Takuya Honna and Christy Wong, Manabie founders, talk about the Manabie formula, teacher empowerment and bringing his high-tech version of Total Education to Vietnam.

Vietcetera sat down with Xuan Nguyen, one of the co-founders, to talk about her startup journey. As a serial entrepreneur, Xuan has been running her own businesses for over ten years, with her recent startup Fonos taking Vietnam's fledgling audiobook market by storm.

The longest Tet holiday in history is finally behind us and so are the restrictions on domestic travel. The entire country, it seems, is logging back into their favorite hotel booking sites in search of staycation deals, of which there are plenty. While the Hangover-style weekend in Bangkok has to wait, Vietnam’s established and emerging destinations are all rolling out their red carpets to welcome the cabin-fevered residents. In fact, many locations more than hold their own in terms of […]

Hoi An’s paddy fields and vegetable gardens are the stuff of legend. Row upon row of organically-grown fish mint, Thai basil and fragrant coriander glisten in the sun. What doesn’t get snapped up by the restaurants lining up the banks of Thu Bon river, ends up in neat piles at Hoi An’s excellent wet markets. The best stuff will of course be gone long before the tourists totter out of their homestays. For travelers who want to be let in […]

FEBE Ventures, an early-stage VC firm with headquarters in Singapore, has a soft spot for entrepreneurs. As a company founded by serial entrepreneurs (FEBE stands for For Entrepreneurs, By Entrepreneurs), it exclusively invests in startups with a “founders-friendly” cap table ensuring founders avoid excessive dilution at an early stage. This understanding of founders’ pain points helps FEBE to build trust, solve problems and scale businesses quickly by sharing key learnings from the fund’s founders’ past successes and failures. FEBE’s core […]

Gone are the days when expansion managers would bundle Vietnam with other emerging markets in the belief that what worked in Jakarta would work, with a few tweaks, in Saigon.  Lately, Vietnam’s ability to consistently generate business opportunities that appeal to multinationals has turned it into an investment epicenter. While some parallels can be drawn between the opening of China’s economy in the 80s and the investment gold rush Vietnam is experiencing today, the country’s highly idiosyncratic business culture and […]