Indonesian venture capital firm Alpha JWC Ventures has co-led a $1.3-million pre-Series A round for Vietnamese enterprise SaaS platform Base.vn, marking its first investment in the country.
The other lead investor in the round is BEENEXT, a venture capital firm that makes seed to Series A investments in startups from India, Southeast Asia, Japan and the US.
The round was also joined by 500 Startups and Vietnam Innovative Startup Accelerator (VIISA), the two lead investors in the Vietnamese firm’s unspecified seed round raised in August this year.
“We imagine in the next five years, enterprises will operate and manage effectively using the best technology, and we want to bring that transformative future for everyone now,” says Base.vn co-founder and CEO Hung Pham.
Base.vn claims to be the first open platform in Southeast Asia that helps enterprises streamline management and operation activities such as hiring, payroll, task management, team collaboration,and approval management. It has so far developed over 20 applications covering two verticals, human resources and productivity. Its customers include VIB Bank, VP Bank, McDonald’s, MK Group, The Coffee House, and VinCommerce.
Base.vn plans to use the fresh funding to hire more product development staff and kickstart its expansion in rest of Southeast Asia in mid-2019.
“Selling for enterprises is challenging, and Base.vn with its outstanding products has managed to become a market leader in SaaS sector in Vietnam. We believe Base can be the leading SaaS platform in Southeast Asia and beyond,” said Alpha JWC co-founder and managing partner Chandra Tjan.
Indonesia-focused Alpha JWC typically invests in fintech and consumer sector startups. It recently launched its $100-million second fund. Its portfolio companies include Uangteman, Kredivo, Carro and Sale Stock.
“With our second fund, we want to make a bigger impact in the regional tech scene, while also maintaining our influence in Indonesia. After Indonesia, Singapore, and Malaysia, we believe Vietnam can be the next up and coming tech giant in the region,” Chandra said.