Vietnam climate tech funding falls 52% as mid-stage deals vanish

A smaller pot and a missing middle

Vietnam's climate tech startups raised much less money in 2025. The more worrying number, though, is about deal size: not one recorded deal landed in the range a company needs to move from a pilot to a real business. Recorded funding fell 52% to $49.86 million across 33 deals, down from $104.2 million across 60 deals in 2024. The figures come from a set of Vietnam Climate Tech Ecosystem reports released on November 3 by New Energy Nexus Vietnam, SNV Vietnam, World University Service of Canada and RMIT University Vietnam, with support from Swiss EP.24

All the outlets that covered the release agree that the headline drop is misleading. The 2024 total was inflated by a single $70 million Series A for Techcoop. If the largest deal in each year is left out, funding fell a more modest 19%, from $34.2 million to $27.86 million.13 The business site e27 pointed to a different figure as the real warning sign. The number of deals almost halved, which means fewer companies are getting any money at all.4

The sharpest finding concerns cheque size. No recorded deal closed between $350,000 and $1 million in 2025, compared with four in 2024.2 That range typically pays for a startup's first engineers and second installation. It is the step that turns a grant-funded pilot into a business that can earn revenue.4 "Funders told us they have money for Vietnam's climate startups, and founders told us they need it," said Thao Tran, country director at New Energy Nexus Vietnam. Yet in 2025, she noted, nothing closed in that range.2

Where the coverage diverges

Most outlets ran the report's findings largely as written.123 e27 was more skeptical. It noted that a drop from four deals to zero is a small sample, and that "recorded" leaves room for rounds that were never disclosed. It also pointed out that the report's authors run incubation and acceleration programmes, so they have an interest in highlighting a funding gap.4 Even so, e27 concluded that the picture matches what founders across the region describe. Tickets in this range are too large for grant programmes and too small to justify the due-diligence costs most regional funds face.4

The historical data is also uneven. Reporting from mid-2025 cited 2024 climate tech funding of about $23 million across 10 deals.7 The new report puts 2024 at $104.2 million across 60 deals.2 Different datasets and definitions are almost certainly the cause. That suggests the trend lines matter more than any single total. The underlying problem, however, has been visible since the first edition of the report. In 2024, researchers found that only two Vietnamese climate startups, Entobel and Logivan, had reached Series B. Sixteen of 49 funded startups had stalled at seed stage.8 The missing middle is not a 2025 shock. It is a long-running structural problem that last year's numbers made easier to see.

Debt replaces equity, and energy leads

The mix of funding also changed. Equity fell sharply, while debt rose from $3 million to $20 million.1 Most of that jump came from one facility for CME Solar.3 e27 is right to call this a signal rather than a trend.4

Energy transition was the clear bright spot. It drew $26.71 million, up 72%, and was the only sector to raise money through all three channels: equity, debt and grants.2 Rooftop solar shows how this works. SmartSolar, which finances installations for small businesses facing rising electricity costs, brought its total funding to $3.15 million in March with a debt round backed by European lenders.2 In our reading, this explains where capital is going in Vietnam. Lenders and investors back businesses with predictable revenue, and hardware with steady cash flows can carry debt. Earlier-stage ideas cannot.

Funding is not the only constraint. Seventy-three percent of surveyed companies ranked technical and engineering skills among their top three workforce needs, and half said those skills were the hardest to recruit.2 "Capital has arrived faster than the people needed to deploy it," said Lindsay Umalla of SNV.3 e27 added that climate startups compete for engineers with Vietnam's AI and semiconductor sectors, which usually pay more.4

Grid storage: a huge target, mostly met by incumbents

Storage shows the gap between Vietnam's ambitions and its startup funding most clearly. The revised Power Development Plan VIII targets 10,000 to 16,300 MW of battery storage by 2030.11 As of early 2025, the country had installed less than 100 MW.16 One consultancy estimates the opportunity at about $5.7 billion by 2030, though that figure comes from a firm selling advisory services.13

