KVision invests in Selly – the rising star of Vietnam’s social commerce platforms
KASIKORNBANK (KBank) has assigned KASIKORN VISION Co., Ltd. (KVision) to jointly invest in Selly, the rising star of Vietnam’s social commerce platforms, in the pre-series A fundraising round to expand cooperation in building a business channel for Thai products and tapping into the loan market for micro entrepreneurs in Vietnam that has faced steady and high economic growth in recent years.
Mr. Pattarapong Kanhasuwan, KBank Executive Vice President and KVision Chairman, said that KVision is KBank’s investment holding company, which objectives to explore businesses with potential innovations that could be extended to facilitate KBank’s customers in the AEC+3 region, including Vietnam, which presently has the fastest growth rate in middle income population in ASEAN. High population density can be found not only in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, but also other secondary cities, towards to urbanization and the country’s transition towards the digital era. Given this, there has been a significant rise in number of Vietnamese consumers who prefer to shop via online shopping platforms. Social commerce platforms in Vietnam are set to thrive in line with the growing population in various secondary cities.
Most recently, KVision has invested in Selly – a prominent startup in Vietnam that provides a social commerce service platform. Selly’s potential is marked by the highest engagement rate and a vast diversity of products to meet the desires of all customer groups, for example, cosmetics, home appliances and electronics, fabrics and garments, and tourism products, as well as their management team’s experience in operating tech startup businesses. Through this investment, KBank will gain new opportunities to join forces with Selly in developing services that will offer greater facilitation and financial product access to the Vietnamese population in the future, including services related to payments, transactions, and loans for retail business entrepreneurs. It is expected that Selly’s customers in the form of retail businesses with regular monthly sales income and good repayment capability will be the key target group of such loan products. Such investment has been made through Beacon Venture Capital Co., Ltd., which is KBank’s venture capital company.
Mr. Tuan Thong, Chief Executive Officer, Selly Co., Ltd., added that Selly is a new player among Vietnamese social commerce platforms. Due to overwhelming consumer responses, the company has grown rapidly. Just 10 months after launching the service, Selly has proven its potential with gross merchandise value that has grown up to 300x and more than 300,000 micro entrepreneurs on the platform – the highest compared to its peers in Vietnam. Following Selly’s current round of fund raising from Do Ventures, Genesia Ventures, CyberAgent Capital, JAFCO Asia, and KVision, Selly has set a target to steadily increase its share of the growing social commerce market in Vietnam. In addition, Selly will continue to support micro entrepreneurs to bolster their income with no investment risk in inventory sourcing.
About KVision
KBank founded KASIKORN VISION COMPANY LIMITED (KVision) as an investment holding company. KVision has capital of USD1,000 million, or approximately THB 34 billion (registered capital of THB12 billion) with an investment scope that spans the globe. KVision initially focuses on building a strong foundation in four target countries, including China, where there is a large pool of fintech companies; Indonesia; Vietnam, where tech startups have been among the fastest-growing sectors in ASEAN; and Israel, an incubator of tech talents where new technologies originate. The investment may be held directly by KVision or through Beacon Venture Capital Fund, which was founded in 2017.
About Selly
Selly, established in 2021 by Mr. Tuan Thong, Mr. Nam Huynh, Mr. Hai Nguyen and Mr. Dang Nguyen, is a leading social commerce platform in Vietnam, accessible for selling-buying digital products via social media such as Facebook, YouTube, Zalo, Instagram, Sendo, Tiki, Shopee and Lazada. Also, Selly is offering items with the leading brands, namely L’OREAL, MAC, SHEIN, AliExpress and Booking.com.
