Glass Egg

completed

Glass Egg Digital Media is a digital media company incorporated in the British Virgin Islands with operations in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Founded in early 1999 by Phil Tran, the company targets three business segments, namely computer and video games, web content and coding development, and 3D animation. Glass Egg currently has 67 employees and carries out 100 percent of its development work in Vietnam. The company is seeking up to US$3.0 million to expand its technical and managerial capacity in Vietnam, and to open a business development office in the United States. Development ImpactsThe project would support efforts to catalyze growth and entrepreneurship in Vietnam by exporting high-end IT services, and also by acting as an important symbol of the benefits of continued reform. The project would have significant developmental impact by creating highly skilled software development jobs in Vietnam over the next five years; and helping to train workers in Vietnam by exposing them to the global digital media industry. Through an intensive home-grown training program, the project would bring higher standards of software services to Vietnam. Finally, by helping Glass Egg develop a broader international client base, it would help put Vietnam on the map in the digital media outsourcing industry.IFC''s RoleAgainst the background of a downturn in the global technology sector, as well as the near total absence of venture capital money for Vietnamese companies, IFC’s support for Glass Egg has been critical. IFC has spent considerable time in structuring the transaction and in helping the company think through its strategy and operations in a difficult environment. Given the difficulties experienced by many small Internet companies over the past two years, major global companies are reluctant to work with small start-ups, and IFC''s participation will increase Glass Egg''s credibility and help secure additional outsourcing contracts. The company is emerging from a loss-making situation and hopes to turn profitable this year, and IFC''s investment will enable the company to scale up to reach its profitability goals. In addition, while off-shore software programming is now well established for traditional software applications, digital media services from emerging markets are at a very nascent stage. IFC''s support for this industry in Vietnam could thus have significant demonstration effect.