Editor’s note: In recent years, Vietnam was celebrated as Southeast Asia’s rising star—a high-growth market fueled by a young, mobile-first population, strong developer talent, and rapid consumer adoption. Today, that story is shifting from potential to maturity.
Over the coming weeks, TNGlobal will publish an exclusive series of conversations with venture capitalists, ecosystem builders, startups founders. Whether you are an investor looking for the next growth driver in ASEAN, a founder scaling in the region, or an industry observer, this series offers a grounded, ground-level look into Vietnam’s digital economy.
Vietnam’s mergers and acqusitions (M&A) market is booming.
Vietnam recorded over $1 billion in M&A deals in June alone, yet technology barely featured, with three deals worth a combined $0.6 million—less than 1 percent of the total. The stark disparity highlighted how much room Vietnam’s tech sector still has to grow, despite the country’s strong push towards a digital future.
In an interview with TNGlobal, Quest Ventures senior analyst Linh Ha opined that Vietnam’s limited tech M&A activity reflects both deal-making challenges and the ecosystem’s stage of development. Founders’ high valuation expectations, buyers’ focus on cash flow, complex cross-border structures and a shortage of audit-ready startups can hinder larger deals.
At the same time, Vietnam’s tech sector remains relatively young, with early-stage funding and acqui-hires laying the groundwork for larger M&A deals as startups mature and become profitable, she added.
In the interview, she also shared her views on initial public offering (IPO), compliance rules for SMEs, state-backed VC funds, among others.
Since 2011, Quest Ventures has focused on an overarching ‘digital economy’ strategy across Asia. Its portfolio companies include industry leaders such as 99.co, Carousell, Carro, Glife, Hepmil, Kamereo, Oddle, Shopback, VulcanPost, and Xfers.
Below are the edited excerpts:
Data showed that Vietnam’s overall M&A market recorded $1 billion in deals in June alone and $2.43 billion across the first half of 2026, with real estate, tourism, and finance dominating both deal count and value. Yet the technology sector accounted for just three deals worth a combined $0.6 million in the same. What is your view on this?
It is a mix of both, alongside other external factors. On one hand, there is some genuine friction in closing deals: founders are still holding on to those inflated peak-era valuations, while buyers today are hyper-focused on immediate cash flow. Throw in tricky cross-border legal setups and a relative shortage of audit-ready startups, and larger buyouts simply get stuck.
On the other hand, it is simply where Vietnam’s tech ecosystem sits in its natural growth cycle. Tech relies on venture dollars for organic growth early on, unlike asset-heavy sectors such as real estate or finance, which grow through massive consolidation. Right now, we are seeing early-stage equity injections and acqui-hires laying the groundwork. As these startups mature and achieve true profitability, those smaller deals will naturally convert into bigger corporate M&A buyouts down the road.
Vietnam’s first technology unicorn VNG, despite its scale and recognition, cannot achieve an IPO, what does that say about the exit options available to investors in Vietnamese technology sector today?
The market is simply shifting toward more realistic liquidity paths rooted in solid unit economics. Strategic M&A is taking off as regional buyers from Japan, South Korea, and Singapore choose to acquire proven local players rather than build from scratch.
Meanwhile, secondary-market transactions are giving LPs and founders early cash-outs without requiring a public float, and founders are realizing that it also makes sense to build toward positive EBITDA for a domestic or regional exchange instead of burning millions on US compliance. Sustainable, ground-level exits are clearly becoming much more dependable.
Vietnam is updating compliance rules on SMEs, such as stricter tax enforcement and digitization mandates, while simultaneously supporting large conglomerates. Does this dual-track approach narrow the space for startups?
What the government is doing is systematically clearing away grey areas and informal loopholes to establish a transparent, modern legal framework. Strong governance is the backbone of a mature innovation ecosystem.
For institutional venture capital, this level of clarity is a net positive that strengthens investor trust, reduces cross-border deal friction, and creates significant market openings for agile founders. For founders building structured, scalable businesses, the market has just become significantly clearer.
Ultimately, these regulatory shifts mark Vietnam’s transition from an emerging market driven by informal trade to a sophisticated, tech-enabled regional hub.
Vietnam now has two state-backed VC funds in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, both structured as public-private partnerships. While proponents argue domestic capital boosts confidence for foreign investors, do you worry that these funds may overlap with existing private VCs and direct capital?
This is not a zero-sum game of competition or overlap.
We believe that, far from crowding out market players, these state-backed public-private partnership funds can complement venture capital firms, serve the greater good, and accelerate the entire innovation flywheel.
When these two forces co-invest, the entire ecosystem scales faster.
Your Vietnam portfolio includes Vulcan Augmetics (robotic prosthetics) and Kamereo (food e-commerce for businesses), quite different from each other. What is the common thread Quest Ventures looks for in Vietnamese startups across such diverse sectors?
We are an industry-agnostic investor. The common thread always comes back to the excellence of the founders we back and a company’s scalability, replicability, and ultimate impact on the digital economy of Asia.
Quest Ventures has noted that regulatory uncertainty often pushes Vietnamese startups to register in Singapore instead. What would a practical first step toward updating that?
Quest Ventures is comfortable backing locally incorporated companies. Given the abundance of venture capital firms in Singapore, it is simply easier and more straightforward for regional and international investors to deploy capital through a Singapore entity.
The issue here is that international investors are naturally bound to jurisdictions where they understand the legal environment. The friction points with Vietnamese entities usually boil down to strict capital controls that make moving money out difficult, a civil law system rather than a familiar common law framework. The legal codes are published only in languages that foreign investors cannot easily parse.
As a practical first step, Vietnam needs a streamlined sandbox framework for foreign investment in technology startups, prioritizing automated foreign currency conversion and providing standard legal templates in a language investors can understand.
The government, especially the finance ministry and the industry-trade ministry, should take a cue from how commercial hubs such as Singapore and Hong Kong deploy dedicated trade agencies to continuously modernize their regulatory environment for foreign capital.
By 2030, Vietnam is positioned to stand at the forefront of Asia’s next phase of economic growth. Broad-based gains in household prosperity, world-class manufacturing, and sustained economic momentum can make it Southeast Asia’s leading launchpad for globally competitive companies. Quest Ventures is committed to backing the founders who will build from Vietnam, scale across the region, and compete on the world stage.