Startup Wheel 2020 attracted the participation of more than 1,900 startups from Vietnam and 19 countries on 5 continents.
Startup Wheel is one of the largest and longest run competitions in Asia and has been successfully organized for 7 years. In 2020, despite the Covid-19, Startup Wheel 2020 still maintained the spirit of connecting local and international startup ecosystems together. The competition aims to create a solid launchpad to support startup communities in recovering quickly and developing stronger when stepping in the “new normal” period.
How did BSSC cope with the pandemic?
In the context of the Covid-19’s influence during the first 6 months of 2020, most of the events and programs at a large and small scale in Vietnam and worldwide have been postponed. BSSC, the organizer of Startup Wheel, as a leading startup support organization in Vietnam, was the pioneer moving forward. To be specific, BSSC implemented a series of practical activities in a timely manner to support the Vietnamese startup community overcoming difficulties. With the statement “This is not the time to go ALONE, this is the time to go TOGETHER”, Ms. Nguyen Thi Dieu Hang – CEO of BSSC had fastly leaded BSSC to carry out programs in parallel:
- “Mentoring 1on1” and “Help Startup”, which bring timely and practical help to startups: pointing out problems and suggesting quick responses, and encouraging startups to keep the spirit of “startup warriors”;
- “Startup Wheel competition”, accelerating local startups for the next development phase, tractions, and fundraising; and creating rooms for international startups expanding their business to the Vietnam market and connecting with the startup ecosystem in Asia.
The Interview session of Startup Wheel International Track had been kicked off online
By February 2020, BSSC understood that many countries were put under social distances due to the pandemic. This period was also the important stage of Startup Wheel 2020: launching the competition and kicking off the preliminary round in Vietnam and other countries.
The interview session of SW International Track 2020 was conducted online.
To deal with that situation, all communication activities for Startup Wheel International Track 2020 were totally carried out online. Instead of running kick-off events in other countries like Korea and Thailand as the last year, the competition was calling for applications via various media channels, including international partners’. In the first 6 months, BSSC had signed MOU online and working closely with 35 international partners, 200 local partners who are Venture Capitalists, Incubators, Investors, media partners, big corporations … to promote and call for applications in their startup community. Thanks to the support from the partners, BSSC had run the competition successfully at the first stage.
On this occasion, BSSC would like to thank all the international partners from 8 countries for promoting and recommending the competition strongly to their startup community.
Startup Wheel 2020 – A solid launchpad for the startup communities to start with the “new normal” period.
With “hot heart and cold head”, despite facing many difficulties, BSSC still continued the Startup Wheel competition 2020, turning it into a solid launchpad that gathered local and international resources to support the startup communities for “the new normal” period.
After 6 months, BSSC is happy to share its initial achievement that the Startup Wheel 2020 attracted the participation of more than 1,900 Vietnamese and International startups from 20 countries on 5 continents. To be one of the Top 50 International Track as the list below, the candidate had competed with 176 applications from 19 countries in the screening round; been evaluated through an Online Interview session and Business plan writing session. Now Startup Wheel would like to announce the Top 50 International Track 2020 as follows:
| ID | Representative | Startup Name |
| 0266 | Deok Hwa Shin | Vietmate Co., Ltd |
| 0405 | Byun Kang-Hyun | Soul Link |
| 0453 | Ji Min Kim | Minonatural |
| 0457 | Lucy Jung | Telcokorea IS |
| 0522 | Kim Jae Hyun | R.O.C.K Co. Ltd. |
| 1125 | Seungyong Kim | Coconut Silo |
| 1083 | Hyunmin Suh | Global Order Co., Ltd. |
| 1075 | Joseph Kong | Danbi Corp. |
| 1168 | Natnicha Rungruangrit | Globish Academia |
| 0206 | Chen Chi Wei | XiangQuan agricultural Co., Ltd |
| 1146 | Elaine Leong | Ouracle |
| 1228 | Daniel Shen | Soqqle |
| 0296 | Tipu Sultan | Clipboard |
| 1140 | Oh Chu Xian | MAGORIUM |
| 0509 | Piyawat Sangprasertkrid | Verily Vision |
| 0394 | Michael Nguyen | Petkix – World Best Treat Tossing Dog Camera |
| 1013 | Annie – Nguyen Thu Trang Thien | Reziena CO., LTD. |
| 0503 | Yoon Seung Kim | LabSD, Inc. |
| 1044 | Kim Kevin | Winning.I Company Limited |
| 1010 | Woo Gyun Lee | CVT – Creative Value Technology |
| 1130 | Jinsok Lee | OpusM Inc. |
| 1163 | Na Yung Roh | Marine Innovation |
| 1038 | Joshua Park | Interbrid Inc. |
| 1194 | Tom Peng | GoSell |
| 1133 | Siwawong Wuttipongprasert | Remote-Care |
| 1128 | Rodolfo Ponce de Leon | KULROOM |
| 0210 | TSAI Yu Jie | Sinin Technology and Design |
| 1064 | Jeerayut | Vecabo |
| 1220 | Aarti Darooka | Darwin Travel Tech Private Limited |
| 1073 | Andrew Loh kar fei | Table 2 Own |
| 1108 | Ngo Ngoc Minh | TradingView Inc. |
| 1148 | Zhen Yang Yap | Engage |
| 0130 | Dongwan Park | Neptune Korea |
| 0124 | Jony Jung | bitsensing Inc. |
| 1209 | Jonas Larsson | Concordia Ventures |
| 1046 | Chris Chae | Fin2B |
| 1206 | Vidya Choudhary | Avidia Labs |
| 0208 | Amir Kamandi | FastPong |
| 0313 | Ido Levy | SafeMode |
| 1018 | Nicholas Chang | 42Maru |
| 0470 | Hyeonjeong Lee | ClimbMax |
| 1072 | Wonjin Hong | SEEDN |
| 0118 | Charlie Park | Komachine |
| 1145 | Cesar Henrique Noda | VRGlass Korea |
| 1131 | Kristin Kagetsu | Saathi |
| 1280 | Lee Jin | Tictag.io |
| 1144 | Sumin Yi | Wayne Hills Ventures |
| 1253 | Seo Jeong IL | Clean Tech. Co., Ltd |
| 0120 | Lee Keon Woo | CarrotPhant |
| 0241 | Charis Sfyrakis | Algomo |
Startup Wheel 2020 at the next stage
In July 2020, Startup Wheel 2020 will implement the Top 100 training session and select the Top 60 Vietnam Track. Besides, BSSC is preparing for Vietnam Startup Day 2020 taking place on August 21 & 22, 2020. However, with the complicated situation of Covid-19 around the world, The Startup Day event for the International Track is tentatively pushed back to November this year and be looped in The Ho Chi Minh City Innovation, Startup and Entrepreneurship Week (WHISE) – one of the largest startup programs in Vietnam executed by BSSC under the direction of the Department of Science and Technology. The same as the Vietnam Track, Top 50 will join the semi-final and the final round and have a 2-day exhibition in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
Learning more information about Vietnam Startup Day 2020 via https://bssc.vn/en/vietnam-startup-day-2020/