A local startup has received six-figure funding for its coconut business.
Hamona – short for Harmony With Mother Nature – is a Saigon-based venture which aims to connect local coconut farmers with global demand for their product, reports Deal Street Asia. Company CEO Nguyen Hoang Long recently announced the good news, saying the money had come from a group of investors but declined to divulge any more details on their identity.
Previously, Hamona won a US$25,000 grant from the Inclusive Business Accelerator as well as funding from the Innovative Partnership Program (IPP), a joint project between the Finnish and Vietnamese governments.
In addition to providing global consumers access to Mekong Delta coconuts, Long also aims to produce Hamona's product using environmentally friendly business practices.
“With the improvement in technologies and increasing coconuts demand trends in the world, Vietnam doesn’t have to trade between developing our economy at the cost of the environment anymore,” the CEO told IPP. “We can modernize our country and make it greener place at the same time.”
According to Long, Hamona's sales also bring in 30% more income than traditional coconut-selling for local farmers.
“We hope to bring improvement on the lives of local farmers living in the Mekong River Delta,” he continued.
This year has been a good one for Vietnamese startups. In February, travel service Triip received US$500,000 in seed funding from a Shanghai-based investor, while foreign investors sunk US$28 million into e-banking startup MoMo.
[Photo via Youtube]
