More than 80 startups have graduated from the Topica Founder Institute. Some have gone to raise a combined of more than US$40 million

The seventh batch of the Topica Founder Institute (TFI) graduated and all of the six graduating startup companies received funding of US$50,000 from Insignia Ventures Partners. Three of them are in advanced stages of negotiation for further funding.

Started in 2011, more than 80 startups have graduated from TFI and some have gone on to raise a combined of more than US$40 million and together valued at US$300 million. The programme has been contributing to the growth of Vietnam startup ecosystem, with alumni that include Appota, Beeketing, Monkey Junior, Logivan, Kyna, Atadi, Hoayeuthuong, and Giaytot.

Yinglan Tan, founding Managing Partner of Insignia, said, “The eye-opener was our investment in Logivan, giving us a front-row seat to the TFI programme. It is a really efficient programme to weed out only the strongest founders, and with the comprehensive mentoring sessions to fine-tune the business model and idea of the founders, it ensures the right fundamentals are taken care of. Taking a risk in these young budding founders is what we do and we can’t be happier to have the opportunity to invest in them.”

This year’s graduating founders and their startups include:

Telepro
The startup wants to help companies create an on-demand culture for telemarketing. Telepro won the Echelon TOP100 Qualifiers Vietnam 2019, a top-10 Sao Khue Viet Nam 2019, and has raised US$500,000 as winner of Startup Funding Camp 2018.

Recruitery
Aiming to improve efficiency in talent acquisition utilising the trend of talent referral, Recruitery offers companies in Southeast Asia access to a network of top recruiters that have direct relationships with the talents they are looking for.

Also Read: Vietnam-based edtech startup Topica raises US$50M in Series D

CheepCheep
Founded by travel blogger and former An Ninh Hai Phong editor Anh Pham, CheepCheep aims to help independent travellers book attractions tickets and local activities at thousands of places of interests throughout Vietnam and Southeast Asia.

Drone Pro
The startup’s goal is to create new transportation solutions in a high-density urban environment. Its first product is a special delivery drone system that is able to deliver to high-rise apartment buildings. Such delivery is enabled through the platform’s ability to create a vertical mapping with its software.

Gigantec Media

Gigantec Media is a digital marketplace that aims to cater to the age-old industry of billboard advertising. The digital platform eliminates the manual, no-tech process that has traditionally defined the OOH advertising buying and selling experience. amongst which, reducing time from months to days. The marketplace matches advertisers’ requirements to optimal locations and inventories, with the right audience based on detailed demographics. It brings price transparency, ensure smooth running of campaigns, and provide analytics to evaluate the effectiveness of the campaigns.

Clavis Aurea
Clavis Aurea provides solutions for enterprises to increase productivity, reduce maintenance cost, and life cycle for asset and facility. The platform also helps enterprises increase the procurement process by connecting them more easily with suppliers. Solutions that help bring increased efficiency for enterprises are valued to be US$7 billion in Vietnam and more than US$25 billion in Southeast Asia.

Bobby Liu, Co-director of TFI, said: “The TFI 07 batch is special as it was the first-ever partnership with an institutional fund to support the graduating companies. Insignia Ventures Partners has been great, as they’ve helped in giving much insight to incubating good founders and startups. It will be interesting to see how quickly these companies will grow given the needed funding. I am very hopeful and positive that great things will come out of this collaboration.”

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