Say hello to Vietnam’s Be Group! They own the multiservice consumer platform Be, which offers ride-hailing, food delivery, financial services, and more. With fresh funding of about $30.3M, they’re seen as the country’s next tech unicorn.

• If their services sound familiar, it’s because they’re competing with Grab and Gojek!

Investor check. VPBank Securities, a unit of Vietnam Prosperity Joint Stock Commercial Bank, funded the round. We hear that they’re also Be Group’s first institutional investor.

• This gives VPBS a minority stake in Be Holdings, the parent company of Be Group.

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🏍️ To Be a super app 

Ride-hailing (beBike, beCar, beTaxi). Last year, Be Group penned a deal with GSM, owned by local EV maker VinFast, to encourage drivers to switch to EVs. 

• They claim to hold 35% of the local ride-hailing market.
• As of December 2023, the group has 300K car and motorbike drivers on the platform and services 9M users across 40 provinces and cities.

Food delivery (beFood). Following Baemin’s exit from the local market, the platform has been lowering surcharges for small orders to attract customers. 

• FYI. GrabFood and ShopeeFood hold the lion’s share of the local food delivery market. 

Financing (beFinancial). In 2021, Be Group partnered up with VPBank to launch a digital banking service called Cake.

• Users can open accounts, transfer and receive money, pay bills, save deposits, and more—just like a traditional bank. 

Be also offers goods delivery services (beExpress and beDelivery), advertising solutions (beAds), and transportation services for employees (beCorporate).

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✅ Be(coming) profitable

Be Group plans to achieve profitability in the 2024 fiscal year with positive EBITDA earnings. 

• Also, they aim to serve 20M users in Vietnam and reach $200M in annual gross revenue by 2026.