On the morning of July 30, 2025, the Danang Innovation and Startup Festival - SURF 2025 entered its second day with a series of exciting, in-depth and highly connected activities. The atmosphere at the conference center became bustling early, when hundreds of delegates, startups, investors and experts gathered together towards a common goal: Building a sustainable innovation and startup ecosystem in the Central region.
SURF 2025 is an annual event for the innovative startup community in Da Nang. Through exhibitions, seminars, forums and startup competitions, it contributes to arousing a strong entrepreneurial spirit, encouraging innovation in the community, especially young people and local businesses. The event also affirms the image of Da Nang as an attractive destination for investors, one of the dynamic innovative startup centers in Vietnam and Southeast Asia.
This year's festival continues to be hosted by the Department of Science and Technology of Da Nang City; the organizing unit is the Da Nang Center for Supporting Innovative Startups. Coordinating units include: HVA Investment Joint Stock Company; BambuUP Joint Stock Company; FUNDGO Creative Startup Investment Fund; SUCI Trading and Service Company Limited.
Live Exhibition – A space for outstanding creative ideas
Speaking at the ceremony, Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Hoang Minh said that Da Nang has been affirming its pioneering role in the innovation and startup ecosystem in the Central Highlands and the whole country. According to the 2024 Local Innovation Index, Da Nang ranked 5th in the country, always leading the North Central and Central Coast regions; was honored as an Attractive City for Innovation and Startup for 4 consecutive years. In 2025 alone, Da Nang made a remarkable leap forward in the global rankings of typical cities for the startup ecosystem according to the ranking of the StartupBlink Center for Research and Mapping of the Global Startup Ecosystem.
The morning started with the Live Exhibition of Innovative Startup Projects – where startups from many fields such as technology, education, healthcare, finance, agriculture, etc. showcased their products and practical solutions. This was an opportunity for projects to approach investors, potential partners as well as receive feedback from the professional community.
Official Opening Ceremony – Honoring the outstanding projects at the competition
Immediately following the exhibition is the official opening ceremony of SURF 2025, bringing together leaders of Da Nang city, international organizations, investors and domestic startup support funds. The event is not only a place to summarize the journey of preparing and organizing SURF 2025, but also an opportunity to reaffirm the strategy of developing a local startup ecosystem associated with technology and innovation.
The highlight after the opening ceremony was the SURF 2025 Startup Competition Announcement and Award Ceremony – a place to honor the best projects after a challenging journey of training, fundraising and criticism. This is a worthy achievement for startups that dare to think, dare to do and have the courage to step into the market.
The honor of awarding the winning teams were two prestigious faces of the Vietnamese startup ecosystem:
- Mr. Le Hoa Nha - General Director of HVA Group
- Mr. Vu Tien Dung - Investment Director, FUNDGO Da Nang Fund
The program has contributed to arousing a strong entrepreneurial spirit, encouraging innovation in the community, especially among young people and local businesses. Through the event, Da Nang has affirmed its position as an attractive destination for investors, a dynamic innovation and startup community center of the country and Southeast Asia; creating immediate values for businesses, gradually building the foundation for a sustainable innovation ecosystem, contributing to promoting the city's socio-economic development in the digital age.
SURF 2025 – Creating real value for the startup ecosystem
The success of SURF 2025 has clearly affirmed Da Nang’s leading role in the journey to build a national innovative city. With the support of pioneers such as HVA Group and FUNDGO, a future of technology startups – sustainable – globally connected is gradually emerging.
The Ministry of Science and Technology highly appreciates the efforts of Da Nang city in innovation and creative startups in particular. It is recommended to continue promoting advantages, building venture capital funds, science and technology funds, building sandboxes to test new technologies, striving to be in the top 500 global startup ecosystem cities by 2030" - Deputy Minister Hoang Minh emphasized.
The road ahead will be full of challenges, but it is from events like SURF 2025 that the Vietnamese startup community has more motivation, more companions, and more confidence to continue the journey of creating value for society.
