Bizzi's fundraising journey
1/ Hi, can you introduce yourself and Bizzi a little bit?
He is Vu Trong Nghia, co-founder and CEO of Bizzi – a technology startup company in Ho Chi Minh City that was established at the end of 2019. Before establishing Bizzi, he had more than 15 years of experience. Working experience and many different positions such as Management Trainee at Unilever, Brand Manager at GlaxoSmithKline,...
In addition, he used to work as a Managing Director at an angel investment network in the US during his MBA study abroad thanks to a Fulbright scholarship. Since then, he's been more interested in tech startups. After returning to Vietnam, he also started to participate in this field and had the opportunity to meet his co-founder and build Bizzi together. Currently, Bizzi is having stable growth, with many customers being multinational companies such as P&G, Abbott, Grab, and especially retail chains in Vietnam such as Circle K, Family Mart, etc.
2/ Since its establishment, how have you raised capital for your company?
Up to now, Bizzi has gone through two rounds of funding, the Seed round and the Pre-Series A round (Read more about the funding rounds at THIS). At the Seed round, Bizzi was funded by 500 Startups Vietnam fund. At the last Pre-Series A round, he and the Bizzi team successfully raised 3 million USD from the company listed on the Japanese stock exchange Money Forward, the domestic venture fund Do Ventures and investors. The previous round Qualgro came from Singapore.
3/ During that process, how did you find investors/investment funds?
In fact, he and Bizzi did not spend too much time looking for investors, because business and management took up most of the time. However, to talk about the process of finding investors, I think this is also a charm from both sides. At that time, his investors were looking for startups in the field that they were interested in, which is automation in the fields of finance, accounting, and especially the number of startups in Bizzi's field was not enough. much. Therefore, some funds and investors have actively contacted Bizzi to seek cooperation opportunities.
The most successful fundraising deal
1/ What is the most successful fundraising event, and why?
It can be said that the Pre-Series A round is the most successful funding round to date, both financially and in terms of time. For Bizzi, the time from meeting and discussing with investors until completing the procedures took place in just 4 months, right during the time of the epidemic outbreak in Ho Chi Minh City. Chi Minh.
2/ Why did you choose to raise capital from those companies and funds?
Usually a startup will want to find an investor to go with them for a long time, not an investor just for money. When choosing an investor, he first thinks that the partner must first have the same vision and have faith in the startup as well as in the founders. They also need to have the core values that the startup wants, such as respect, integrity, etc. In addition, it would be better if the investor side has worked in the field of the startup. Specifically, among Bizzi's investors, Money Forward has 10 years of experience in the financial and automatic accounting field in Japan, and they will have the ability to help Bizzi grow as they did. made in the Japanese market.
3/ What do you think is the most important factor for your company to successfully raise capital?
He thinks it's a market factor. Bizzi as well as investors both see the potential of the market when digital transformation for businesses is promoted in Vietnam, especially financial and accounting activities. This is an opportunity for Bizzi to develop and expand its market.
4/ What are the values that the company receives from investors after successfully raising capital (besides money)?
Each investor gives Bizzi a different value. The first value is about the partner network. Bizzi has created an impression as well as trust from big customers after being poured capital from reputable and famous investment funds. In addition to the network of partners, experience is also an important value that Bizzi receives. Money Forward has experience in business development, administration and organization. This investor has supported the transfer of knowledge and technology so that Bizzi can develop better.
Bizzi after successfully raising capital
Did you face any difficulties after receiving this investment?
When raising capital, Bizzi was prepared to develop for the next milestone by determining the size, number of employees, customers or revenue to be achieved after raising capital. The difficulty that Bizzi encountered was the delay in the work. For example, when recruiting more personnel to expand, the recruitment work takes longer than expected, causing delays in the development and expansion of the company.
Advice for young entrepreneurs
1/ In your opinion, what do founders need to prepare to have a successful pitching session?
I think founders first need to have a convincing enough story for investors to see that this is an attractive opportunity and that the founders are the right people to seize it. Besides, you should prepare well about your mind. View pitching with investors as a discussion aimed at the benefit of both parties.
2/ What is the biggest lesson you want to teach young startups?
He thinks the most important thing is that founders should develop criteria to choose the most suitable investor for their company. Sometimes, a large fund is not necessarily suitable for a startup with smaller funds.
In addition, the founders also need to learn and evaluate investors carefully, to understand the real value that investors will bring after raising capital can be as expected or not. Maybe investors will make promises, but in reality after investing, things will not really go as expected!
Thank you for your sharing!
