Abivin, a Vietnamese startup that provides AI-powered supply chain optimization, won the Startup World Cup competition this year which is doted with a USD 1 million prize.
Abivin had won the first prize at Vietnam’s National Creative Innovation Contest before representing its country in the championship to compete with other startups from 40 countries.
Founded in 2016, Startup World Cup is a global startup competition that selects champions in various cities and invites those to compete against each other in the finale in the US. It was initiated by Fenox VC, a firm that invests in startups globally but has had a Southeast Asian focus. It set up a base in Jakarta where it also runs the GnB accelerator. The Startup World Cup website this year doesn’t mention Fenox and says it’s “powered by” Pegasus VC, but this VC’s website include team pages and a portfolio that overlaps with Fenox to a high degree so this may be the same VC under a new brand.
Despite these close ties to the region, Abivin was the only representative from Southeast Asia to make it into this year’s Grand Finale round, according to Startup World Cup’s website. The competition was won by a Japanese startup in 2017 and by one from the US in 2018.
Abivin’s trademark product is a transportation management system that is equipped with features like route optimization, inventory management, and real-time tracking to help corporate clients create more efficient and optimal routing plans.
Besides investing in R&D the startup also plans to use the proceeds from the competition expand its operations to enter regional markets such as Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, and Myanmar.