HCMC - Five South Korean startups on June 3 sought local business partners and capital for business expansion plans in Vietnam, aiming to offer customized products on ecommerce platforms.

The five startups access the local market through a program called Runway to the World, organized by the Saigon Innovation Hub (SIHUB).

BluePrintLab, a startup previously incubated by Facebook, is raising funds of US$1 million and looking for business partners in the high-end eyewear space to establish its business in HCMC.

The firm uses TrueDepth 3D, a feature available on iPad Pro, 3D technology, and artificial intelligence to scan and print pictures, enabling customers to choose suitable glasses for themselves.

Eyewear company L’AMY had deployed this application for McLaren-branded glasses at the MIDO Eyewear Show in Italy last February.

Charlie Shin, founder of Blueprint, expected to tap into the local market by improving the customer experience in the field of eyewear in HCMC. The company aims to collaborate with NIVEA, Gucci and Rayban in 2020.

It is also studying ways to apply its technology to the cosmetic surgery and comestics sectors, while developing facial recognition technology to assist ride-hailing firms.

The strategy to offer customized products will minimize operation costs. StyleSeller, a startup by Ahn Sung-Kook, a producer at South-Korea-based MBC Broadcasting, has shortened its supply chain and brought comestics products from manufacturers directly to its ecommerce platforms, offering the products at very competitive prices.

Besides this, the Choose Your Model startup, founded last year, is an ecommerce platform that connects companies and online shop owners, who want high-quality promotional photos of their products, with a network of professional photographers and models around the world. Rather than going abroad for photo shoots, customers of the platform are offered the service at prices 50%-70% lower than usual.

The five startups had outpaced 100 South Korean startups and were selected by SIHUB and Shinhan Future’s Lab to search for business expansion opportunities in Vietnam.