Ho Chi Minh City-based early-stage venture capital firm Ansible Ventures has secured $8 million for the first close of its inaugural fund, according to a statement.
Ansible Ventures was founded in June 2022 by Valerie Van Vu, who was previously Vietnam head of investments at Venturra, in partnership with Asian multi-family office Alto Partners.
The development was first reported by TechInAsia.
Ansible Ventures plans to invest in approximately 15 companies at the pre-seed and seed stages with a dedicated focus on Vietnam.
Ansible Ventures’ strategy will be sector-agnostic, but its core areas of expertise include consumer Internet, SME/MSMEs software, and Web3 applications.
With a dedicated local team and extensive relationships on the ground, Ansible Ventures aims to become a gatekeeper for global funds and strategic investors to enter the market alongside a trusted VC investor partner.
Limited partners of the fund include individual investors who are general partners of global PE & VC firms, prominent family offices in Singapore, as well as notable founders in the region. Committed LPs include Saison Capital, KK39 Ventures, Black Kite Capital, as well as senior executives from VinFast, Axie Infinity (co-founder Trung Nguyen), Uber, and GoJek.
To date, the fund has led investments in three startups, including D2C startup Zitore, fintech startup CashGrow, and Curieous, a new professional network that offers personalised on-the-job learning and development for young professionals.
“Vietnam is on track to become the next digital economic powerhouse in Southeast Asia, with its internet economy GMV projected to grow 11x to $220 Billion by 2030. Vietnam’s startup ecosystem has also grown and its population of capable founders is at an inflection point. We are at the emergence of the second generation of entrepreneurs, who are top operators in the country with prior successful exits or leadership experience at regional technology startups. They have built invaluable networks and exceptional teams, launching products from 0 to 1 in the market,” said Vu.
Before founding Ansible Ventures, Vu had a two-year stint at Indonesia-based venture capital firm Venturra Capital, where she led seed investments into a dozen Vietnam startups, including Nano Technologies, Med247, Marathon Education, Mio, and Infina.
Vietnam has recently witnessed a series of VC fund launches. Recently, DealStreetAsia broke the news that South Korean VC firm Nextrans is planning to launch a $50-million new Vietnam-focused fund next month as it steps up focus on the country’s tech startup ecosystem.
Separately, VinaCapital Ventures, the VC arm of Vietnam-based asset manager VinaCapital, plans to launch its second $100-million fund, which will focus on providing growth capital, next year.