Top 10 Most Successful Young Entrepreneurs in Vietnam

Đỗ Anh Thư was born and raised in Hanoi. After working at Boston Consulting Group in Vietnam, she moved to Singapore to join Google, where she managed marketing efforts to develop the small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) sector in Vietnam. SMEs account for around 98% of all businesses in Vietnam. Thư pioneered the use of Giao Hàng Nhanh (GHN) logistics partners and integrated APIs with KiotViet to help Vietnamese businesses utilize Google My Business.

Thư also initiated a partnership between the Women Will program and the Ho Chi Minh City Women's Entrepreneurs Association (HAWEE), organizing training seminars for approximately 400 female business leaders on digital transformation and online entrepreneurship. This program continues to grow with Google’s support, training over 40,000 women leaders by the end of 2021.

In addition to her primary work, Anh Thư is a frequent speaker at the #IamRemarkable program and serves on YouTube’s Women’s Committee. Through coaching sessions, many women have gained confidence and enhanced their skills. After six years abroad, Anh Thư returned to Vietnam in December 2021 and has since dedicated time to personal projects that assist Vietnamese businesses in adopting growth marketing strategies.

Trần Trung Hiếu is the co-founder and CEO of TopCV, a company in the HR tech field. Although it entered the market later than its competitors, TopCV now holds about 10% of the market share, according to the company’s own reports. With a background in information technology, Hiếu has been responsible for product development and business strategy since the company’s inception in early 2016.

The idea for TopCV came about when Hiếu was looking for an easy-to-use platform to create a CV for a job application to Facebook but couldn't find any website that allowed him to design a professional resume. He co-founded TopCV with three friends, expanding the service model to connect candidates with employers after its first year of operation. From 2018 to 2021, TopCV experienced an average revenue growth of around 300% per year after raising $2 million in Series A funding from VIC Partners and Japanese HR tech firm Mynavi.

The team developed an online CV tool in-house, which now holds the top market share in Vietnam, according to the company's own reports. It is estimated that TopCV connects about 200,000 job seekers with suitable opportunities every month, all through automated processes powered by AI technology on both the website and mobile app platforms.

From a programming competition for women organized by a group of students, Nguyễn Huyền My co-founded and led SheCodes Vietnam in 2019, a platform aimed at empowering women to confidently pursue careers in technology. Over the past three years, SheCodes has attracted over 10,000 female members who have participated in programming courses, hackathons (software development contests), career development events, and networking opportunities. The program inspires and motivates women to persevere in tech careers and bridges the gender gap through the power of technology.

SheCodes Vietnam has also launched several new initiatives, including the startup SSSMarket, which emerged from the SheCodes Hackathon in 2020 and ranked in the Top 10 at Startup Wheel 2021. The educational platform Techlofi, which equips people with tech knowledge, supported underprivileged groups and women who won first place at the Future Solutions competition at Techfest 2021. In 2021, the Gender Equality Pioneer Award was presented to Huyền My by the Embassy of Ireland, the Center for Sustainable Development Studies (CSDS), and UN Women.

In 2019, Huyền My also co-founded Resident.vn and served as the growth director for the digital platform focused on property and resident management. Since 2021, she has been a strategic advisor at the Vietnam Student Support and Development Center, where she has helped create programs that bridge the gap between career opportunities and student skills, ensuring that young people are equipped to meet the workforce's demands. Huyền My is also involved in social initiatives through organizations like Hanoi Food Rescue and Challenge For Future.

Graduating with a degree in Economics from the University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City, Lê Minh Nhựt has been deeply involved in community-building activities, starting his career at the Vietnam Science and Technology Enterprise Startup Fund (SVF) in 2016. He currently serves as the Director of the National Innovation System Development Program (NISD). Over the past six years, Nhựt has focused on three main pillars: fostering an innovation ecosystem and local enterprise development, building and managing a network leveraging the talents of Vietnam's student community, and establishing a nationwide network of startup mentors.

