Twenty-five Vietnamese startups in HCM City have completed an inaugural Google for Startups: Startup Academy Vietnam. Photo courtesy of Google

HCM CITY — Twenty-five Vietnamese startups in HCM City have completed an inaugural Google for Startups: Startup Academy Vietnam, a training and mentorship programme for early-stage startup founders. 

The training was organised from October 3-7 by Google in partnership with the American Center and National Innovation Center (NIC).

The startups underwent mentorship and plenary sessions focused on helping founders develop leadership skills, best business practices, product management skills, technology know-how, and marketing skills.

The five-day bootcamp is part of the new public-private partnership between the US Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and Google.

“This public-private partnership between the US government and Google highlights our shared vision of HCM City’s tremendous potential to become an innovation powerhouse and a regional tech hub,” said Susan Burns, US consul general in HCM City.

“Through this partnership, the US recognises Việt Nam’s important role in achieving sustainable and inclusive economic growth in the diverse and vibrant Indo-Pacific region. And we reaffirm our commitment to support Việt Nam in this journey,” she said.

The selected startups are working relentlessly to solve some of Việt Nam’s biggest problems across various sectors from healthcare, energy and finance to education and agriculture, according to Burns.

Among these promising startups is Benkon, which uses a series of connected technologies to allow users to monitor and manage air-conditioning usage to help optimise power consumption and combat climate change. 

Another startup, DIA-B, is working to help diabetes and prediabetes patients adopt a healthy lifestyle as part of a larger goal to curb Việt Nam’s increasing number of diabetes patients. 

A third startup, Trung Mua, runs an agritech platform that helps farmers operate more efficiently, expand their customer base via online digital marketing, and access more transparency throughout the production cycle of agriculture goods. All of these work in tandem to improve the farming community in Việt Nam.

In addition, 25 startups from Hà Nội will begin the same programme in November. 

A total of 50 Vietnamese startups (25 from HCM City and the rest from Hà Nội) were selected for the training and mentorship programme. 

In December, a total of 10 best startups (from both HCM City and Hà Nội) will be selected to participate in Demo Day, where they can showcase their innovation and pitch their companies to the investor community.

More than 20 veteran mentors from Việt Nam and overseas are participating in the training programme to provide guidance for the participating startups. They are executives from Google and other mentors who are serial entrepreneurs, investors, or high-level executives of renowned companies. — VNS