Near the Lunar New Year 2 years ago, when the Bizzi employees took a break from work and returned to their hometown to celebrate Tet, Vu Trong Nghia (Nghia Vu) and his co-founder were still hard at work. His startup at that time was just born with a product that lacked many features.
“We almost didn’t pay attention to Tet anymore. Customers were on holiday and we had more time to develop products,” CEO Nghia Vu recalled.
Although only 2 years old, Bizzi has already made a mark in the Vietnamese startup community when it raised 3 million USD in the Pre-Series A round and won the Digital Transformation Award in Singapore.
The startup provides invoice processing solutions through the application of AI technology and robotic process automation (RPA). Bizzi's platform can be integrated with existing accounting solutions, and connects suppliers and customers to automate financial processes such as checking, reconciliation, invoice payment, etc.
In the interview with PartnerCEO Nghia Vu admitted he was very lucky to have chosen the right time to start a business.
– Before starting your business, you worked for many multinational companies. What exactly was your job at that time??
– Previously, I worked for several multinational companies such as Unilever, GlaxoSmithKline, QSR Vietnam… My previous jobs involved a lot of “innovation” such as developing a new brand or launching a new product into the Vietnamese market.
During my time at GlaxoSmithKline, I was in charge of bringing Sensodyne products to Vietnam market as Brand Manager. At that time, there were no products in the country for sensitive teeth. In foreign countries, it is called a product for "sensitive teeth", but in Vietnam, people do not know what to call this product. We went to market research, evaluate and understand consumers, thereby building a brand for sensitive teeth in Vietnam.
At QSR Vietnam, I used to work as a Marketing Manager, in charge of launching Warren Buffett's Dairy Queen upside down ice cream in the domestic market. When this brand opened 5 stores, I received a Fulbright scholarship to study MBA in the US.
During my 2 years of studying abroad, I joined venture capital networks, worked with many investment funds and technology startups in the US. Since then, I have a desire to build a startup when I return home.
– What opportunity brought you to become the founder and CEO of Bizzi?
– In 2019, I started to have the idea of Bizzi. At that time, I saw that in Vietnam, there would soon be a regulation requiring businesses to use electronic invoices. Some provinces and cities will stop using paper invoices from November 2021 and nationwide from July 2022.
I see this as a great opportunity to apply technology to digital transformation for small and medium enterprises, especially for the finance and accounting department. In the past, when using paper invoices, it was very difficult to apply technology. At that time, OCR technology had to be used to scan invoices, which was inefficient, high cost and low accuracy rate. When switching to using electronic invoices, using software is much easier.
Vietnam has nearly 1 million businesses with billions of invoices in the market every year. Most businesses mainly do output electronic invoices, ie invoicing software, and no one has yet provided an effective solution and accounting support for receiving input invoices.
The problem for accountants when receiving input invoices is that it takes a lot of time and is very annoying because at that time they are not familiar with electronic invoices. After checking, they have to store the invoices. For small businesses that do not have a "server" to store them, they will store them on Google Drive or in their mailbox. This leads to difficulties in searching and risks related to taxes. And this is the problem I posed when starting with Bizzi.
– When you had the idea to start a business, who did you share it with?
– At that time, after returning from studying in the US, I had not worked for any company, I mainly did consulting projects. It was not until I met the technology Cofounder (currently the CTO of Bizzi) that we exchanged ideas and saw this as an opportunity to join hands to do this startup.
– Is this your first startup?
– This is not necessarily the first time I have started a business, but if we talk about starting a business in the technology field, then it is definitely the first time.
– As you shared, your previous projects were focused on brand building. When you moved to another field, did you have any difficulties when you started?
– Actually, my job is not exactly about building a brand but more like “building a new business”. Bringing a brand like Sensodyne or Dairy Queen to Vietnam is like starting a business project. Those are very necessary skills when I start a business. Besides, the knowledge I learned during my MBA in the US also supported a lot in building the company.
– How were the early days of your startup with your Cofounder?
– At first, we recruited 3 more programmers and software engineers to support product development. In the first year, we only had about 7 people, working in a co-working space. The initial capital was not much, mainly we invested time, effort and intelligence. In the beginning, the two Cofounders also worked without receiving salary.
– So what now?
– Now we get full salary and can be considered as close to market price (laugh). From 7 people, the startup now has 30 employees and after the latest round of funding, we are recruiting to accelerate product development.
– How long did it take you to get your first client?
– We started building the product in September 2019. Luckily, we had our first customer in February 2020, the GS25 convenience store chain. Before that, we met and presented the idea to the customer, and after Tet, we gave them the product to experience.
To get the first customer, we met about 15-20 businesses and presented about the difficulties faced by accountants as well as the value that Bizzi's products bring. After listening, some parties also liked this product but did not drastically implement it. Meanwhile, GS25 loves to apply new technology and make decisions very quickly.
To date, Bizzi has about 150 large corporate clients. Large corporate customers are defined by us as multinational corporations, large retail chains, listed companies. In addition, many small and medium enterprises are using Bizzi's software.
