Six women-led agricultural enterprises across the Mekong Delta in Vietnam have successfully secured up to AUD60,000 (VND1 billion) each to take their businesses to the next level, thanks to Deltaccelerate.

Deltaccelerate is a women’s agribusiness climate adaptation accelerator funded by the Australian Government that provides customised training and tailored support for women-focused small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Mekong Delta to build their capacity in sustainable business practices and strengthen their resilience to climate adaptation.

The six successful businesses were selected from a cohort of 14 Deltaccelerate participants following a competitive Pitch Day event on 17 October 2024 in Can Tho city. They include:

Mekong Coconut Oil Company Limited (Cocovie)

Producing and trading high-quality cosmetic and food products from coconut oil in Ben Tre province, focusing on preserving and utilizing coconut trees over 10 years old, which can absorb 75 tons of CO2 per hectare per year.

Cau Ke Macapuno Coconut Processing Co., Ltd (VICOSAP)

Specialising in confectionery products, baking ingredients and drinks made from macapuno coconuts, a specialty of Tra Vinh province cultivated by the Khmer community and known for their high saline tolerance, making them an ideal climate-adaptive crop.

Palmania JSC

Creating healthy, organic products from palmyra trees using sustainable farming methods rooted in the indigenous Khmer community in An Giang province.

AirXCarbon/Veritas Vietnam JSC

Transforming biomaterials, including coconut husks from the Mekong Delta, into zero-carbon consumer products.

Dam Doi Sesarmid Cooperative

Producing a range of sustainable products from locally-caught sesarmids and shrimps in Ca Mau province.

Ecoka JSC

Producing and trading handicrafts made from adaptive materials, including water hyacinth and bulrush, from Hau Giang province on global e-commerce platforms.

Each enterprise will now receive this financial support to scale their business through trade promotion, marketing, product development and training initiatives. Deltaccelerate’s total contribution of AUD250,000 (VND4 billion) will also leverage AUD320,000 (VND5 billion) in co-funding from the enterprises to further amplify its impact.

The Deltaccelerate program is part of the Business Partnership Platform (BPP), an Australian Government initative implemented by Palladium. Deltaccelerate is managed by New Energy Nexus Vietnam (NEXVN) and continues to foster innovative solutions for climate adaptation and sustainable development in the Mekong Delta.

About the Business Partnerships Program (BPP)

The BPP supports business partnerships between DFAT and inclusive, commercially sustainable businesses to deliver strategic development outcomes, with a focus on gender equality, disability, social inclusion and climate impact. Since 2016, it has supported 75 partnerships in 21 countries, partnering with 147 organisations across the private sector, social business, NGOs and academic institutions.

The Australian Government has invested more than AUD31 million in BPP partnerships, with partners contributing more than AUD51 million.

About the Deltaccelerate

Deltaccelerate is made possible by a unique partnership between the Australian Government and New Energy Nexus through the Business Partnerships Platform (BPP) Climate Adaptation Partnerships in the Mekong Delta, announced in November 2023.

Deltaccelerate is a business accelerator funded by the Australian Government providing direct support, tailored training, and networking opportunities for enterprises that work in the Mekong Delta’s agricultural sector, which are led by or significantly benefit women and contribute to the sector’s resilience to climate adaptation.

The Partnerships are part of the Australian Government’s AUD94.5 million investments for climate change adaptation in the Mekong Delta.

Drone photo of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

Ho Chi Minh City, 30 September 2024 – Vietnam’s rapidly growing climate tech startup ecosystem secured US$92.6 million in cumulative financing for 49 startups between 2015-2023, according to the first report to map the growth of the country’s funding ecosystem. 

The Vietnam Climate Tech Ecosystem report released today by New Energy Nexus and Clickable Impact with support from the Swiss Entrepreneurship Program (Swiss EP, shows that there is huge room for growth as climate tech funding contributed only four percent of Vietnam’s total venture capital investment in 2023—well below the global average of 10 percent.

“Vietnam witnessed a remarkable acceleration in investment from 2021-2023, with funding for climate tech startups averaging 365 percent growth year-over-year,” said Thao Tran, country head of New Energy Nexus Vietnam, one of the few organizations building a clean energy innovation ecosystem to support climate startups. “This shows that there’s a strong ecosystem to support clean energy innovators to develop their ideas, but that there’s a funding crunch when it comes to commercialisation and deploying this tech where it’s needed most,”

“We see great room for entrepreneurial support organizations like New Energy Nexus to help Vietnam’s climate tech entrepreneurs build more commercially sound businesses, improve their investment readiness, and connect with both domestic and international capital,” said Jason Lusk, managing partner of Clickable Impact.

Key findings from the report:

• Among the 49 funded startups, 76 percent have been founded since 2019.
• Most deals have been early-stage, with seed and Series A funding comprising 47 percent of the deal count. Only two startups have graduated to Series B, a funding round that signals a startup’s readiness to scale.
• Most climate tech startups operated out of Vietnam’s largest cities: Ho Chi Minh City (65.3%) and Hanoi (26.5%).
• Farming and food production startups raised 48.4 percent of all climate tech funding in Vietnam.

Although funding for the circular economy and carbon sectors remains limited, there is an emerging trend marked by an increasing number of startups in these areas. This aligns with the growth in grant funding, which could lead to a higher number of investable startups in the next business cycle.

Furthermore, while many startups and investors remain optimistic about fundraising, a gap persists between investable startups and investors with a deep understanding of the market and the specific challenges faced by early-stage ventures.

Vietnam is highly vulnerable to climate change; according to the World Bank, the country faces potential economic losses of up to 12-14.5 percent of its annual GDP by 2050.¹ Climate tech entrepreneurship is critical in mitigating Vietnam’s greenhouse gas emissions and empowering the country’s communities and industries to build climate resilience.

Notes:

[1] World Bank (2022). Vietnam Country Climate and Development Report.