Nhựt's contributions have been instrumental in expanding SVF's collaborative relationships, growing from just one to eight provinces across the country (Dong Thap, Ben Tre, Ba Ria-Vung Tau, Dak Lak, Quang Nam, Thua Thien Hue, Quang Ngai, and Kon Tum). They have partnered with over 20 other provinces to implement activities supporting innovative businesses. The startup mentorship network that Nhựt is actively involved with now connects over 100 mentors, working alongside 20 universities and colleges in partner provinces.

In late 2021, Nhựt was awarded a full scholarship to pursue a Master's degree in Public Policy at Fulbright University Vietnam. His goal for the near future is to create a comprehensive framework to develop startup communities that can be applied across every region in the country.

After completing his first year at the Faculty of International Economics at the University of Foreign Trade in Ho Chi Minh City, Nguyễn Thúc Khoa made the decision to leave university and pursue his entrepreneurial journey in 2012. Over the past decade, Khoa has focused on developing educational business models. In 2019, he co-founded Soroban Research and Training Institute (specializing in mental math), which operates under the Soroban Rainbows franchise. Khoa and his team created a curriculum with multiple levels, which now extends to level 7 out of a total of 10 levels.

Despite the challenges posed by the pandemic, Soroban Rainbows continued to grow, expanding into 29 provinces with 58 franchise centers nationwide. Monthly revenue ranged from 1 to 3 billion VND, mainly from franchise fees, with double-digit growth each month (depending on the number of new franchise centers). To adapt to the post-pandemic world, Soroban Rainbows developed a mobile app to serve customers who could not attend in-person classes. As of now, the app has been downloaded 20,000 times on Android and iOS. After initially offering the app for free, Soroban Rainbows transitioned to a paid model, with nearly 10,000 paying users.

Soroban Rainbows' YouTube channel, “Raising Smart Kids,” has earned its first and only silver button in the mental math category. Before Soroban Rainbows, Khoa co-founded Cánh Cung, a company specializing in soft skills training for students aged 16 to 25. Later, the company expanded into English training, rebranding as Action English, which focused on communication skills and soft skills for university students. Khoa and his team expanded to five branches, four in Ho Chi Minh City and one in Can Tho, serving about 6,000 students and holding numerous workshops at universities over five years.

In 2019, Lưu Thanh Huyền founded and became the head of the advisory board for VOCF – the Vietnam Online Career Fair, which organized the first-ever online career and job fair in the country. By the end of 2021, VOCF had successfully hosted seven online career fairs, attracting over 44,000 students and 33 companies, reaching a total of 9 million viewers. The VOCF Facebook page has over 51,000 followers, alongside two community groups with 42,000 members.

In 2020, Huyền continued her entrepreneurial journey by founding and running VOCO (Vietnam Online Career Orientation Center), an online career center that connects companies and experienced professionals with students and high school graduates. VOCO organizes workshops, skill-building classes, a library of recorded materials, and offers 1-on-1 career coaching. By the end of 2021, VOCO reached 3,000 membership sign-ups, hosted over 100 online workshops with more than 10,000 attendees, and built a TikTok channel with 100,000 followers and over 20 million views. The career programs focus on equipping young people with the skills needed to enter the workforce, operating through high-connection community activities led by volunteer students.

In 2016, Huyền joined Unilever Vietnam. After completing the “Unilever Future Leaders Programme” at the age of 25, she was appointed Head of HR for Unilever Vietnam’s production division. In 2020, Huyền joined L'Oréal and is currently the Human Resources Director for Talent Development and Organization at L'Oréal Vietnam.

In March 2020, Ngô Thùy Anh launched HASU, an app designed to promote mental and physical well-being for people aged 50 and above. Thùy Anh’s vision is to help older individuals overcome fears such as being forgotten, becoming a burden to their families, and poor health, in order to live happier, more fulfilling lives. HASU stands out in a market with limited offerings catering to the elderly in terms of mental and physical care.

Launched during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, HASU quickly adapted its model: initially offering in-person classes, it transitioned to an online app connecting users and integrating offline activities once the situation eased. By December 2021, around 12,000 users aged 50 and above were using HASU for exercise, entertainment, and socializing. Thùy Anh and her team are now focused on making the app even more user-friendly, with additional features to help elderly users connect with their families and enable loved ones to monitor their well-being through the app.

