Six Vietnamese representatives in Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia list

Hoang Nguyen of Ho Chi Minh City and Nguyen Thi Ngoc Huyen of Hanoi are named in the healthcare and science category.

Hoang, 29, is a cofounder of thuocsi.vn, a marketplace and platform for healthcare sourcing and distribution by linking pharmacies with licensed distributors.

Hoang Nguyen, cofounder of thuocsi.vn. Photo courtesy of Hoang Nguyen.

Founded in 2018, the startup operates an online marketplace matching orders with distributors and providing real-time pricing as well as logistics information.

In September last year thuocsi.vn raised $500,000 in seed funding from investors led by Singapore's Cocoon Capital and VietCapital Ventures.

Huyen, 26, is a cofounder and CEO of Medlink Asia, a healthtech startup launched in 2018 that disrupted the pharmaceutical distribution process by connecting drug companies directly with pharmacies bypassing intermediaries.

Within a year of launch Huyen successfully brought on board thousands of pharmacies and pharmaceutical companies. She has won several startup competitions, including Techsauce Global Pitch Competition in Thailand and Vietchallenge in the U.S.

Nguyen Thi Ngoc Huyen, CEO of Medlink Asia. Photo courtesy of Nguyen Thi Ngoc Huyen.

Han Ngoc Tuan Linh and Nghiem Xuan Huy of Hanoi are honored in the finance and venture capital category.

Linh, 29, is a cofounder and CEO of VSV Capital, a venture capital firm with $7 million worth of assets under management. So far it has made more than 70 investments, including in e-commerce startup Lozi and SaaS enterprise platform base. He says VSV Capital was the first early-stage startup investor in Vietnam when it was launched in 2014.

Han Ngoc Tuan Linh, CEO of VSV Capital. Photo courtesy of Han Ngoc Tuan Linh.

Huy, 28, quit his finance job in Australia and returned to Vietnam to establish Finhay, a micro-investment platform targeted at millennials, in 2017. It allows customers to invest as little as VND50,000 ($2.17) in mutual funds from Finhay’s investment portfolio.

Huy envisions Finhay as a one-stop solution for customers to manage their wealth. It recommends several micro-finance products including saving, investment and insurance based on the customer's personal information and risk appetite.

In 2019, Finhay raised $1 million in seed funding from Singapore’s Insignia Ventures Partners and other foreign investors.

Nghiem Xuan Huy, founder and CEO of Vietnamese fintech firm Finhay. Photo courtesy of Nghiem Xuan Huy.

Pham Khanh Linh, 26, appears on the Forbes list in the industry, manufacturing, energy category.

The Cambridge graduate founded Logivan, a web platform that helps truck operators connect with potential customers, in 2017, disrupting Vietnam's $25-billion trucking industry. Its truck-hailing platform enables real-time tracking and connects shippers directly with drivers, reducing the rate of vehicles returning empty and offering an income to independent drivers.

Pham Khanh Linh is founder of Logivan. Photo courtesy of Pham Khanh Linh.

With more than 44,000 truck drivers in its network, Logivan serves 30,000 individual shippers and 300 companies including Wilmar, Nestle and Crown.

Van has raised $7.9 million over three rounds from high-profile investors such as Insignia Venture Partners, David Su of Matrix Partners China and Vinacapital Ventures.

The last Vietnamese representative is Nguyen Thi Thu Trang, 30, CEO of WildAct, a non-profit which monitors the illegal wildlife trade and organizes educational programs for youths. She was honored in the social entrepreneurs category.

Growing up in Vietnam and seeing from a young age monkeys chained and sold on the streets and bears held captive to extract bile, she travels to conservation sites, safaris and national parks and works with the police and anti-poaching units in Africa and authorities in Asia to save animals.

For her advocacy, Nguyen was named by the BBC as one of the 100 most inspiring and influential women of 2019. In 2018 she was awarded the Future For Nature Award.

Nguyen Thi Thu Trang is a wildlife conservationist and CEO of Vietnam-based non-profit organization WildAct. Photo courtesy of Nguyen Thi Thu Trang.

This year’s Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia lists 300 young entrepreneurs, leaders and change makers from 22 countries and territories across the Asia-Pacific region chosen from over 3,500 entries.

The criteria for making the list include a demonstration of leadership, embodying the "entrepreneurial spirit that is synonymous with Forbes" and their potential for success in their industry.

Other factors like innovation, disruption – and size and growth of their ventures in some categories – also play a role.

India leads the region with the highest number of honorees on this year’s list, 69, followed by China with 41.