Singapore (VNA) – Vietnam will emerge in 2022 asthe third largest startup ecosystem in Southeast Asia, with stronger signs ofventure capital (VC) funds putting more efforts into early-stage investments inthe country, according to a new report by venture capital (VC) firm Golden GateVentures.

More start-ups in Southeast Asia are expected to gopublic, with the annual number of initial public offerings (IPOs) in the regionexpected to cross 300 by 2030, said the report “The Southeast Asia Ecosystem2.0” released on July 15.

This would be almost three times the number of regionalfirms that went public in 2020. Some of the firms likely to list are online marketplaceCarousell, real estate platform PropertyGuru and travel booking site Traveloka.

Golden Gate Ventures anticipates that funding for theentertainment and media sector will grow substantially over the decade.

The sector recorded about 100 million USD in funding lastyear, but this is likely to rise as entertainment and media start-ups focusing onAsian content are gaining a global following, the report noted.

It identified Vietnam as the region's rising star andsaid it would emerge as the third-largest start-up ecosystem in the region nextyear.

The report also outlined several trends seen in SoutheastAsia over the past few years.

Since 2015, a new generation of entrepreneurs hasemerged, catalysed by mega rounds of fund-raising by fast-growing start-upssuch as Grab and Gojek. Former senior employees of high-growth companies havegone on to start their own enterprises, starting a new chain ofentrepreneurship.

More corporate VCs have also emerged in the past decade,the report said. There were around 60 corporate VCs in the region last year,compared with just seven a decade ago. Such firms are increasingly leadingfunding rounds, especially at the seed and Series A stages./.