To digitise small retailers, Vietnam’s bookkeeping startup SoBanHang raised US $1.5 M

SoBanHang, a Vietnamese bookkeeping app for small businesses, has raised US $1.5 million in a seed round led by FEBE Ventures, Class 5, a US-based venture capital firm, and individuals such as Business Insider founder Kevin P. Ryan.

The firm hopes to use the additional funding to assist small merchants in setting up online storefronts and managing orders, allowing them to access Vietnam’s 16 million nano- and micro-businesses.

The firm develops for MSMEs using the Shopify Lite and Digital Ledger models, according to the press release. SoBanHang plans to expand its financial services to include working capital loans that may be dispensed without the use of a digital wallet or bank account, according to Techcrunch.

SoBanHang was founded three months ago by Hai Long Bui, chief analytics and CTO of Landers Superstore (a Philippine supermarket chain), and Hai Nam Bui, a former Lazada executive.

The startup’s bookkeeping solution helps firms, particularly family-owned enterprises with less than five employees, digitize their operations. It provides businesses with an online storefront system that allows them to retain ties with consumers while planning for future COVID-19 outbreaks.

As of August, the company claims to have signed up almost 20,000 businesses. During the pandemic, there was also an increase in registration from food and convenience stores.

In the recent interview with TechCrunch, co-founder Hai Nam Bui said that most Vietnamese retailers are not used to the payment process with third-party logistics providers or digital wallets. “That was an aha moment when I realized that a lot of e-commerce platforms are still not touchable to about 90 percent of retailers in Vietnam.”

Many Vietnamese micro-sized companies, according to SoBanHang’s research, are local, serving customers within a few kilometers of their site and making deliveries on foot. Because they didn’t have a point-of-sale system or a laptop, they had to do everything by hand on paper.

As a result, SoBanHang avoids convoluted logistics and payment systems that require merchants to use high-cost third-party delivery apps.

When the lockdown restrictions are released, the co-founder believes that SoBanHang can assist small companies to compete against larger firms like supermarkets and convenience stores.

“The buyers and sellers are actually within walking distance. So when they connect with buyers, they can make that order transaction, and then retailers deliver the goods themselves and collect the money at the customer’s doorstep,” said Hai Nam Bui.

Many small firms across the world still rely on homemade or excel spreadsheets to manage their supply chains, according to Dave Anderson, managing general partner at Supply Chain Ventures in the United States.

“Making supply chain toolsets available inexpensively across the globe to small businesses will help these companies increase profits, compete with neighbouring shops, and generally improve the lives of millions of owners and their families,” Anderson added. “The democratization of supply chain technology is a real and important trend, one that will help create a better world for many.”