Vietnam’s social commerce platform Mio raises funds to empower women entrepreneurs

Mio, a social commerce platform that seeks to bring financial independence to women small entrepreneurs in rural areas in Vietnam, has caught the attention of investors.

Venturra Discovery and Golden Gate Ventures has co-anchored a $1-million funding in the startup, with iSeed SEA, Gokul Rajaram, and others participation.

Founded in June 2020, Mio seeks to enable women in lower-tier and rural cities in Vietnam to become micro-entrepreneurs through community selling. In Vietnam, rural consumers account for 63 per cent of the population and 60 per cent of the total GDP.

Since its launch, Mio said it has enabled hundreds of entrepreneurs, mostly women from 25-35 years old in lower-tier regions of Vietnam, to create their own professional identity, grow their businesses, increase income and become agents of change in their communities.

The startup provides a platform that helps women entrepreneurs build, launch, and promote their online business without any investment. Mio also supports them with training, order management, fulfillment, and logistics.

Hundreds of Mio’s micro-entrepreneurs are making an extra 2 million dong ($86.92) to 8 million dong ($347.69) per month, which is substantial given that their monthly incomes are less than 8 million dong ($350).

Mio’ seed capital will be used to invest in distribution centers, hire more people for its tech and product teams to build a suite of new customer acquisition and selling tools. The startup also plans to add more personalization options for its resellers and product categories.

Vidit Aatrey & Sanjeev Barnwal, co-founders of Meesho, a social commerce unicorn in India, also invested in the funding round. They will join Gokul Rajaram in becoming advisors to Mio CEO Trung Huynh.

“We are excited to partner with Mio in their mission of providing affordable products to Vietnamese people by building a new distribution channel from micro-entrepreneurs, many of them women,” said Aatrey.