South Korea seems to have something for Vietnam. In recent years, the connection between two countries is tightening significantly. Not only in travel and sport area, but also in the business area. Luxstay, a Vietnamese rental sharing startup just get an investment boost from the ginseng country investors.
This is the second funding round held this year. The previous funding round raised $3 m from Y1 Ventures and Cyber Agent Ventures. While the later raised $4.5 m. Korean GShop and Bon Angels led the investment round. 
What is Luxstay?
Recent increase in Vietnam tourism industry attracted Steven Nguyen. He then founded Luxstay in early 2017. Similar to Airbnb, people often call it as the Vietnamese Airbnb.
However, it is different from the American company. Luxsaty, just like it’s name, offers luxurious stay for the upper class customers. The stays in the platform includes apartments and whole villas.
This is to match the need from Vietnam main tourist, Koreans and Japanese. The Korean tourists had grown by 44% rate since 2017. In 2018, from 15.6 million foreign tourist visiting Vietnam, 3.5 million of them are Korean.
South Korean people have grown more interest in Vietnam. Started when the Korean football coach, Park Hangseo, succeeded in bringing glory to Vietnam national team. Then a lot of Korean TV programs exposed Vietnam tourism, branding the country as a cheap, delicious, and heaven like country.
Home-sharing is a new market in Vietnam. Yet, in 2018, it valued more than $100 million revenue, per Statista. But it is far below total accommodation market in Vietnam that counted up to $7 billion. The home-sharing market is expected to grow up to $2 to 4 billion by 2025.
Not only in Luxstay, recently Korean conglomerate, SK Group also invested big in Vingroup. The $1 billion investment counted as 6.1% stake in Vingroup. The Vietnam conglomerate started on food business before now focusing on unprofits. It is helping to build a better society for Vietnam from various aspects.
