FUNIMART founder Nguyen Minh Duc.

FUNIMART, a dropshipping platform acting as an intermediary connecting producers and customers, was developed in 2020 by Nguyen Minh Duc, a graduate of the University of Information Technology of Vietnam National University, Ho Chi Minh City. 

Duc said he started up business when he was a first-year student. His original startup product was Student's Life Care, which addressed issues concerning international students at Duc’s university.

The second was WedDev Studios, a kind of college web club which provided a place for students to practice what they learned at school and helped them earn extra income.

FUNIMART is Duc’s third startup which actually used to be an IT company specializing in software outsourcing.

Duc recalled, “Then we wanted to work commercially online to earn more income. During the process, we discovered a problem for many sellers who imported commodities for sale but failed to fulfill the deals. The common major problems involved capital and inventory.  Also, many of the sellers were faced with fraud. This has inspired me to develop the app.”

“In addition, I want to help more vulnerable people in society, for example breastfeeding mothers, office workers, or students, to earn extra income.”

Based on a dropshipping platform, FUNIMART directly connects manufacturers, producers, and qualified sellers nationwide. The sellers are called collaborators. Through this model, FUNIMART eliminates intermediaries and allows for cost reductions and increased output.

Duc explains how the app works, “FUNIMART contacts and links with suppliers and carriers. Once you register an account, our system will show you all the products we are trading with the basic prices set for sales collaborators. Collaborators then can sell the products with provided information on Facebook, Shopee, Lazada, or Tiki at higher prices.”

“When an order is successfully made, our app will enter the customer information, then pack and deliver the goods to the customer. If there is any problem regarding incorrect or defective or missing goods, collaborators will connect directly with the suppliers to resolve it.”

FUNIMART also provides solutions for effective sales management through its partners.

At first glance, FUNIMART’s model may appear to be similar to Cuccu - a startup that successfully raised capital from Shark Lien in the Shark Tank Vietnam program in 2021, but it is in fact completely different.

FUNIMART has 3 associated business segments: an e-commerce platform for sales collaborators, a sales management system Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) for businesses, and digital transformation services.

In the next three years, FUNIMART wants to connect all manufacturers in Vietnam, digitize all information of products made by domestic enterprises, promote the export of goods in the dropshipping form through the community of sales collaborators, and build a comprehensive sales management tool.

FUNIMART is a relatively young business with plans to go global, initially expanding into markets in Indonesia and Thailand, Duc said.

“We have two main goals. First is to export Vietnamese goods to foreign countries. By using the dropshipping model, FUNIMART will enter the Thai and Indonesian markets.”

”This method will create a cross-trade, meaning that if you are in Vietnam, you can sell directly to Thais or Indonesians, or you can sell foreign goods to Vietnamese people. Secondly, we want to become one of Vietnam’s unicorn companies,” according to the young founder.

To realize the plan, in 2022 FUNIMART will focus on improving product quality in order to seek investment capital from domestic or foreign venture capital funds to allow for expansion into foreign markets next year.

The 2-year-old business has been recognized by many startup support organizations.

At the end of 2020, FUNIMART received nearly 11,000 USD in investment after participating in the “Creative Idea Competition – CiC 2020” program during the 2020 Ho Chi Minh City’s Innovation, Innovation, Startup and Entrepreneurship Week (WHISE), and became a member of the Incubator Center of ZoneStartups. In 2020, FUNIMART earned more than 262,000 USD from 3 revenue channels: commissions from sales collaborators, monthly revenue from the sales management system, and digital transformation services.

Most recently, FUNIMART has entered the list of 100 startups of Startup Wheel 2021.