Vietnam’s climate tech funding ecosystem needs strengthening urgently: report

Stakeholders should work together to promptly strengthen Vietnam’s climate tech funding ecosystem as the country, one of the most vulnerable to climate change, is heavily invested in reducing carbon emissions and fulfilling its net zero commitments, a report has suggested.

Landscape of Vietnam’s climate tech funding

Thao Tran, CEO of New Energy Nexus Vietnam, a smart energy startup support initiative, shared: “Since Energy Nexus Vietnam operated in Vietnam from 2019, we have seen that the climate innovation ecosystem is still in the nascent stage. There are a number of improvements and support that need to happen and offer for its growth. One of the essential components is to promote a more dynamic impact investment market in Vietnam, which helps the climate entrepreneurs in investment mobilization and business development.

“Energy Nexus Vietnam has come up with the initiative of the 'Investment Platform,' which includes a climate funding and investment report, series of meetups and sharing, and an in-person networking/conference event. Regarding the report, it's our honor to have Clickable Impact's contribution to get the report done with interesting insights and findings,” Thao added.

A joint report by Clickable Impact Consulting Group and New Energy Nexus Vietnam cites World Bank data as saying that climate change could cost Vietnam 12-14.5% of GDP annually by 2050.

“Vietnam has become a hotbed of entrepreneurship, and its startup ecosystem is on fire,” said Jason Lusk, managing partner of Clickable Impact Consulting Group, an Asia-focused interdisciplinary consultancy committed to sustainable development goals, at a recent climate tech investment event in Hanoi.

In 2022, Vietnam attracted 19% of all venture capital funding in Southeast Asia, up from just 3% as recently as 2019. Globally, climate tech investment has also been hot, accounting for 10% of all venture capital investment in 2023.

“This confluence of challenges and opportunities means that the stage is really set for building a quality climate tech ecosystem in Vietnam. This ecosystem meets all the preconditions to have a meaningful climate impact while returning generous ROI to investors,” noted Lusk.

Vietnam is home to 49 active climate tech startups, including those at all stages of development, right up through Series B, from the ideation stage until market-ready solutions.

However, that number does not match the potential of an “amazing” country of 100 million people like Vietnam. “I firmly believe that Vietnam is capable of a lot more and will generate a lot more climate tech innovation over time,” said Lusk.

The total funding of Vietnam’s climate tech startups between 2015 and 2023 was $92.6 million. “That sounds like a rock, but it’s less than $2 million per startup in our ecosystem, and that’s over the course of nine years,” commented Lusk.

Climate tech funding contributed only 4% of Vietnam’s total venture capital investment in 2023, and this share was well below the global average of 10%.

By sectors, funding for farming & food production has taken the lead, followed by mobility, circular economy, energy transition, the built environment, and carbon & blue economy.

Analyzing the startups' funding landscape, Lusk pointed out the problem that a total of 28 startups have received very early stage (ideation) funding, $8.3 million in total, and have not yet progressed beyond this stage. Similarly, in the seed-funding stage, 16 out of 49 startups have hit their ceiling.

Only five have successfully closed series A rounds in Vietnam. Of them, three – Eco Truck, Cricket One, and Dat Bike – have so far not progressed to Series B.

Only two companies – Entobel and Logivan – have achieved Series B, meaning that they are fully market ready and start to take off and start to envision crossing that line from being SMEs and growing into something much larger.

“Obviously, we want to see a lot more Vietnamese climate tech startups maturing and achieving this milestone and beyond,” said Lusk.

Solutions for stronger climate tech funding

Jason Lusk pointed out priority gaps in Vietnam’s climate tech ecosystem, according to funders and founders. They are limited investable pipelines, limited funding options, exits and later-stage investment pathways, and government support programs.

To boost funding for climate startups, Lusk suggested fostering better ecosystem communication, talent development, public-private dialogue, and government support.

Ecosystem builders need to focus on two areas. The first is talent development. Vietnam needs better founder teams with more market experience, innovative capacity, and business acumen in climate tech founder teams on par with e-commerce or gaming.

The second area is public-private dialog. As government policy around climate and related areas is changing very rapidly in Vietnam, founders need insights into where policy is going so that they can react to that and adapt.

On the other hand, as founders engage with the government, opportunities will emerge for the government to support climate tech founders more proactively, whether by offsetting some of their expenses or by providing sandboxes for testing new solutions free from regulatory constraints. Hong Kong, South Korea, and Singapore provide very useful models for how this can be done, he suggested.

Lusk went on to recommend building a more appealing pipeline for investors. “If we have better startups and better funding for them, we'll see stronger demand for climate tech solutions, from more big multinational enterprises that are procuring solutions from Vietnamese climate tech providers. More acquisitions, more IPOs, more exits. Everybody wins.”

The Vietnam Climate Tech Investment Platform Networking Event was hosted by the U.S. Department of State, U.S. Embassy Hanoi and partners: New Energy Nexus Vietnam, VMO Holdings Technology JSC, and Posts and Telecommunications Institute of Technology (PTIT).

The event brought together a dynamic ecosystem of climate startups, investors, and industry experts to accelerate the growth of Vietnam’s climate tech sector. It provided a platform for Vietnamese climate tech startups to showcase their innovative ideas and connect with potential investors.

The event marked a milestone for the first Coalition for Climate Entrepreneurship Hub (CCE Hub) in Asia and the second in the world, currently operated by VMO and PTIT in Vietnam. CCE Hub is a public-private partnership designed to catalyze climate innovation in developing economies by nurturing emerging and market-viable climate solutions.

The U.S. Department of State works together with CCE partners including academia, accelerators, investors, nonprofits, and corporations to support climate-focused startups and bolster sustainable investment to confront climate change and advance economic security.

CCE Hub Vietnam was officially inaugurated in September 2023 and is located at the PTIT, in collaboration with the U.S. Department of State and VMO Holdings.