Investor Profile: ThinkZone Ventures — Thesis, Cheque Size & How to Apply

Vietnamese founders looking for more than capital should study ThinkZone Ventures funding. ThinkZone Ventures is a Hanoi-based early-stage venture firm and accelerator founded in 2019, backed by Vietnamese conglomerates IPA Investments, Phu Thai Holdings and the Stavian Group — and ranked by Tech in Asia as Vietnam's most active startup investor.

Its edge is what it calls standing 'on the shoulders of giants': portfolio startups get strategic advisory, distribution channels and customer access through domestic conglomerate ecosystems. For founders selling into Vietnamese corporates, that network can be worth more than the cheque.

ThinkZone Ventures: the investment thesis

ThinkZone says it backs 'visionary technology founders from Pre-Seed to Series A with capital, market expansion, and Vietnam's extensive corporate partnership network'. Fund II targeted fintech, edtech, healthcare, transportation and digital transformation; the newer Global Minds Fund I is sector-agnostic with a lean towards AI, SaaS and healthtech, and it welcomes international startups expanding into Vietnam — positioning ThinkZone as a gateway into the Vietnamese market. The BK Fund, which ThinkZone took over managing in June 2025, targets deep-tech startups from the Hanoi University of Science and Technology (HUST) community.

Sectors, stages and cheque size

Stages run from pre-seed to Series A across all funds; Global Minds Fund I prioritises teams with Vietnamese elements — founding, operations or market — plus international-expansion potential and social impact. Cheque sizes are publicly stated: up to US$3 million per startup for Fund II, up to US$1 million per company for both Global Minds Fund I and the BK Fund, while the accelerator writes US$50k–100k cheques alongside support packages worth more than US$150k per startup. Fund size: Fund II is US$60 million, announced in February 2022 and billed as the largest locally-founded tech VC fund in Vietnam; the sizes of Fund I, Global Minds Fund I and BK Fund are not publicly disclosed.

Notable portfolio

Verified portfolio names include GIMO (salary-advance fintech, Y Combinator W2022), EMDDI (Vietnam's largest taxi-dispatching platform, around 30,000 vehicles across 50+ provinces), Edupia/Educa (edtech with more than 5 million users), eJOY (English-learning edtech, roughly 1 million users globally), Fundiin (buy-now-pay-later fintech), Smulie and Dicamon — the firm says it had backed 16 startups as of June 2025. Leadership includes founding partner and CEO Bui Thanh Do and investment director Doan Hai Nam.

Programs and perks

The ThinkZone Accelerator runs cohort intakes — Batch 5 launched in February 2022 — with named perk partners including AWS, Deloitte, Goldsun Media, FPT Play, Vietnambiz, MISA and HubSpot, plus a Startup Academy training arm and a mentor network spanning VNDirect, Viettel, Be Group, G-Group and Unilever.

How to apply for funding

The verified route is direct: email [email protected] or call +84 24 7100 9999 (both published in the firm's own fund-launch post). Accelerator intakes are announced per batch, so founders targeting the programme should watch the firm's announcements; no dedicated online application form was found.