The categories were Startup of the Year; Women’s Startup, Bluebird IT Startup, Potential Startup and Most Favoured Startup.

 

The event, which is held for the first time by Vietnam Television’s VTV6, the Vietnam Climate Innovation Centre (VCIC), Topica Founder Institute and Bluebirds JSC, is the biggest event for the startup community this year.

 

The festival attracted about 1,000 startups.

 

With 53 percent of voting from 200 delegates, DesignBold, a design application, overcame GotIt! (47 percent) to win the most important award, Startup of the Year award.

 

“We promise to try our best to bring resources from overseas to support Vietnamese startups. Receiving the award is an honour for us but also a responsibility. We set the target to support Vietnamese startups to catch up with other startup ecosystems in the world,” said Dinh Viet Hung, the CEO of DesignBold.

 

DesignBold is a tool that helps both professional and amateur users design by themselves. It is also the winner of Creative Business Cup Vietnam 2016 and became the Vietnamese representative for the final round at the Creative Business Cup 2016 in Copenhagen, Denmark in November this year.

 

The Women’s Startup Award was given to Vu Nguyet Anh, founder of the dating app Rudicaf. “For me, this is an honour as well as a great motivation, but also a pressure to make more efforts in the future,” she said.

 

The Most Favoured prize was given to Le Thong Nhat, a retired teacher, for his BigSchool Vietnam product. Three startups, namely, 1offfice, Giaohangnhanh and WeFit, won the Potential Startup Award. The prize is a two-week visit to Israel, dubbed the startup nation.

 

“I believe that the spirit of the young generation in Vietnam will boost the startup ecosystem. In my opinion, it is always better to pursue and try to fulfill your dream than not to try at all,” said Yaniv Tessel from Israel’s Economic and Trade Mission.

 

In the Bluebird IT Startup category, Mysterious Stone and Suge Dict overcame 200 games and applications to win. They will receive an award of 50 million VND and an opportunity to visit the Google offices in Silicon Valley.

 

In addition, the organisation board gave a prize for the startup event of the year to the event that the startup community proposed for the amendment of the Article 292 under the Penal Code.

 

Article 292 of the Penal Code adopted by the National Assembly last year stirred up controversy as it was stated that any services offered online or via telecommunication networks without prior permission would be deemed illegal. Fearing that start-up businesses could be harmed, a petition calling for the scrapping of Article 292 was sent to officials, ministers and agencies and collected nearly 6,000 signatures after only one week.