The COVID-19 pandemic and social distancing have impacted societies and their economies globally. Education was one sector severely disrupted by lockdowns, and a move to digital schooling upended traditional learning requiring advanced technological solutions. This demand for online learning has spurred many edtech startups in Vietnam to enter the ever-growing digital market to bridge the gap.

With teachers, students and parents overwhelmed with sudden online learning, remote working, deadlines, and at-home responsibilities, the Vietnam edtech startups are incentivised to deliver products that solve educational issues. Instructors and learners need access to digital tools that meet their needs and make distance learning more practical.

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Post-COVID education has changed forever. The teaching community is looking for ways to adapt to these changes, stimulating edtech startups in Southeast Asia to innovate and make online learning accessible and easier for everyone.

Edtech startups enhance education in Vietnam

Edtech startups are filling the gap in the education system of several ASEAN countries after the pandemic. It is the largest growing market, after FinTech and eCommerce, increasing by 32% per year and attracting domestic and foreign investments.

To encourage innovation in the sector, the National Startup Support Centre of Vietnam and the Bach Khoa Hanoi Technology Investment and Development One Member Company Limited (BK-Holdings) launched the Edtech Vietnam Festival 2021 and the Startup Stars contest. These innovative platforms also allow adult learners to add to their qualifications or upskill to find better jobs. Companies like Topica Edtech Group, the country’s first English educational platform, are using augmented reality (AR), artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to improve and deliver their lessons efficiently. 

Here are five of the edtech startups in Vietnam that are levelling the digital education playing field and providing game-changing software and services.

789.vn

This comprehensive technology platform for digital education and data supports high school teachers and students. Its software facilitates teachers’ workload regarding exams and grading processes. With 789’s elaborated and systematised solutions, high-school instructors can complete 99% of their conventional tasks with a few clicks. One of the platform’s advantages is to send reports to parents and representatives directly and individually.

The EQuest Education Group, formerly known as the Institution of American Education, invested in 789 last year. It was a strategic investment that covers the educational needs of more than 80,000 learners in Vietnam alone.

YOLA

Yola is another crucial Vietnamese Edtech startup offering an online-to-offline educational system across the country. Available in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, Yola trains students using English skills instructions. It also provides a social space for accessibility to virtual lessons and online classes.

In 2019, Yola received $10 million USD in funding from Singapore-and-India-based Kaizen Private Equity. Together, they deliver innovative education to 500,000 students and offer support to parents and students facing mental health problems and difficulties resulting from isolation and social distancing.

Point Avenue

This education platform offers affordable and high-quality international education to students in Vietnam and across Southeast Asia. It specialises in English courses, test preparation, coaching, leadership camps and software skills training. Its services are available via live-streamed classes and a hybrid learning platform, allowing students to receive direct and individual feedback from instructors in Vietnam and the USA.

Point Avenue raised $12 million USD in a Series A funding round led by Hong Kong’s private equity firm Gaw Capital. Meanwhile, its real estate partners are looking to expand its hybrid academies across several Vietnamese cities.

Edmicro

Edmicro is a learning platform that provides an adaptive ecosystem with personalised learning in virtual classrooms. It also provides reports, microlearning and digital libraries to its users and has a unique way of presenting digestible educational pieces that makes schooling an enjoyable experience for both students and teachers.

Edmicro raised seed round funding in March this year through its most recent investors Insignia Ventures Partners and Beenextr.

Educa Corporation

Offering innovative technology that tackles language challenges through its English learning app for school students, Educa Corporation’s Edupia app currently has over 50,000 paid users and expects to have 2 million by 2025.

It raised $2 million USD in a Series A funding round led by Singaporean ReDefine Capital Fund backed by Alibaba and Ant Financial.

Market intelligence firm, Ken Research, indicates that the Vietnamese edtech market will continue to grow and evolve. Investments in edtech startups in Vietnam are increasing by 50% each year as foreign investors seek more partnerships in the country’s digital learning market, consisting of 17 million K-12 students.

Edtech startups in Southeast Asia have demonstrated the region’s interest in educational solutions that allow access to online learning to students and workload relief to instructors. As Vietnam edtech startups climb the digital learning rankings, productivity and accessibility are guaranteed through hybrid learning academies and platforms in the region, and the sector is likely to continue to grow.