A strategic lever for breakthrough in start-ups and innovation

Falling short of expectations

According to the 2025 report by StartupBlink, the Global Startup Ecosystem, Viet Nam ranked 55th worldwide in its start-up ecosystem, 31st in the number of start-ups, and showed strong growth in sectors such as e-commerce, financial technology, food technology, and blockchain.

The start-up and innovation ecosystem has been expanding at an annual rate of more than 17%, the fastest in the region. Major cities such as Ha Noi, Ho Chi Minh City, and Da Nang are emerging as prominent start-up hubs with rapid growth. The country has more than 3,800 start-ups, over 200 domestic and international investment funds, more than 100 innovation spaces, and five national innovation centres.

The Vietnamese Government has also introduced a range of policy frameworks to remove barriers and accelerate the digital start-up ecosystem. Project 844, the scheme to support the national innovative start-up ecosystem, marked a major turning point by connecting a network of more than 3,800 start-ups, nearly 200 domestic and foreign investment funds, and over 1,500 support organisations.

Decree No. 264/2025/ND-CP has created breakthrough financial mechanisms to support start-up enterprises. Politburo Resolution No. 57-NQ/TW serves as a strategic lever, establishing a breakthrough legal framework and a more enabling environment for Viet Nam’s start-up community.

However, in terms of quality, over the past more than 10 years, with nearly 4,000 technology start-ups, Viet Nam has produced only four unicorns, meaning start-ups valued at 1 billion USD or more. The start-up failure rate is very high, with 97% of technology enterprises unable to survive their first life cycle. Of more than 3,000 start-ups, only around 900 have successfully raised capital in at least one round.

One of the biggest shortcomings of Viet Nam’s start-up ecosystem is the absence of a standardised data system covering start-ups, markets, technologies, and capital flows. Digital profiles of start-up enterprises are difficult to access and lack transparency, making it hard for investors, especially foreign investors, to assess the risks and potential of projects.

Viet Nam also lacks standardised tools for analysing business models and still does not have a real-time “technology map” for the ecosystem as a whole. As a result, resources are fragmented, support organisations operate in isolation, and linkages remain weak.

Vu Viet Anh, Chairman of Thanh Cong Academy and Head of the Marketing Tech Community under Techfest Viet Nam, said foreign investors are hesitant not because Vietnamese start-ups lack potential, but because they do not have sufficient data to assess the level of risk.

In an ecosystem where information is neither transparent nor interconnected, investment decisions become riskier. The consequence is that capital cannot flow strongly into start-ups at an early stage. Investors often require start-ups to prove business effectiveness, while angel capital, a vital source of early-stage funding, accounts for only about 7% 10%, far below the 20% 25% seen in more developed regional ecosystems such as Singapore.

Building a shared data platform

The limitations of the start-up ecosystem in fact stem from the science and technology base, one of the biggest problems being that Viet Nam still does not have many genuine research universities. Most universities today continue to operate mainly under a teaching-oriented model, lacking strong research teams and a sufficiently attractive academic environment.

At the same time, the shortage of research centres means the start-up ecosystem lacks a sufficiently strong supply of quality technology, making it difficult for start-ups to create high-value products with international competitiveness.

Alongside this is the human resources challenge, particularly the “brain drain” that has persisted for decades. Creating a research environment with modern facilities and equipment, together with policies to attract high-quality talent, will be a prerequisite for retaining technological talent.

Professor Nguyen Minh Tho, head of the Computational Science and Chemical Modelling research group at the Institute of Computational Science and Artificial Intelligence, Van Lang University, said Viet Nam still lacks the most crucial link: an ecosystem strong enough to retain and attract talent.

Viewed as a whole, Viet Nam’s science and technology sector and start-up ecosystem are trapped in a vicious cycle: a weak research environment leads to talent loss; the loss of talent prevents the system from upgrading; and the weak system, in turn, continues to fail to retain highly skilled people.

Many experts believe a common data platform should be built for the entire start-up ecosystem, enabling stronger connectivity among start-ups, investors, support organisations, and international markets. Such a platform would not only serve management purposes but also function as essential infrastructure to improve transparency, reduce risk, and strengthen investor confidence.

The development of genuine research universities needs to be placed at the centre, alongside targeted investment in science and technology infrastructure and the creation of sufficiently competitive mechanisms to attract and reward talent.

At the same time, stronger links are needed among the State, universities, and investors, while support networks for start-ups should be developed on an inter-regional basis rather than remaining as fragmented as they are today.

With breakthrough policies to promote the digital start-up ecosystem and remove long-standing bottlenecks, Viet Nam can move closer to its goal of becoming a leading start-up hub in Southeast Asia by 2030.