Restaurant review platform Riviu raises $3.6 mln abroad

By Vu Khanh September 23, 2020 | 09:00 pm PT

The user interface of the Riviu app. Photo courtesy of Riviu.

Restaurant review platform Riviu has raised $3.6 million from foreign investors as it seeks to expand to major cities.

The startup, established in February, has a website and smartphone app on which people have reviewed over 120,000 eateries and cafes in major cities including Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.

It began in 2019 as a Facebook group, which now has nearly 930,000 members who make over 2,600 posts a month.

Riviu CEO Dang Le Huy said that the platform seeks to be an intermediary between customers and businesses by publishing feedback from real users to improve service quality.

"We want our users to become familiar with the word ‘Riviu’ just like we say ‘Google’ instead of ‘search.’"

Huy worked for Google in Singapore for four years, and he founded the platform with three other tech guys who had prior experience in building startups.

The company seeks to expand to locations like Da Nang City and Nha Trang Town in the central region and develop more review categories such as beauty and entertainment services.

It recently merged a popular eatery listing website, DiaDiemAnUong.com, and its Facebook fan page with 3.7 million followers.