KHOI NGUYEN, FOUNDER OF WEFIT
Khoi Nguyen is the founder of WeFit, a platform that connects gyms and fitness studios with customers. He is known in the startup community as a pioneer in applying technology to the health and fitness industry.
WeFit was established in 2016, with Khoi Nguyen as the Founder & CEO leading a team of 12 people.
WeFit quickly gained popularity and, within a year of its launch, had acquired approximately 5,000 monthly users and 600 partners in both Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, with a revenue of $700,000 in 2017.
Khoi’s success with WeFit landed him in the top 3 potential CEOs at the Startup Festival 2016, the top 10 outstanding young faces of Vietnam in 2017, and the Forbes Vietnam 30 Under 30 list in 2018.
In 2019, WeFit successfully raised $1 million in funding from CyberAgent Capital, increasing its charter capital from $1.66 million to $27.7 million. However, mistakes in management policies led to significant challenges for the startup. Their business model, which offered unlimited training packages to all users, faced issues with “cheating,” where multiple people shared one account, and fake bookings.
Following numerous reports of debt to gym and spa partners, as well as negative feedback from customers regarding changes to the structure of previously sold product packages, Khoi Nguyen stepped down as CEO of WeFit in February 2020. On May 11, 2020, WeFit announced that it had filed for bankruptcy due to depleted funds.
After the collapse of WeFit, Khoi Nguyen kept a low profile in the business world. In June 2022, he resurfaced as the CEO of Kien Guru, a small-class education company.
In May 2023, the entrepreneur updated his LinkedIn profile, announcing his return to the industry in a new role as Chief Innovation Officer at Apero Technologies Group. However, according to his LinkedIn profile, he left Apero in December 2023.
NGUYEN VAN DUNG, FOUNDER OF LUXSTAY
Nguyen Van Dung is known by nicknames such as “self-made millionaire” and “CEO who skipped college” due to his early success and passion for technology. He started his first business at the age of 18 and has since founded two successful startups, Netlink and Metub, becoming a millionaire in his early twenties.
Driven by the aspiration to build a Vietnamese “unicorn” startup, Nguyen Van Dung established Luxstay in 2017 as a premium accommodation-sharing platform with a nationwide network.
Luxstay leverages technology to connect customers with accommodation service providers, allowing them to transact directly through the Internet instead of relying on intermediaries or travel agents.
With the potential of the tourism industry at that time, Luxstay’s home-sharing model caught the attention of many investment funds and large investors. In 2017, the company received funding from two funds, Genesia Ventures and ESP Capital. In 2018, the startup successfully raised an additional $2.5 million from Genesia Ventures, Founders Capital, Y1 Ventures, and two other investors.
At the beginning of 2019, Luxstay secured an additional $3 million from CyberAgent and other investors. Later that year, they raised $4.5 million from two South Korean investors. Luxstay also gained fame by appearing on the TV show Shark Tank season 3, where they received an additional $6 million in investments, becoming the startup with the highest amount of funding in the show’s history.
However, the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020 dealt a heavy blow to the tourism industry, and Luxstay was no exception. In 2022, the startup underwent a restructuring phase, changing its name to LuxWorld and transitioning to a GameFi business model that utilizes Web3 and NFT technology.
KEVIN TUNG NGUYEN, FOUNDER OF JOBHOPIN
Kevin Tung Nguyen is a well-known name in the startup community, having founded JobHopin, a recruitment platform that made it to the Forbes 30 under 30 Asia list in 2019.
JobHopin utilizes AI and machine learning to automate the recruitment process. The platform claims to have grown its revenue by over 300% annually since 2018 and expected to turn a profit in the Vietnamese market by early 2021.
In 2020, JobHopin boasted over 2,000 enterprise customers. When these enterprises uploaded candidate resumes to the application, JobHopin would automatically analyze which jobs the candidates were most suitable for and how well their skills and career desires matched the criteria of the recruiters.
JobHopin, officially registered as CTCP Doanh Nghiep Xa Hoi Ivy Care (Ivy Care), was established on August 5, 2016, with a focus on elderly healthcare services. Its charter capital was initially 2.5 billion VND, later increased to 3.4 billion VND.
In 2018, JobHopin successfully raised $710,000 in seed funding led by KK Fund and Japanese human resources service company Mynavi Corporation.
In May 2020, JobHopin secured $2.45 million in Series A funding, bringing its total funding to over $3 million.
That same year, Ivy Care increased its capital by 20 times to 71.6 billion VND with the participation of a foreign investor from Singapore, JOBHOP PTE. LTD., which held 99% of the shares. The capital was further increased to 163.3 billion VND in early 2023, and the company’s main business line shifted to management consulting (excluding financial, accounting, and legal consulting).
According to financial reports published on the Hanoi Stock Exchange, in 2023, CTCP Doanh Nghiep Xa Hoi Ivy Care incurred a loss of nearly 33 billion VND. The company also reported losses of over 25 billion VND in 2022 and 33 billion VND in 2021. With these consecutive losses, as of December 2023, the company’s owner’s equity had decreased to 48 billion VND, indicating a minimum accumulated loss of 115 billion VND.
Recently, Techinasia reported that founder Kevin Tung Nguyen has temporarily shut down JobHopin and Skola due to legal disputes with his wife over the ownership of Skola, an edtech platform registered in both Vietnam and Singapore.
