In 2022, something unusual happened on Shark Tank Vietnam. A startup from Da Nang called EM & AI asked for a whopping $1 million for only five percent of their company. While most sharks hesitated, Shark Liên stepped forward and said yes, but only under one condition. That bold decision didn’t just help one company. It marked the beginning of a new chapter in Vietnam’s AI future. EM & AI’s journey since that moment has turned it into one of Vietnam’s most exciting tech stories.
What Is EM & AI?
EM & AI is a Vietnamese startup focused on artificial intelligence for customer support. It was founded in 2017 in Da Nang by two engineers, Lê Ngọc Trí and Võ Hữu Trường Ân. From the very beginning, their goal was clear: to build voice technology that truly understands Vietnamese people. While many startups in the AI space use tools from big tech companies like Google or Microsoft, EM & AI took a different path. They developed their own Vietnamese speech-to-text, text-to-speech, natural language processing (NLP), and voice ID systems from scratch.
Their platform allows businesses to automate call center operations, understand customer intent, and even analyze call quality, all in the Vietnamese language and tailored to local accents, slang, and dialects. This gave EM & AI an edge. They were not just building tech. They were solving a very specific problem that no one else had fully addressed in Vietnam.
The Bold Shark Tank Pitch
When EM & AI walked into the Shark Tank studio during Season 5, they asked for $1 million in exchange for 5 percent equity, putting their valuation at $20 million. That number raised eyebrows. Though the founders came in with real revenue from early clients, many sharks were cautious. Shark Bình questioned whether their AI voice sounded natural enough. Shark Phú expressed concern about whether EM & AI could compete with major international players who had access to more capital and global data. Shark Hùng Anh asked about data safety and storage, worried that the startup might be too dependent on external cloud providers.
But EM & AI’s CEO, Lê Ngọc Trí, had a surprising solution. He offered to sign a conditional deal. Shark Liên would give them $100,000 upfront, and the remaining $900,000 would only be paid if the startup hit specific KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) within two months. This unique offer gave the shark protection while giving the startup a chance to prove itself. Shark Liên agreed. It became one of the largest and most talked-about deals in Vietnamese Shark Tank history.
Post‑Show Growth and Proof
After Shark Tank, EM & AI didn’t waste time. They moved quickly to meet the conditions of the deal. Within two months, they achieved the KPIs set during the negotiation and secured the full $1 million investment from Shark Liên. This deal placed them among the top five highest-valued startups of Shark Tank Vietnam Season 5.
Their platform gained traction fast. By April 2023, EM & AI’s voicebot system had processed over 4.7 million minutes of customer calls. Their Virtual Quality Checker (Virtual QC) had analyzed 18.3 million minutes of call center audio. These tools weren’t just smart. They were accurate, fast, and locally optimized. Businesses using EM & AI’s solutions began reporting significant cost savings and better customer engagement.
Their internal team also grew rapidly. The startup scaled from 35 to 67 employees in under a year. They onboarded over 100 small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) in Vietnam and signed contracts with major financial and retail brands. Their revenue model focused on SaaS (Software as a Service), earning consistent monthly subscriptions from corporate clients.
How Their Technology Works
Unlike many competitors, EM & AI built their entire technology stack themselves. This includes their Vietnamese speech recognition (speech-to-text), voice generation (text-to-speech), NLP models, and voice fingerprinting (voice ID). Their STT (speech-to-text) engine achieved a 95 percent accuracy rate, far above the industry average of 60 percent. Their NLP engine reached 80 percent accuracy in understanding Vietnamese intent, compared to the industry norm of around 70 percent.
One of their key innovations was latency. Their voicebot platform responds in under two seconds. Many international platforms take more than six seconds, which can frustrate users. EM & AI’s voicebot not only sounds natural, it also responds in real-time and can continue a conversation without long pauses. This makes it ideal for customer service, telemarketing, and post-sale support.
Their platform also includes a feature called Hybrid Chat, where human agents and AI bots can work together. If a customer gets frustrated or starts using emotional language, the platform sends a real-time alert to a supervisor who can jump in immediately. This feature bridges automation and empathy, something most AI systems struggle with.
Real Impact on Business
EM & AI’s clients started seeing measurable results. One property management company reported that their team, previously requiring seven employees and one full month to manage customer calls, was now handling the same workload in just two days using EM & AI’s voicebot. Labor costs dropped by over 80 percent.
Another client in the financial sector used EM & AI’s voicebot for telesales. They saw a 60 percent call connection rate, much higher than traditional call centers. Over 50 percent of the campaign’s total revenue came from AI-assisted calls. This result outperformed two other voicebot vendors in the same campaign.
