Investors pour millions of dollars into Vietnamese e-commerce
Investors pour millions of dollars into Vietnamese e-commerce
The Vietnamese e-commerce segment has become more vibrant due to increasing investments in the past few years.
The rate of internet and smartphone usage is increasing, especially in big cities. Vietnam will become one of the hottest e-commerce markets over the world.
According to Nielsen, the annual growth speed of the e-commerce market is 22 per cent and is expected to hit $10 billion by 2022 from the current $4 billion. The Vietnamese e-commerce market shows great potential for development and receives great attention from new investors.
According to MK News of Korea, STIC Investment Inc. will pour approximately $10 million into Tiki.vn. STIC is an international venture capital firm, incorporated in 1999, with investments in over 360 companies. The firm has grown into a private equity firm handling over $4.2 billion.
Tiki.vn has just received VND1 trillion ($44 million) from JD.com to serve its plans to expand its operations.
Before STIC’s investment, VNG, which is the biggest investor of Tiki.vn, held 38 per cent of the shares. To date, Tiki.vn has received investment from three investors, including VNG Corporation, JD.com (China), and STIC (Korea) with the total investment capital of around $71 million.
Tiki was established in 2010 as a startup e-bookstore but has since diversified to sell phones, tablets, digital devices, electrical appliances, toys, and souvenirs. Tiki.vn ranks fourth in the list of the leading e-commerce websites in Vietnam, according to an iPrice report. The added capital from STIC will help Tiki to consolidate its financial capacity to continue competition with heavyweights like Sea’s Shoppee Vietnam and Alibaba’s Lazada Vietnam.
In June 2017, Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba injected another $1 billion into Lazada in Southeast Asia, raising its holdings from 51 to 83 per cent and taking its total capital on the company so far to more than $2 billion.
