Vietnam records strongest private capital rebound in years despite zero IPO exits

[HO CHI MINH CITY] Vietnam’s private capital market staged its strongest recovery in years in 2025, as investor confidence returned to one of South-east Asia’s fastest-growing economies.

Last year, private equity (PE) investments reached a record high and venture capital (VC) funding rebounded after bottoming out in 2024.

The newly released Vietnam Innovation & Private Capital Report 2026 indicated that total private capital deployment doubled to about US$4.5 billion across 149 deals in 2025.

This was driven by stronger appetite for buyouts and growth equity, alongside a recovery in early-stage startup funding, particularly in artificial intelligence.

Yet, the industry is facing a contradiction: Despite the growing investor appetite, not a single VC or PE-backed company has exited through a formal initial public offering (IPO) – at least in the last five years.

VC funding recovers from 2024 low

The report was jointly launched on Thursday (May 28) by the Vietnam Private Capital Agency (VPCA), Vietnam National Innovation Center and Boston Consulting Group.

It highlighted that VC funding recovered from its 2024 low with a 28 per cent year-on-year jump to US$509 million in 2025.

This was even as deal count declined 13 per cent to 103 and the number of investors fell 19 per cent to 119 – signalling a clear shift in investor behaviour towards fewer but larger, higher-conviction bets across the ecosystem.

The report showed that the US$3 million to US$10 million deal size range recorded its strongest deal volume in three years.

The bracket for US$50 million and greater also had a revival, with two deals totalling US$235 million after two years of sharp contractions.

Early-stage pipelines remained resilient. Series A activity held steady at 23 deals, with a median ticket size of US$3 million – higher than the 2024 level of US$2 million.

Pre-Series A activity also stayed healthy, though still down 12.5 per cent year on year at 70 deals with a median size of about US$200,000.

AI emerged as Vietnam’s fastest-growing VC investment theme in 2025, attracting US$130 million – 13 times higher than the amount in 2023.

This underscored deepening investor conviction in the country’s growing pool of AI startups, the report said.

Another notable development was the rise of Vietnam-founded startups with global operations, which pulled in a record US$51 million in funding.

Speaking at the Vietnam Innovation & Private Capital Summit 2026 in Ho Chi Minh City on Thursday, VPCA chairperson Le Hoang Uyen Vy noted that the country’s VC market is on a solid trajectory – especially considering that some neighbouring countries continued to post contractions last year.

“It is entering the rebound phase, and in this phase, capital is concentrated in fewer but larger deals,” she said.

“It reflects growing investor confidence in select companies in Vietnam and helps to strengthen the foundation for the startup community.”

Consumer and healthcare in PE spotlight

PE capital deployment, meanwhile, remained the core driver of private capital in Vietnam, reaching an all-time high of close to US$4 billion in 2025. The deal count doubled year on year to 46.

Investors continued to pour large amounts of capital into consumer and healthcare opportunities, while financial services deals were largely absent in 2025 despite dominating in the previous period.

This signalled a “structural rotation”, the report noted, as Vietnam’s growing middle class reshaped PE investment priorities.

Buyout transactions made up the bulk at US$2.7 billion. Funding in expansion-stage companies also rose to US$1 billion – the highest level of growth equity since 2021, and after a 10-year bottom of US$163 million in 2024.

This means that not only are investors confident in investing “in the control view, they believe in Vietnam’s growth story” as well, Vy added.

She expects such robust PE flows to create “a lot of excitement for foreign investment”, as companies in this pool are “ready to IPO in the next few years”.

Private sector-led IPO cycle

After a state of near-dormancy from 2019 to 2023, Vietnam’s IPO scene recorded about US$1.4 billion from three IPOs led by the country’s major brokerage firms.

The current IPO pipeline – valued at US$3 billion to US$5 billion for the 2026 to 2027 period – is expected to be “the first private sector-led cycle since 2018”.

It is also set to diversify the Vietnamese stock market away from banks and real estate, the report said.

In the pipeline are notable names such as beverage chain Highlands Coffee, pawnshop operator F88 and electronics retailer Dien May Xanh.

Investor exits via IPOs have been historically elusive in Vietnam. In the nation’s tech space, most exits still occur through trade sales or secondary transactions rather than public markets.

On the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange, Vietnam’s main bourse, IT companies have a representation of only around 5 per cent, compared with 35 per cent on the US’ S&P 500 index.

To address this, Vietnam intends to establish a dedicated trading platform for tech-based startups.

Also speaking at the summit was Pham Thi Thuy Linh, head of the securities market development department at the State Securities Commission of Vietnam.

Noting that startups often struggle to meet traditional listing requirements such as profitability and minimum capital thresholds, she said: “The new bourse is expected to prioritise alternative metrics such as revenue growth and R&D intensity.”

The proposed specialised trading platform will operate under the Hanoi Stock Exchange, with targets for completion this year and launch next year, she added.

Ben Sheridan, a managing director at Boston Consulting Group, also pointed to a series of other structural shifts unlocking Vietnam’s capital markets over the past year.

These include improved trading infrastructure and regulations, confirmed FTSE emerging-market inclusion, and the formation of the Vietnam International Financial Centre.

“The stronger flow of capital across the cycle (from VC to PE to IPO) and a much broader base of market participants, for me, would define success,” he said at the summit.

He added that this will help Vietnam meet its annual funding needs, projected to rise to US$270 billion in 2030 from US$160 billion in 2025 to support its rapid economic growth.

“That gap is going to be private capital-driven at its core in closing it,” he said. “The VC and PE need to continue to grow and be supported by public markets to fill that gap.”