Valerie Vu: Vietnam’s Tech Reforms, Energy Battles & Surviving Trump’s Tariff Shock – E629
episode
BRAVE Southeast Asia Tech: Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines, Thailand & Malaysia Startups, Founders & Venture Capital VC (English)
36 min
2 speakers
8 chapters
transcribed 17 days ago
Transcript
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
What is the opening context and who are the hosts of the episode?
our government already thought that we reached that ten percent agreement already.
Mm
and then suddenly President Trump just announced on his uh social media that we reached twenty percent. So we were actually dumbfounded, but hey, twenty percent is better than forty six percent and it is still lower than India and China. So if
And what's India and China from your perspective?
I think India was I don't I don't remember exact exact number, but it's way more than thirty percent.
Yeah. Welcome to Brave. Learn from Southeast Asia's best tech leaders. Build the future, learn from our past, and stay human in between. No BS on Success. I'm Jeremy O, Venture Capitalist, Sierra Founder, Harvard MBA, Science Fiction nerd, and dad of two daughters. Every week, we debate startup news, interview change makers, answer listener questions, and share personal insights. Join our movement of over 40,000 members and get transcripts, resources, and community at www.bravesea.com. Stay well and stay brave. Hey Valerie, welcome back. Thank you for coming by Singapore for your super returns week.
Yeah, hi hi Jeremy. So thrilled to be back here.
Yeah, so uh as always what? Of drinking?
Uh quite a lot of drinking, yeah. Yeah.
It's just meetings, drinking, wake up, drink a lot of coffee, conference meetings, and so forth.
I didn't go to the conference itself but I did the side thing like coffee and drinking.
I mean that's the the meat and potatoes of it is actually all the meetings. For me and the opposite, I was uh moderating a panel on, you know, the kind of like the private capital markets and the price and revaluation. So it's interesting to host um kind of have quad capital, risk capital, and multiplicity partners, right? So interesting to talk and debate that in the morning.
How was it how was the audience? How was the atmosphere?
I would say that obviously there's a panel and there's an after panel conversations. I think the panel conversation was really a lot of questions about whether the asset prices, secondaries, and whether that revaluation has really happened. And I think there's some acknowledgement that the private markets in Southeast Asia asset prices have started to reprice, I would say. So either flat rounds or down rounds, secondaries are happening. Previously people didn't want to like, you know, update. book value yeah in a portfolio. So I think there was that part. And then after the conversation and panel, there's another set of conversations very much about Southeast Asia and the broader market. How about you?
What are you thinking?
Yeah, I would say a lot of entry price has been adjusted significantly. So the price that we are investing now as enterprise is we entering as much discount compared to just two years, three years ago.
Yeah. And I think that's something that founders are seeing. They're seeing obviously s longer processes for evaluation, longer due diligence processes, lower prices, less competition for their fundraising rounds. That's correct. And how is it showing up in Vietnam from your perspective?
In Vietnam, yeah. The process, our process for entering a new deal has been a bit longer. Yeah. So it took us about five months to close our latest investment, which is much longer than a few years ago. Yeah. Yeah. So I can attest like all the the comments from the founders that share to you is are correct.
What's interesting is obviously I think there's a conversation that founders are having and trying to understand within themselves what it's like. And then I think super returns, because it's a meeting between the limited partners and the general partners, is a very different set of conversations. It's much more, I would say, high level, it's much more finance oriented, and it's much more macro oriented. I think one big theme that they had was like the big difference between last year's super returns and this year's super returns was last year have very high interest rates. Very bearish winter in Southeast Asia. uh waiting for the new Trump administration to take over. And then this year we see the Trump tariff policy has been a big uh macro shock to Southeast Asia.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the opening context and who are the hosts of the episode?
0:00–4:23
2
How are slower fundraising cycles and longer deal timelines affecting Vietnam’s startup ecosystem?
4:23–9:47
3
What are the new economic reforms and technology‑driven growth goals of Vietnam’s consolidated government?
9:47–16:09
4
Why did EVN’s electricity price hikes and subsidy rollbacks trigger a renewable‑energy crisis?
16:09–20:43
5
How is Vietnam reviving nuclear‑energy plans with Russia and Japan for a 2030 reactor?
20:43–24:43
6
What was the outcome of the Trump‑era tariff negotiations that lowered Vietnam’s rate to 20 %?
24:43–29:22
7
Why is supply‑chain transparency becoming critical for manufacturers to avoid 40 % penalties?
29:22–33:45
8
How are AI, cybersecurity and data‑infrastructure startups aligning with Vietnam’s national priorities?
33:45–36:42
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from BRAVE Southeast Asia Tech: Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines, Thailand & Malaysia Startups, Founders & Venture Capital VC (English)
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