Policy has moved quickly. Circular 62/2025, in force since January 26, 2026, gives standalone battery storage a two-part tariff that pays for both availability and electricity delivered. Energy-Storage.News called it a first for a major ASEAN economy.12 The rules also set a 15-year economic life for batteries and cap developers' internal rate of return at 12%.19 New utility-scale solar projects must generally add storage equal to at least 10% of their capacity, with two hours of duration.14

Utility-scale projects are now being built. EVN Hanoi has commissioned a 50 MW / 100 MWh pilot spread across five substations.14 By September 28, the Northern Power Corporation had energised 22 systems totalling 145 MW. That is part of a first phase of 305 MW, which was originally due by the end of June.1718 Manufacturing is also arriving. GG Power opened a 5 GWh-per-year storage factory in Hung Yen, built for an initial investment of about $12 million.15 One consultancy also reports that Fluence opened a large factory in Bac Giang.13

Notice who is doing this work: state utilities, conglomerates and foreign manufacturers. Startups are largely absent. Industry figures say high upfront costs, limited green finance and the lack of an ancillary-services market still hold back investment.20 Banks rarely accept battery assets as loan collateral, and cells make up about 85% of a system's value.13 That leaves little room for a young company to win on hardware. In our view, the more realistic openings for Vietnamese startups are software, operations and maintenance, and financing for smaller commercial customers. Those are exactly the businesses that need the $350,000 to $1 million rounds that disappeared in 2025.

EV batteries: run by conglomerates

EVs follow the same pattern. VinFast delivered 196,919 electric vehicles in 2025, more than twice its 2024 total, and is targeting 300,000 in 2026.26 Its parent company plans a broader cluster in Ha Tinh covering battery packs and other energy-related manufacturing. VinFast is also pursuing technology cooperation with LG and Samsung on battery production in Vietnam.24 Separately, Kim Long Motor and BYD announced a $130 million, 3 GWh plant to make batteries for commercial electric vehicles.23

These are capital-heavy projects backed by large companies or foreign partners. Electric two-wheeler startup Dat Bike, which had raised more than $20 million by August 2024, was reported to be seeking a Series B of at least $10 million.7 That makes it one of the few independent companies working at meaningful scale in this sector.

Carbon markets and capture: early days

Vietnam's pilot carbon exchange opened on the Hanoi Stock Exchange on June 29. Total first-day volume was just over 1,200 tonnes of CO₂e, worth about $6,468, and the closing price was $5.20 per tonne.40 The pilot gives free allowances to 110 thermal power, steel and cement facilities, totalling about 511.5 million tonnes for 2025 and 2026. Allowances must be surrendered by December 31, 2027.38 Analysts at East Asia Forum warned that uneven monitoring, reporting and verification could weaken price signals.37 To us, that gap looks like a natural niche for startups that measure and verify emissions.

Carbon capture is further away. Coverage differs on the legal status. A law firm's August analysis described a draft Petroleum Law with a chapter on carbon capture, awaiting a National Assembly vote.32 A late-October report says an amended oil and gas law with carbon-capture provisions was adopted in 2026.33 Either way, the main pilot, PVEP's project at the PM3-CAA site, does not aim for first injection until 2028.32 Officials also say pilot projects will depend on international support with technology and finance.33 Carbon capture will be led by state oil companies, not venture-backed startups, for years.

The reading

Vietnam has created real demand for climate solutions. It has written storage tariffs, launched a carbon exchange, and its EV market is growing fast. But the investment that demand is attracting goes mostly to state utilities and conglomerates, while independent startups get very little. The proposed fixes are well known: loans designed for young companies, financing repaid from revenue, and credit guarantees that replace property collateral.2 Women founders would benefit most. They received about 56% of grant funding but only around 1.7% of total capital, partly because many do not hold the land titles banks ask for.2 Vietnam issued 29 climate and innovation policies in 2025, so the country does not lack rules.1 What it lacks is an institution willing to take risk on small, unglamorous rounds. Unless one steps in, Vietnam's energy transition is likely to be built mainly by big companies, with few homegrown climate tech firms.