The Topica Founder Institute in Vietnam has recently been featured in e27 for helping to shape Vietnam’s startup scene.
In the course of three years, 34 founders have graduated from the Topica Founder Institute. They have received a total funding of more than US$10 million. For the top eight startups, they have a combined valuation of US$60 million.
Notable graduates of the Topica Founder Institute include: Do Tuan Anh of Appota, who recently obtained Series B funding; Hoang Nguyen of S3co, which is funded by RedGarage Ventures (Coca-cola); Mai Duy Quang who exited with Biaki and is now Co-founder of AZStack, Truong Manh Quan, Founder of 500 Startups incubatee Beeketing; Nguyen Kim Dinh, Founder of UpLevo and Nguyen Ngoc Tuan, Co-founder of Vlance.
Thus far, more than 150 founders have went through TFI’s rigorous program, and although many were not able to complete it, several have went on to successfully pivot their startup. Tran Tuan Anh of Ticketbox is one such successful pivot story: Tuan Anh joined TFI Batch 2 as the Founder of Keewi, a platform to connect networkers and networking, and later pivoted to present day Ticketbox. Another startup that TFI brought to the ecosystem is MimosaTek: Even after dropping out due to schedule conflicts, it has continued to use the institute’s connections and network in seeking growth and investment.
On December 9, Topica Founder Institute graduated its fourth batch. So far, there are already more than 30 VCs from around the region who have confirmed their attendance. In this batch of six graduating founders, four are in advanced stages of negotiation for funding.
The graduates of TFI Batch 4 are Atadi.vn, Adtop.vn, Freelancerviet.vn, Hoayeuthuong.com, Induskey.com and Meete.co.
The original article was published in e27 titled "How Topica Founder Institute is helping shape Vietnam's startup scene” and was written by Bobby Liu.
