After studying in Japan and working for several foreign tech firms in Vietnam in the early 2010s, Le Van Hoang, Kaopiz’s founder, saw an opportunity in the fact that Vietnam was emerging as a magnet for Japanese investors.

Hoang and five colleagues established Kaopiz in 2014, with a dream of creating products that could meet the growing demand of Japanese companies.

“Japan is a developed country with technology that serves the demand of Japanese enterprises for digital transformation. But they have a shortage of programmers. Vietnamese engineers are as good as their Japanese peers in AI. So we’ve been able to make quality products and solutions capable of competing with those made by Japanese enterprises,” he recalled.

Their first order was only worth a few thousand dollars but it motivated Kaopiz to continue. Two years later, Kaopiz was focused on Japan, which Kaopiz considers their prime market. Kaopiz opened its first office in Japan in Tokyo in August 2016.

“Our strength comes from two things – cultural similarities between Vietnam and Japan, and engineers who can communicate with our customers in Japanese. This has narrowed the gap. Vietnamese engineers have the capability and qualifications to produce high-quality products,” Hoang said.

Last year, Kaopiz earned 8.6 million USD, 95% of which came from the Japanese market. After a decade, Kaopiz has an ecosystem of subsidiary companies, including Kaopiz Software, Kaopiz Solutions, Kaopiz Inc., Codestar, and Kgo, which specialize in various services and products.

Its team of young, enthusiastic, innovative engineers has created web apps, mobile apps, and game apps for customers in Hong Kong (China) and Canada.

A Kaopiz engineer named Nguyen Dinh Nam said, “At Kaopiz, we study, research, and develop in a dynamic and enthusiastic environment. Every week we discuss new topics, new challenges in the technology area, and update technology knowledge to improve our performance and the development ability of each individual.”

At the 2023 Make-In-Vietnam Digital Technology Product Awards, Kaopiz was named one of the Top 10 Companies with Outstanding Digital Technology Products for the Foreign Market in recognition of its Kaopiz Smart OCR, a digital document solution for the Japanese market.

Last year Kaopiz signed a memorandum of understanding on promoting digital transformation with Japan’s Hammock Group.

In early July this year, Kaopiz was named Vice President and Head of the Policy Department of the Vietnam Digital Transformation Association in Japan (VADX JAPAN), a strategic bridge to enhance digital technology cooperation and development between the two countries.

Kaopiz CEO Hoang said that over the years Kaopiz has kept improving the quality of its services based on three factors – customer satisfaction, the development of the engineer team, and contributions to society.

“Kaopiz will focus on software production for the Japanese market and introducing Make-In-Vietnam products under the Kaopiz brand to the world. Kaopiz already has such products,” said Hoang, adding, “We have sold our AI products to companies in Japan while retaining the copyright. We hope to further promote our product development to prove Vietnamese competence and enhance the position of Vietnamese enterprises in the international arena.”

As of August, Kaopiz had implemented 700 projects in education, healthcare, automation, construction, and retail. It plans to employ 3,000 people in the next 5 years, and bring in 100 million USD by 2030.

With 500 engineers working in Hanoi, Da Nang, and Tokyo, Kaopiz Holdings has become a leading tech firm in Vietnam with products and services of high quality.