Tiki, a Vietnamese e-commerce firm, has raised $258 million in a funding round led by AIA Insurance Inc., as the company tries to expand into life insurance and prepares for an IPO in the United States.
Tiki founder and CEO Tran Ngoc Thai Son revealed in an interview that investors in the Series E round included UBS AG London Branch, Mirae Asset-Naver Asia Growth Fund, Taiwan Mobile Co., and current backer STIC GIGF Ltd. According to him, the fresh capital raises the company’s valuation to close to $1 billion.
“This demonstrates global capital markets’ belief in Vietnam’s growth and potential,” said Son, who started the business in 2010 by distributing English books on his motorcycle. Tiki has developed to become one of Vietnam’s largest local e-commerce enterprises, with over 4,000 workers and activities around the country. Sumitomo Corp., JD.com, and Northstar Group are among the company’s previous investors.
According to Son, the business, which had planned to list in the United States by 2025, now plans to do so as soon as a year from now. He added the IPO may be through a merger with a blank-check company, but no decision has been taken. A successful IPO of a major Vietnamese business like Tiki in the United States may pave the door for more international investment in Vietnam’s embryonic IT sector, which he believes has the potential to become an Asian innovation hotspot.
Tiki.vn, a retail startup, is wooing customers in a $52 billion market.
Tiki, situated in Ho Chi Minh City, is tying itself to Vietnam’s growing middle class, which is increasingly turning to internet commerce, especially during the epidemic, when Tiki’s fresh-food delivery business grew quickly, according to Son. In the next three years, Tiki anticipates revenue growth of 40% to 50%, he said.
According to him, the business uses motorbike drivers in places ranging from Ho Chi Minh City to Danang and Hanoi to deliver packages as quickly as two hours after orders are received, and is currently testing 30-minute and one-hour deliveries.
Alibaba and Warburg want a piece of the online boom in Vietnam.
According to Son, the new capital will speed up investments in logistics, which include artificial intelligence and robotics for inventory management, as well as orders and deliveries. According to him, Tiki intends to offer simple-to-purchase bespoke life insurance policies.
AIA Insurance has a ten-year partnership with the company. It’s diversifying even more by creating a platform that allows companies to connect third-party apps into Tiki’s ecosystem, such as an investing firm’s app that allows customers to access plans, according to the company.
Tiki.vn, a retail startup, is wooing customers in a $52 billion market.
At one of the company’s facilities in Ho Chi Minh City, a Tiki.vn delivery rider loads items into the top box of his motorcycle.
Yen Duong/Bloomberg/Yen Duong/Bloomberg/Yen Duong/Bloomberg/Yen Du
Tiki, according to Son, will be involved in a variety of industries. “We put a lot of emphasis on Vietnam,” he remarked. “We want to be 1%, 2%, or 3% of Vietnam’s GDP,” says the company.
By 2025, the government wants online shopping to account for 10% of all retail sales in Vietnam, and as much as 50% in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.
According to a survey released in August by Facebook and Bain & Co, by the end of the year, Vietnam would have 53 million internet consumers, or 71 percent of its population aged 15 and up, up 8% from 2020. According to the survey, the country has the second-highest growth rate in digital customers in Southeast Asia, after only Indonesia.
According to the report, the online retail sector in Vietnam is predicted to reach $12 billion this year and $56 billion by 2026.
According to the Hanoi Stock Exchange, Tiki raised 1 trillion dong ($44 million) in a private placement of non-convertible and secured bonds in June.
