ON founding members (from left to right) Dzung Luu, Giang Nguyen, and Minh Nguyen
Vietnam-based social commerce startup, ON, has received US$1.1 million in a seed funding round led by local VC firm Touchstone Partners, with participation from VC firm-cum-accelerator ThinkZone Ventures.
With this, ON intends to expand its presence locally and develop tech solutions to serve sellers’ management, delivery, and capital needs.
ON was founded in 2021 by Giang Nguyen (a former tech lead at Vietnamese ICT giant FPT), Dzung Luu (who previously led the operation at Vietnamese ride-hailing startup BE) and Minh Nguyen (former CFO of Logivan).
The startup helps entrepreneurs earn extra income by starting an online business with assistance from an end-to-end solution that handles orders, fulfilment, returns, shipping, and transactions. Sellers use the platform to promote an item and earn a commission using social media networks. Each seller may earn up to US$300 each month, the firm claims.
Also read: A look at the future of social commerce
“With e-commerce set to see robust growth in Vietnam, we believe social commerce has enormous potential,” said Khanh Tran, Managing Partner of Touchstone Partners. “This is a very local business, and ON’s founders have the local market experience and expertise to play a significant role in driving its growth.”
Since its inception, ON claims more than 10,000 people signed up to sell on the platform, of whom 90 per cent are women. The vast majority of dealers are located in small towns or rural areas.
According to a Google and Bain & Company report, Vietnam is predicted to be the fastest-growing e-commerce market in Southeast Asia by 2026, with e-commerce gross merchandise value (GMV) reaching 56 billion USD by 2026, 4.5 times the estimated value of 2021.
Social commerce is a concept that first took off in China and then slowly spread to different regions in the world. In the country, social commerce accounts for around 11.6 per cent of the total retail e-commerce sales, with over US$186 billion in 2019. Amid the COVID-19 crisis, the global social commerce market is estimated to increase at a soaring rate of 31.4 per cent.
Last year, global investors had poured into SEA social commerce startups, including Indonesia’s Desty and Kitabeli, Super, and Segari; Singapore’s abilion and Raena; and Vietnam’s Mio.
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Image Credit: ON
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