500 Startups, a U.S.-based venture capital firm with a growing penchant for investing in Asian startups, has kickstarted a $10 million fund in Vietnam.
The fund will aim to make at least 100 investments in Vietnamese startups, with one-time check sizes reaching as high as $250,000, the company announced on Monday.
The VC firm was founded by Dave McClure, an angel investor who worked for both Paypal (PYPL) and Founders Fund before he started 500 Startups in 2010.
Over the past year, according to TechCrunch, 500 Startups has started a $30 million fund in Japan, a $25 million fund in India, and upped its pool for Southeast Asia to $22 million. Last year, the firm closed a global fund of $85 million with nearly 500 investors that included Yahoo Japan and marketing agency Dentsu.
Vietnam is seeing increasing interest from VC firms, who are targeting a population of around 90 million people living in an economy that’s growing at around 6% annually in recent years. Around 43% of the population are online, and there are around 147 mobile phones for every 100 people. In 2014, Vietnam also became the fastest growing market for Apple (AAPL).
