Vietnamese online gaming and technology firm VNG has invested $22.5 million in Telio, a B2B e-commerce company in its pre-Series B funding round.
Telio is a B2B e-commerce platform that links retailers with brands, brands and wholesalers through a centralized platform. At Telio’s Pre-Series B funding round, VNG officially poured in capital of 22.5 million USD, equivalent to 510 billion dong. This investment marks a strategic partnership to bring more comprehensive services to Telio’s partners and agents nationwide.
According to the strategic cooperation agreement, in addition to supporting Telio to grow and expand its business, VNG will also accompany Telio in increasing the popularity of the Telio booth on the Zalo platform, helping dealers Easily digitize order activities and track orders.
Meanwhile, VNG will offer ZaloPay e-wallet services to Telio’s network of 35,000 stores in 26 cities and provinces across Vietnam. The comapnies also have plans to offer financial support products to small- and medium-sized businesses in order to help them expand.
With more than 64 million monthly users and used by a large number of Vietnamese people, Zalo will contribute to promoting the potential of e-commerce, especially through the Zalo Official Account (OA) solution. Telio is also the first and only B2B platform to launch a booth on Zalo in October 2020, promoting contactless digital sales with the ability to cover all regions of the country.
At the same time, the payment solution via e-wallet ZaloPay will be deployed at retail stores. From there, VNG together with Telio will give small and medium-sized businesses the opportunity to access financial and credit products, supporting business expansion.
Bui Sy Phong, CEO and founder of Telio, said: “Việt Nam’s retail market is seeing big changes with more and more enterprises and retailers adopting IT to improve their business and quality. The co-operation between Telio and VNG will help us provide the most comprehensive services to everyone from manufacturers and brands to retailers and customers.”
Le Hong Minh, co-founder and CEO of VNG, said: “We appreciate the growth potential of Telio and want to co-operate with it to reach new growth milestones.”
Before Telio, VNG also invested in two other start-ups, EcoTruck (in the field of Logistic) and Got It (online gift platform) with the value of $3.7 million and $6 million, respectively.
In addition to the $22.5 million investment from VNG, Telio’s Pre-Series B funding round also had the participation of existing investors, GGV Capital and Tiger Global.
