After a remarkable wrap up of VIISA Acceleration Program batch 6 in December 2019, VIISA continued to recruit startups for its 7th batch. Over the last 2 months, VIISA team has received close to 100 applications and conducted over 40 interviews with the startups. Instead of traditional face-to-face meetings, a large number of the interviews were conducted through conference calls due to the complicated situation of the Covid-19 pandemic. However, VIISA still ensured the consistency of the agenda given and evaluated all the startups equally with a detailed selecting criteria.
Although we had 5 termsheets agreed, VIISA Acceleration Program Batch 7 eventually shortlisted 3 potential startups of various sectors such as TravelTech, EdTech and MedTech to on board this 3-month program journey.
The 3 startups selected for VIISA Acceleration Program Batch 7 in Orientation Day
Different from the tradition of previous batches’ first activity which is the Launch Party, for Batch 7, VIISA and the startups chose to kick off the program with an offline in-house Orientation Day. The session equipped the startups with valuable information regarding the program structure, agenda, curriculum and working context. The startups showed a great positive energy and were excited to begin working.
In order to prevent the spreading of the coronavirus disease, VIISA team and startups agreed to move all the training sessions and other activities throughout the acceleration program online until a better scenario is in place. Thanks to the support in terms of products and services of VIISA’s long-term partners, we can assure the quality consistency of the curriculum set out.
The three-month program provides participating startups with investment in cash plus an undisclosed amount of supporting services such as co-working space, Amazon Web Services, HubSpot, Google Cloud, Digital Ocean, Mapbox, Zendesk,etc.
VIISA also commits to making appropriate introduction between startups and resourceful local corporate partners, potential clients to help companies thrive for as many meaningful tractions as possible and connecting founders with potential investors who might join their journey to support them achieve greater milestones further down the road.
Finally, startups that graduate from VIISA Acceleration Program will have a chance to get a follow-on funding of up to $200,000 from VIISA Investment Track when they secure a new round of funding from other investors.
A short introduction of the 3 startups joining VIISA Acceleration Program Batch 7 in March 2020:
AskVietnamese: AskVietnamese is a travel tech startup which focuses on tourist mapping services. Its mapping platform integrates the beauty of Traditional Paper Maps with the technology of Online Map Infrastructure to provide authentic experiences for independent travelers. Whether in print or online, the expressive AskVietnamese maps help tourists navigate around their desired destination by promoting local culture, traditional delicacies and unique experiences.
Medigo: Medigo is a med-tech startup driven by the mission to provide remote healthcare 24/7 with top-notch quality for everyone. The team started with a mobile application where users can upload doctor’s prescriptions, search for pharmacies, be advised by pharmacists and have medicine quickly delivered to their doorstep. Since launching, Medigo has been serving customers in most areas of Ho Chi Minh City 24 hours/day. The team is working on expanding to major cities in Vietnam and providing online consultation with doctors via telemedicine.
Testuru: Testuru is an online testing platform, currently focusing on IELTS test. The test includes all parts of an official IELTS test which are listening, reading, writing and speaking. The test results also come with feedback for test takers to improve and better prepared for the later attempts.
“VIISA team took a pause during the selection phase of Batch 7 to seriously review and evaluate how the coronavirus pandemic might impact on the program. Even so, we know that there are still hundreds of startups out there putting their minds and hearts to the business, and striving hard to perform when the economy is affected by the situation. We understand that we shall keep on doing what we have been doing for years which is to accompany startups along their journey. And after careful consideration, VIISA determined to stand the schedule, as to offer help to those startups who are in need of our mentoring and resources. The curriculum is better structured and more content is delivered to further enhance the founders and businesses potentials. Let’s all look forward to another successful acceleration batch of VIISA.” said Mr. Hieu Vo, Program Director and Board Member of VIISA. VIISA Acceleration Program.
Batch 7 startups are expected to showcase their businesses in the Investment Day event this June 2020. The Investment Day will welcome a good amount of investors, mentors, corporate partners from all over the globe to enjoy a different working day by attending our startups’ pitches. VIISA Acceleration Program recruitment process is on a rolling basis. Therefore, startups can always apply to the program on VIISA’s website: www.viisa.vn.
About VIISA
Established in January 2017 by FPT Ventures and Dragon Capital, VIISA is an acceleration program and seed-stage fund that invests to build global-ready startups from Vietnam. After 6 batches, there have been 32 graduates with some highlighted names such as WeFit, UrBox, WisePass, VDes, BoxShop, EcomEasy, TripHunter, which have created more than 400 jobs and raised a total committed US$5 million from other investors.