In yet another case, a company used EM & AI’s Virtual QC tool to audit call quality. Without automation, it would have taken a full-time human reviewer 57 years to analyze just half a month’s worth of calls. With EM & AI, it took minutes. These real-life case studies showed that EM & AI didn’t just promise results. They delivered them.
Awards and Recognition
EM & AI’s success story hasn’t gone unnoticed. They received the prestigious Sao Khue Award for excellence in software solutions in Vietnam. They were runners-up at Techfest 2020 and selected among the top five startups at the United Nations’ “AI For Good” initiative. Microsoft also chose them for its “Highway to 100 Unicorns” program, which supports promising startups in Asia.
These awards gave EM & AI global credibility and helped open doors to foreign investors and partners. More importantly, they showed that the company could compete on an international stage while still staying true to its Vietnamese roots.
The Down‑Round That Taught a Lesson
In 2024, EM & AI returned to the funding stage at DAVAS (Da Nang Venture Summit) and raised another $4 million. But this time, they had to give up 25 percent of the company to secure the funding. That placed their new valuation at around $16 million, a drop from their previous $20 million valuation on Shark Tank.
This kind of drop is called a “down-round.” It happens when a company raises money at a lower valuation than before. Down-rounds are not uncommon, but they are important because they reflect how investors see the business after its initial hype fades. In this case, it also taught a broader lesson. Shark Tank valuations are often based on TV drama, but real investors want clear performance metrics, scalable business models, and predictable returns.
Despite the lower valuation, the deal gave EM & AI the funding they needed to scale further. They proved they were serious about long-term growth, not just media attention.
Why This Story Matters
EM & AI represents something bigger than just one successful startup. Their journey shows that Vietnamese companies can build world-class AI solutions without copying foreign models. By creating tools built specifically for the Vietnamese market, they’ve solved problems that foreign companies often overlook, such as regional accents, cultural communication styles, and local industry needs.
Vietnam is emerging as a new hub for startups in Southeast Asia. Between 2017 and 2021, Vietnamese startup funding increased from $272 million to over $2 billion. EM & AI’s story is proof that this momentum includes serious innovation in artificial intelligence. More importantly, it shows that local entrepreneurs can lead that movement, especially when they take bold risks and build from the ground up.
What Comes Next
EM & AI is not stopping with Vietnam. They are actively preparing to launch English-language versions of their voicebot and Virtual QC tools. Their expansion roadmap includes entering Indonesia, the Philippines, South Korea, and Singapore, countries with similar market needs and customer service challenges.
They are partnering with Kilsa Global to establish cross-border customer acquisition. Their R&D team is working on bilingual AI models that can handle both Vietnamese and English. If successful, they could become Southeast Asia’s leading voicebot provider.
The founders have also shared their timeline for a potential IPO, targeting late 2024 if business conditions remain strong. They aim to break even by early 2025 and may enter new sectors such as e-commerce and healthcare, where automated voice solutions can make a big impact.
Shark Liên’s million-dollar bet was risky, but it paid off. EM & AI proved that Vietnam could build advanced AI tools with local knowledge and global ambition. The company didn’t follow the easy path of using foreign APIs or quick fixes. They built everything from scratch, solved real business problems, and created jobs for local engineers.
Their journey, from startup pitch to real-world success, shows that when bold ideas meet local expertise and supportive investors, they can change an entire industry. EM & AI’s rise isn’t just a business story. It’s a signal that the Vietnamese tech revolution has already begun, and it speaks with its own voice.
TL;DR (Too Long; Didn’t Read)
Shark Liên took a bold $1M chance on EM & AI, a homegrown Vietnamese startup. That decision helped ignite a local AI movement built on voice tech, NLP, and enterprise automation—turning Vietnam into a rising AI leader in Southeast Asia.
FAQs
Did EM & AI secure the Shark Tank deal with Shark Liên?
Yes. Shark Liên invested $1 million for 5% equity via a two‑month KPI‑based deal. EM & AI met all agreed milestones and received the full investment. :contentReference[oaicite:1]{index=1}
What kind of technology does EM & AI build?
EM & AI develops fully proprietary Vietnamese Voicebot AI—including speech‑to‑text, text‑to‑speech, Vietnamese NLP, and voice biometric ID—all built in‑house without third‑party APIs. :contentReference[oaicite:2]{index=2}
How many minutes of calls had EM & AI processed by April 2023?
By April 2023, their Voicebot handled over 4.7 million minutes of calls, and Virtual QC evaluated 18.3 million minutes of call center recordings. :contentReference[oaicite:3]{index=3}
What awards and recognition has EM & AI received?
EM & AI won Vietnam’s Sao Khue Award, was runner‑up at Techfest 2020, made the United Nations’ AI For Good top five startups, and joined Microsoft’s “Highway to 100 Unicorns” program. :contentReference[oaicite:4]{index=4}