Vietnamese popular IT recruitment platform TopDev has secured a seven-digit investment (in US dollars) from Saramin HR, one of the leading job recruitment companies in South Korea.

The new funding will be used to improve TopDev’s recruitment platform. The firm will also focus on increasing the supply of developers through training and on developing IT career programs for young people and students, said TopDev’s CEO and founder Nguyen Huu Binh.

Saramin HR, which is listed on South Korea’s electronic stock market KOSDAQ, said that the investment is part of its global development plan and that it will support TopDev’s potential expansion in Southeast Asia. 

TopDev is an IT recruitment platform run by Ho Chi Minh City-based company Applancer, which specializes in development of mobile apps. TopDev claims to work with 300,000 developers and customers mostly from tech companies in Vietnam and Southeast Asia.

According to TopDev, Vietnam currently has about 350,000 to 400,000 developers, but only 20% of them are active in finding new opportunities on job search sites. The demand for developers could reach 500,000 by 2021, the company added.

For many years, Vietnam has been a well-known hub for multinationals setting up offshore teams of developers, which has spurred demand for specialists in the country.