Before Le Diep Kieu Trang, which startups were once very famous with CEOs with a reputation profile and millions of dollars in capital but failed?

"Studying well does not mean working well" - This saying of Ms. Le Diep Kieu Trang is not only true for salaried people but also for startups; the fact that a CEO or Founder has a high degree or a beautiful profile (profile) does not guarantee the project will be successful.

WeFit - "Uber of the Fitness World"

In May 2020, Onaclover Technology Joint Stock Company - WeWow notified customers that it was forced to stop operating from May 11, 2020, because the company's operating capital was completely exhausted.

According to a WeWow representative, the company regrets to announce that after the crises encountered since the beginning of 2020, although it has made great efforts to reform, due to the impact of the Covid-19 epidemic, WeWow encountered other problems and unforeseen business and financial difficulties.

WeWow's WeFit - an application that allows users to participate in the system of hundreds of gyms in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City used to be a famous name in the startup village, considered the "Uber of the Fitness world".

Wefit started 2016 with a team of 12 people. At its launch, WeFit, with Founder Khoi Nguyen, emerged as a phenomenon.

Khoi Nguyen once entered the top 10 typical young faces of Vietnam in 2017, the top 3 potential CEOs in 2016 at the Startup Festival program organized by VTV, the Top 16 young faces in the capital of excellent startups in 2017, and once on the list of "30 under 30 Vietnam" voted by Forbes.

In 2017, WeFit announced it had received a $155,000 investment in a funding round led by venture capital fund ESP Capital. At that time, this startup was the 6th investment of ESP Capital - a Singapore-based investment fund that specializes in pouring capital into early-stage technology startups. Previously, WeFit received other investments from Vietnam Startup Accelerator Fund (VIISA) and angel investor Nhan Nguyen.

2019 was the peak year for WeFit when at the beginning of the year, this startup announced successfully raising $ 1 million from CyberAgent Capital. In July 2019, the registered capital of Onaclover (the company that owns Wefit) increased from 1.66 billion VND to 27.7 billion VND. More than 26 billion dong is foreign investment capital from WeLife Holding PTE.LTD of Singapore, accounting for 94% of the shares.

At that time, this startup set an expectation of one million app users in 2019 and continued to raise capital for series A.

However, the model of WeFit at the time exposed many vulnerabilities, in the sense of providing "an unlimited buffet" to all users and paying "turn-by-turn" to gym partners. In a word, the more enthusiastic users practice, the less profit the intermediary units make, even compensating for losses to survive.

Entering the first Covid year, cash flow difficulties became severe. The crisis officially broke out on the media front. Gym partners such as Salsa Spring, Beso Latino, F&P Dance Studio, GymPlus, and Divine Yoga & Dance Studio announced publicly to stop cooperating with WeFit. The main reason is not paying debts as committed; in some places, the debt is up to 100 million VND.

The KAfe and "million dollar girl" Dao Chi Anh

Dao Chi Anh (born in 1984) is a famous startup face in the F&B village. She was born in Russia, lived for a long time in Germany, Taiwan, then worked in Singapore for almost 8 years…

Leaving a job earning thousands of dollars, Chi Anh opened a small kitchen studio on Xuan Dieu Street with a passion for cooking; soon, the model was expanded, and the name The Kafe became famous for its Asian style. Europe serves young people.

Modern space and beautifully prepared food made The KAfe emerge as a check-in phenomenon for young people then.

In October 2015, Dao Chi Anh successfully raised $5.5 million in the first round of funding from investment funds in London and Hong Kong, including famous investor Cassia Investments.

This brand has expanded its business scope with 26 branches in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City but then, starting in June 2016; The KAfe was accused of "misappropriating capital, delaying, not paying debts worth of value. up to VND 4 billion." However, the former CEO of KAfe Group denied it and said that "the two sides did not agree on the amount of debt, so it has not been resolved".

In mid-March 2017, information about the change of ownership of Kafe Cuisine Co., Ltd - KAfe Group was officially announced. Accordingly, the new owner of Kafe Group is KAFE Hong Kong Limited. Along with the change of owner, many stores of KAfe Group have closed or "disappeared", instead being rented and operated by other units.

Prozy - a startup invested in by SoftBank, had to dissolve a service company in mid-2022

Propzy, a startup in prop-tech (application of technology in real estate), was founded in 2015 by Mr. John Le. The company is headquartered in Singapore.

The company was once considered a bright star in real estate technology when it received large investments from foreign investment funds. As of 2020, the company has raised $37 million in 3 funding rounds, with the participation of popular investment funds. Of which, $25 million came from Gaw Capital and SoftBank Ventures.

However, Propzy then continuously made moves to narrow its operations. They started laying off 50% of staff in September 2021 to restructure the business model.

On May 25, 2022, Propzy Service Co., Ltd. sent a notice of dissolution to the Department of Planning and Investment of Ho Chi Minh City. The cause of the dissolution is that the enterprise changes its business plan.

Prozy CEO and Founder Mr. John Le has an impressive resume. While in the US, in his early career years, Mr. John Le experienced many positions in the financial industry - capital markets of ContiFinancial and JP Morgan Chase. From 1998 to 2008, he founded startups Dotcom (LoanTrader), enterprise software (Portellus) and Mozaik Investment Fund in applying modern technology for financial management.

In the late 90s, John Le decided to found LoanTrader, the internet mortgage marketplace. LoanTrader raised more than $38 million, the largest private funding in Southern California for a financial technology company to that point, with leading equity firms such as Goldman Sachs, IAC, GE Capital, CitiGroup, Capital Z (Zurich), FBR Capital and OMERS. The company was eventually acquired by Fidelity (NYSE: FIS).

A year later, John Le started a startup again, founding Portellus in fintech. John Le has grown Portellus from 5 members into a company with over 300 employees, spanning 3 continents with clients such as Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan Chase, Lehman Bros, Bear Stearns, Fiserv, Deutsche Bank, and Discover Financial. Portellus was acquired by Fiserv in 2007.

Then, John and Mozaik jointly established TransUnion Vietnam in 2009. TransUnion Vietnam is the first private international credit information company in the Vietnam market.