projects funded online?
Since this is the first type of project of its kind, we want to open up the payment options as much as possible, so that payment won’t be a limiting factor. This includes the usual online payment, bank transfers, and also COD. We also allow people to pay at our office and designated partner.
Of course, COD would most likely be the biggest payment method for IG9, as this is how many of Vietnam’s e-commerce giants get payment.
In a nascent market like Vietnam where crowdfunding is alien, how are you going to get your name out?
Our strategy is working with projects that already have a huge community. One of our first projects is a dance group called St. 319, who easily has hundreds of thousands of FB likes and a lot more views on Youtube. When these projects work with us, it’s our mutual agreement that both sides will leverage on their existing community to promote it.
At today’s launch, IG9 will already have four projects to go and twenty more projects in the project pipeline to be launched over the coming weeks. How well it fares with these known projects will be a real test for the model in Vietnam and a big teaching moment for the currently non-existent user base.
How are you different from Kickstarter?
Stay updated on the go with our mobile app.
Get latest insights with smoother, more personalized experience through TIA mobile app.
