Vietnam’s technology news, quarterly
December 2023 | November 2023 | October 2023
Vietnam’s quarterly technology news snapshots in Q4 of 2023 picked up on items including: cross-border QR code-driven payments from Vietnam to wider Southeast Asia; Vietnam’s Da Nang and South Korea partnering on tech developments in areas including artificial intelligence; Vietnam’s potential in semiconductors; and more.
Other editions: Asia’s tech news, daily (via LinkedIn, Facebook & Twitter/X); and Indo-Pacific technology newsletters, weekly.
Also available:
Critical technologies news across Q4 2023
Critical technologies, quarterly: 2023 4th Quarter summary
December 2023
Coinbase Institutional: 2024 Crypto Market Outlook
- Vietnam: FEBE Ventures VC launches $75M 2nd fund for early-stage startups, 2.5 times larger than first fund and with 90% of corpus already committed
- Cambodia and Vietnam launched bilateral cross-border payments, enabling citizens of both countries to make payments in local currencies using VietQR and KHQR codes
“With this project, tourists from Cambodia will be able to make payments in Vietnam using the Riel currency through the VietQR QR code, while customers from Vietnam will be able to make payments in Cambodia using the Vietnamese Dong currency through the KHQR QR code.”
Vietnam, which is home to large chip assembling factories including Intel’s biggest globally, is trying to expand into chip designing and possibly chip-making as trade tensions between the United States and China create opportunities for Vietnam in the industry.
[NVIDIA] has already partnered with Vietnam’s leading tech companies to deploy AI in the cloud, automotive and healthcare industries, a document published by the White House in September showed when Washington upgraded diplomatic relations with Vietnam.
PwC Digital Payments Survey 2024: Southeast Asia landscape
November 2023
- Vietnam and Republic of Korea ink 5 agreements on cooperation in artificial intelligence use in medical, healthcare, smart city, and automation technologies centered on Da Nang city
- Vietnam: Intel has reportedly shelved Vietnam chip manufacturing expansion plans, with sources citing excessive local bureaucracy and unstable power supply concerns
“According to the person, the corporation did not provide a reason for cancelling the expansion. However, a second source, who was present at two different meetings in the past few weeks between top Vietnamese officials and American businesses, claimed that Intel had voiced worries regarding excessive bureaucracy and the stability of power supply.”
- Vietnam: VNG gaming firm, backed by China’s Tencent and Ant Group, to roll out ChatGPT-like AI service for Vietnamese speakers aiming at content creation, language translation, chatbots and more
- Video: ‘Vietnam Sets Sights on Becoming Semiconductor Hub’, an interview with representatives from Vietnam’s FPT Semiconductor
- Vietnam’s Unicorn Ultra opens Cambodia office with blockchain ecosystem and development platform, seeing opportunities in part due to the Kingdom’s Bakong CBDC system
- Singapore’s Entobel opens fly larvae facility in Vietnam capable of producing 1000 tons of protein meal annually for use in a range of feed products, with sights on 10,000 tons in 5 years
“So we took a one-way flight to Vietnam aged 23 with no experience of working with insects, just what we knew from reading scientific papers. We then worked on a farm in the Mekong Delta for more than a year to really learn everything about insects. What do they eat? How do they convert food into their body weight? What is the quality of the protein? How do we breed them efficiently?”
“Just because black soldier flies aren’t too picky about what they eat, for example, doesn’t mean you should feed them any old thing just to save money, noted de Caters.”
“You need something very consistent so you can produce a consistent product, so for this plant we are located close to two Heineken breweries [from which Entobel can secure a steady supply of spent grains as a key source of feedstocks for its insects].”
- Vietnam: “Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh has said startup and innovation must be considered as a crucial political task…”
- Inflow raises $2M with platform allowing small brands access to Vietnam manufacturer supply chains, connecting with producers willing to handle smaller garment quantities
Lowy Institute Pacific Aid Map: 2023 Key Findings Report
October 2023
- Vietnam in Q3: “Startups in Hanoi secured funding worth $33 million, while those based in Ho Chi Minh City raised $17.1 million.”
- Vietnam: Nomion unveils ‘identification of things’ concept, creating digital IDs for physical products for sale, using RFID and blockchain to present products in real and digital spaces
- An intro to 3 ASEAN startups presenting at Hong Kong Electronics Fair, working on IoT wearables, semiconductors and ‘nanomaterials’, and AI-backed 3D printing
- Vietnam: An overview of the country’s moves into the blockchain tech space, courtesy of e27
The Outlaw Ocean Project: Human rights, overfishing, environment…
- ICYMI: A brief overview of the recent Vietnam Startup Summit in Japan 2023
- Vietnam’s Green & Smart Mobility to launch Green SM e-taxi service in Laos with 1000 electric cars produced by Vinfast
- Vietnam: Vulcan Augmetics robotic prosthetics developer gains seed funding from Singapore-based VC, Quest Ventures, with plans for AR and VR systems development
- Vietnam: A snapshot overview of tech moves the country is making, with sights on developing a workforce of 50K semiconductor engineers by 2030
- Vietnam: Singapore’s Protos Labs secures $2.2M for Vietnam expansion, focusing on the country’s risk landscape and cyber insurance requirements
October 2023: Semiconductors, critical minerals, space tech & satellites
Tech news, Daily: Asia & Indo-Pacific
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e-Conomy SEA 2023: Vietnam report (direct pdf download)