– Before receiving $3 million in investment from Money Forward, Do Ventures and Qualgro, Bizzi also received funding from 500 Startups Vietnam. How do Bizzi’s funding rounds usually take place?
– 500 Startups is one of the investment funds that invests in the seed stage. They evaluate based on many factors such as market size, general trends in automation applied in the field of finance and accounting, the startup solution has shown results and has trial customers... They decide very quickly, only after 2 days of meeting, they agreed to invest.
With the recent Pre-Series A round, it may be luck that the exchange of terms is also very favorable. After only 2 months, the two sides closed and signed.
– Convincing customers and investors, which do you find more difficult?
– I think convincing customers is the most important thing. Once you convince customers, convincing investors is very simple. Investors always look for companies that operate well and grow well. They look at business results and growth. Then you don’t need to convince them anymore. On the contrary, investors will convince startups to invest in them.
– Is the Covid-19 pandemic one of the reasons why it is easier for technology startups like Bizzi to raise capital?
– I think so too. Digital transformation is becoming a trend, not only in Vietnam but also all over the world. That is why businesses in the B2B SaaS field like us receive great attention from investors.
SaaS businesses like Zoom have boomed during the pandemic or many companies in the field of automation have also received huge investments.
– Do you think you were lucky to choose the right time to start your business?
– Actually, that’s true. Choosing the right time to launch a solution and the right time to call for investment capital plays a decisive role in the company’s survival. If my idea had been implemented a few years earlier, it would not have had such a large growth rate, because at that time, paper invoices were still used, and businesses were not very interested. If it had been done later, the market might have had smarter solutions, and it would have been very difficult to compete. In my opinion, timing is crucial to the success of a startup.
– Bizzi is introduced as a pioneering startup in Vietnam providing automated solutions for processing electronic invoices. So are there any similar products on the market today?
– Currently, we are also developing many different products, and if we talk about the main product, recently a large Vietnamese technology company also launched a product with a similar solution. That proves that this is a potential market.
– But competing with a “big guy” in the technology industry, that must be a challenge that is not easy to overcome for Bizzi?
– Exactly, if compared to the scale of large technology corporations, we are just a part of them. However, I think that large or small businesses will have advantages and disadvantages. Startups like Bizzi will focus 100% on the field we are working on, which is automation and AI in the field of financial accounting. Meanwhile, large corporations have many different focuses with big games.
Many people used to wonder why a startup like Bizzi just born has such large customers. The fact is that I came out at the right time when the market has no competitors, which is the advantage of startups in going fast and exploring the market. However, the long story of how to compete with the "big guys" is a matter to consider.
We have the support of many investment funds, in which Money Forward is a Japanese listed company with a lot of experience. Bizzi is not exactly a small startup to worry about survival story, we also have some resources to compete.
– Looking back on 2021, are you satisfied with what you and Bizzi have done?
– Besides the growth exceeding expectations and successfully raising capital from major investors, what I am most proud of is that Bizzi's solutions bring real value and are recognized not only in Vietnam but also in the international community.
In 2021, Bizzi received the Top 10 digital startups award from the Vietnam Software and IT Services Association (VINASA) and at the end of the year received the Digital Transformation award in Singapore. This award, organized by the Swiss Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SwissCham) in collaboration with Deloitte, honors innovation and digital transformation initiatives in Singapore and across Southeast Asia. Bizzi is also the only Vietnamese company to win this award.
Of course, besides that, we still have a lot of things that have not been achieved, need to continue to build and develop. Due to the impact of the pandemic, in the past year, people have been working remotely, facing a lot of pressure and stress. That also affects the building of corporate culture.
– With the support of a Japanese company, does your startup plan to expand to this market?
– Japan is a special market, in the near future Bizzi will focus on the Vietnamese market as well as the markets of countries in the Southeast Asian region. I think there are some countries in the region where Bizzi has the opportunity to develop. However, in the next 2 years Vietnam is the market that we will focus on 100%.
– When starting a business, some people are afraid of failure and others are afraid of loneliness. So what about you, what are you most afraid of when starting a business?
– Statistics show that 99.9% startups will fail in the first 3 years. Therefore, when starting a business, I determined that failure is inevitable. I am no longer afraid of failure, but what I fear most is that I cannot develop myself quickly enough to be able to lead and guide the company to develop according to its potential. A company with 10 employees will be different from 100 employees and then 1,000 employees. The CEO and leader himself must develop very quickly to learn and develop, otherwise he himself will become a factor hindering the company's development.
– In recent times, blockchain and cryptocurrency have been keywords that technology startups are very interested in. Do you personally invest in cryptocurrency?
– Regarding cryptocurrency and blockchain, I research technology very carefully because I think it will be closely related to what I am doing and in the future there will be many applications. However, when it comes to investing in cryptocurrency, I am staying out of the game. I will approach it in the direction of applying technology to my startup rather than investing.
- Thank you.
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Source: NDH