• IDGVV Press Releases

IDG Ventures Vietnam opens Hanoi office and invests in VinaGame and VietnamWorks.com

HANOI, VIETNAM – JUNE 1ST, 2005

IDG Ventures, the first American technology venture capital fund in Vietnam, is pleased to announce that the fund has officially opened its offices in Hanoi, Vietnam at Vincom City Tower B on this date, June 1st, 2005.
The Hanoi office will be the center of IDG Ventures Vietnam’s investment operations in northern Vietnam and will also serve as a resource center for entrepreneurs and startup companies in Vietnam. The Hanoi Office will work in close cooperation with the Fund’s Ho Chi Minh City Office to coordinate its investments activities – including the identification and evaluation of promising companies, due diligence review, and management of portfolio companies. The IDG Ventures staff in Hanoi will identify and work with startup companies with strong growth potential in a broad range of technology sectors in Vietnam. In addition to its investment activities, the fund will work actively to promote science and technology education and development in Hanoi and throughout Vietnam.

Hoang B. Nguyen, Managing General Partner of IDG Ventures Vietnam, states that: “Hanoi has historically been the cultural, political, and intellectual center of Vietnam and an exciting area of rapid economic growth and development. It is an exciting environment for early stage, private companies. Our office here will give us a place to work side-by-side with our invested portfolio companies and work directly with the local government and business community to develop the entrepreneurial technology market in Vietnam.

In conjunction with its official office opening in Hanoi, IDG Ventures Vietnam is also announcing its investments in two exciting companies which are leaders in their respective sectors, VinaGame and VietnamWorks.com/Navigos Group. “We are extremely excited about VinaGame and VietnamWorks.com as they are two terrific companies with excellent management teams. VinaGame is an innovative online gaming company that has the focus and passion to be the market leader in this emerging and exciting sector. Furthermore, they are led by some of the most experienced gamers in Vietnam who are part of an excellent management team. VietnamWorks,com was the first and still the leading online job recruitment website in Vietnam. It serves the critical function of both helping companies find the best people and helping the best people to find the best jobs. It will continue to be an innovator in HR services for small, medium, and large domestic and multinational companies.”

IDG Ventures Vietnam is continuing to push forward with its early investments and the progress it has made so far. The Fund looks forward to announcing some of its other exciting portfolio companies in the near future. The Fund has made rapid progress in the last few months thanks to the hard work, support, and cooperation of the Vietnamese government and public officials, the business community, and the Fund’s hardworking staff.

About Vinagame

VinaGame is the first company in Vietnam focused on Massively Multiplayer Online Games. Staffed with passionate gamers, VinaGame couples world-class talent with extensive local partnerships. Delivering world-class operational excellence, VinaGame combines localized game operations expertise, marketing savvy, a world-class data center exclusively dedicated to game hosting, and the most effective scratch-off card distribution network in Vietnam. VinaGame is headquartered in Ho Chi Minh City, the commercial heart of Vietnam with a regional sales subsidiary in Hanoi. The company currently employs 50 staff in total.
VinaGame has an exclusive license for “Swordsman Online” for the Vietnam market. Swordsman Online is a top-ranked game in China, where it attracts more than 1.2 million users. The game is based on Chinese martial arts novels (“Kim Dung novels”) which are highly popular in Vietnam. The game has been localized and beta tested and will be launched on the June 11th, 2005. For further information about this game, please visit the website at: www.volam.com.vn.

For further information about VinaGame, please contact:

Le Hong Minh
Chairman
383A Dien Bien Phu, District 3
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Tel:+84 8-832-8426
Mobile: 0913-875-329
minh.le@vina-game.com

About VietnamWorks.com/NAVIGOS Group

VietnamWorks.com is the leading career and recruiting website in Vietnam, delivering talented employees to the largest multinational companies and the most successful local companies and a host of valuable tools for job seekers and employers.
Using advanced technology and targeted marketing, VietnamWorks.com provides quick and cost-effective web-based recruiting solutions. For job seekers, VietnamWorks.com provides the most effective way to look for and land a new job, offering the most jobs and the best jobs with the best companies. For employers, VietnamWorks.com provides the most cost effective and technologically advanced recruiting platform available, offering the most and highest quality applicants for any job.

VietnamWorks.com launched in 2002 and is the leading recruiting website in Vietnam, receiving over 8000 new registered users every month with job postings from the most well known and prestigious companies in Vietnam.

Founded in 2002, Navigos Group is the leading foreign-owned and managed Human Resource Services firm in Vietnam. Specializing in Executive Search, Corporate Training, HR Consulting, Market Research, and Outsourcing, we provide comprehensive HR solutions to top multi-national corporations and successful local businesses.

Both VietnamWorks.com and Navigos are now operated by Management Consulting Group, Ltd., a British Virgin Islands company with a Representative Office in Ho Chi Minh City.

For more information about VietnamWorks.com and Navigos, please contact:

Mr. Jonah Levey
Managing Director
VietnamWorks.com / Navigos Group, Ltd.
Tel: 84 8 4041 373
Fax:(84) 8 404 1372
Mobile: (84) 90 832 8355
11 C Lam Son Square
4th Fl, Dist 1, HCMC.
Email: jonah@vietnamworks.com

About IDG Ventures

IDG Ventures is a global venture capital firm with more than $1 billion under management and a portfolio of over 125 companies built over the past 12 years. The fund pursues investment opportunities across a broad array of technology industry sectors including enterprise software, communications software, Internet enabling software, wireless technologies and services, IT-related technologies and services, media, and biotechnology. With offices in Boston, London, San Francisco, Seattle, and throughout China and Vietnam, the firm invests in early-stage companies, partnering with entrepreneurs to build category leaders. The firm’s limited partner, International Data Group (IDG), is the world’s largest IT media, research, and event company. Through this partnership, IDG Ventures can uniquely add value to its portfolio companies by facilitating revenue acceleration and global expansion and establishing relationships with key strategic partners. For more information, please visit www.idgventures.com.

For further information, please contact:

Nguyen Que Anh
IDG Ventures Vietnam
queanh_nguyen@idgvv.com.vn/en
84-4-220 0348 – Hanoi office
84-8-827 8888 – Hochiminh City office
http://www.idgvv.com.vn/en