Before founding HASU, in 2017, while pursuing her MBA in the United States, Ngô Thùy Anh co-founded Aligo Kids – an interactive animation platform that teaches child safety skills and how to prevent sexual abuse. After returning to Vietnam in 2018, she founded AligoMedia, a company focused on projects such as producing animations on gender-based violence prevention for ethnic minority women, waste management education, digital textbooks, and family connectivity technology for businesses and organizations.

Nguyễn Thành Trung, the CEO of Sky Mavis studio and the creator of the groundbreaking Vietnamese game Axie Infinity, has made waves globally. Often referred to as Trung Nguyễn Sky Mavis or the tech billionaire Trung Nguyễn, he became the first technology-based dollar billionaire in Vietnam at the young age of 29.

Axie Infinity, one of the world’s first blockchain-based games, allows players to both have fun and earn money. It creates a virtual world where players can breed, raise, and battle Axies to win. The game uses blockchain technology to verify ownership of in-game assets, allowing players to trade, sell, or transfer these items, creating real-world income. In December 2021, the daily transaction value of in-game items averaged $10 million. By February 2022, the total value of traded items exceeded $4 billion. The success of Axie Infinity sparked a global trend in blockchain gaming, particularly in Vietnam.

In 2021, Sky Mavis raised funds in two rounds. In May 2021, Mark Cuban and a group of international investors injected $7.5 million into the company. Later that year, in October, Sky Mavis secured $152 million in a Series B round, one of the largest funding deals for a Vietnamese startup in 2021. Trung is a graduate of FPT University, where he studied programming engineering. After gaining recognition from the gaming community, his next goal is to maintain and grow a stable player base while ensuring the long-term success of Axie Infinity.

Trần Hoài Phương is the Head of Investments at Wavemaker Partners, a fund that specializes in early-stage investments in deep tech startups. In Vietnam, Phương has led investments in companies like FoodMap, Dat Bike, MindX, and Vigo Retail, with a combined investment value of approximately $3.6 million. The current valuation of these startups is about $120 million.

In addition to his investment role, Phương manages 15 companies out of the 161 in Wavemaker's portfolio across regions including the U.S., India, Pakistan, the Philippines, Singapore, and Europe, with a combined valuation of around $5 billion. TechinAsia recognized Wavemaker as one of the top 3 most active funds in Southeast Asia during 2020-2021. As of now, Wavemaker's total assets amount to $612 million, according to publicly disclosed data.

Phương graduated with a degree in Finance from Lehigh University (USA) and later earned a Master’s in Business Administration from University College London (UK). In 2016, he returned to Vietnam and became one of the founding members of VinaCapital Ventures, VinaCapital’s venture capital fund, which officially began operations in 2018. Phương played a key role in leading the initial rounds of investment in four startups across diverse sectors, including media, loyalty platforms, fintech, and electric vehicles, such as Yeah1, Ecomobi, Wee Digital, and Urbox.

Lê Yên Thanh is the founder and CEO of BusMap, Vietnam's largest bus map platform. He started the project while still a university student, which later evolved into a COVID-19 tracking map for several provinces. This project eventually developed into Phenikaa MaaS, a company specializing in smart transportation solutions. In mid-2021, Phenikaa MaaS received a $1.5 million investment from the Phenikaa Group.

With an impressive track record, Lê Yên Thanh is often referred to by the media as Vietnam's 'Golden Boy of IT.' However, Thanh admits, 'I’ve participated in so many competitions that I honestly can't remember how many awards I've won.' His passion for IT began in middle school, where he won first place in the National Informatics Olympiad, earning direct admission to university. In 2015, he won second place in the 'Vietnam Talent' competition. That same year, at just 21, he was named one of the 'Young Faces of Vietnam.'

As the founder and CEO of Phenikaa MaaS, a company offering smart transportation technology solutions, Lê Yên Thanh made it to Forbes’ prestigious '30 Under 30 Asia' list. Currently, the BusMap app has over 2 million downloads in Vietnam, operating in major cities like Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Da Nang, and Binh Duong. The app has also been trialed in Bangkok and Chiang Mai, Thailand.