The 2018 Vietnam Start-up Day. This year the event will be held on August 23 and 24 at the Riverside Palace in HCM City’s District 4, with nearly 200 domestic and foreign start-ups in attendance. — VNA/VNS Photo

HCM CITY — The two-day Vietnam Start-up Day will open in HCM City on Friday with nearly 200 start-ups from 12 countries and territories taking part.

They will display practical technologies and showcase creative and unique business models.

The event will also feature the final stage of the Việt Nam Start-up Wheel contest in which the top 60 chosen from thousands of contestants will take part in three live pitching sessions to raise funds from investors and large companies in Việt Nam and abroad.

The top 10 local start-ups and top five foreign start-ups stand to win total prizes of VNĐ10 billion (about US$431,000).

Organised by the Business Start-up Support Centre, the city Department of Science and Technology and the HCM City Young Businesspeople Association, the event seeks to help young start-ups find investors, consultants and mentors, business partners, and customers.

It also aims to connect stakeholders involved in the start-up eco-system and attract incubators, business associations, large corporations, and local and international investors to support start-ups in Việt Nam, the organisers said.

First held in 2014, the event has become the biggest annual event for the start-up community in the country and is part of the Government’s Project 844 to support an innovative national start-up eco-system.

In the past five years, Vietnam Start-up Day has enabled more than 500 start-up companies and projects around the country showcase their projects and raise funds.

Vietnam Start-up Day will be held this year at the Riverside Palace in District 4. — VNS