Fund the Future 2026
AI Builders × Investors.
The competition I founded and ran under The Edge Alliance, co-organised with SIHUB — Startup and Innovation Hub of Ho Chi Minh City — and Snappp AI. Two consecutive days: AI startups pitch straight to a panel of funds, then take the stage to be honoured.
- Pitch Day · 14.08 — startups pitch their AI products at SIHUB, with on-the-spot feedback and a 1-on-1 Metric Clinic.
- Award Day · 15.08 — standout teams honoured in front of the investor panel and the tech community.
- Support before and after — 1-on-1 pitch deck advisory, fund introductions and Due Diligence help once the programme ends.
- Reach — 22 Facebook communities across AI, startups and technology carried the event.
The competition website.
Every primary source — rules, the startup roster and the judging panel — is published on the official The Edge Alliance site.
Main website
The Fund the Future homepage — rules, the two-day roadmap, organisers, sponsors and the full agenda.
theedgealliance.comStartup list
All 42 startups, filterable by sector and product type, each with a full write-up and its official website.
theedgealliance.com/danh-sach-startupJudges & investors
The judging panel of VC, PE, Angel and Community members, plus the 22 Facebook communities that carried the event.
theedgealliance.com/bgkTwo days on stage.
Pitch Day 14.08 at SIHUB and Award Day 15.08 — from the closing slide of each pitch to the moment everyone crowded onto the stage.
Award Day · 15.08 · Everyone on stage
Pitch Day · 14.08 · SIHUB
Thanking the judges & funds
Celesnity · Minder AI
9Bricks · GAIA assistant
Beam · The right connection
Blazle · Business model
IYA Technologies · Who’s in?
Go-to-market · POC
NexFi · Live product demo
The SIHUB auditorium
Five startups honoured.
The panel picked five standout teams across five different categories — not a ranking, but a way of naming what each product does best.
Celesnity — Minder
Voice-and-vision AI assistant for frontline workers in factories, warehouses and energy plants.
Bill Nguyencelesnity.com ★ Best EdTechTuton
All-in-one AI platform for freelance language tutors: classroom, CRM, lesson plans and payments.
Derek Cowantuton.io ★ Best Marketing SolutionBeam
Identifies anonymous website visitors and drafts the outreach message automatically.
Thái Bảo Trầngetbeam.fyi ★ Most Useful SolutionDeviantly
Early short-video trend detection platform for brands and agencies.
Vũ Tuấn Thànhdeviantly.ai ★ Most Complete Startup9Bricks
Consultancy that designs and builds tailor-made AI systems for businesses in Vietnam.
Phạm Bá Đạt9bricks.comFunds & judges.
The panel brought together VC · PE · Angel · Community from Vietnam and abroad — scoring, challenging and connecting startups to capital right there in the pitch room. These are the funds and organisations that sat on the panel:
42 teams, 10 product groups.
From AI agents for the factory floor to service robots, from EdTech to smart wallets for agents — grouped by product type, here is the whole field by product group. Detailed profiles for every team live on the official startup list.
AI Agent 9 startups
Autonomous agents for business — from the factory floor to retail and F&B.
Operations SaaS 8 startups
Software platforms for running multi-site, multi-channel operations.
EdTech 6 startups
AI-personalised learning, from preschool to freelance language tutoring.
MarTech 4 startups
Growth, visitor identification and trend-spotting powered by AI.
DeepTech 3 startups
Security, computer vision and systems infrastructure.
Web3 & Digital finance 3 startups
Smart wallets, peer-to-peer lending and decentralised commerce.
Marketplace 2 startups
B2B exchanges for agricultural produce and intellectual property.
IoT & Robotics 2 startups
Service robots and medical wearables, made in Vietnam.
Mobile App 2 startups
Consumer apps born out of one very specific need.
Consulting & Delivery 3 startups
Teams that build AI systems and run them project by project.