Ho Thai Binh

Biography

Although studying Commerce and Finance, Binh has long been interested in using his knowledge of business to solve social problems. Since he was a student, he has founded and led many non-profit organizations that address environmental and educational issues. As a result, Binh understands the importance of applying business strategies to ensure a sustainable and effective social impact.

In 2014, he and his father founded SiGen to commercialize the invention of anti-mosquito manholes in urban stormwater drainage systems. The solution has received numerous awards for its simplicity and effectiveness. The solution is receiving more and more support from local authorities, scientists, and local people thanks to its effectiveness in preventing odors, fast drainage, and eliminating mosquitoes’ growth and development environment. SiGen started to successfully deploy the solution in many localities across the country in 2019.

In 2016, Binh participated in the First Aid course from the non-profit project Survival Skills Vietnam (SSVN). Since childhood, Binh has survived many serious accidents thanks to his mother, who is a doctor, was present in first aid properly and in time, he realized the vital significance of this skill for the community. Binh created the Sơ Cấp Cứu app (first aid app) – the first first aid instruction app in Vietnamese then gifted it to SSVN. In 2018, when SSVN was having difficulty in scaling up due to its complete reliance on founders’ time and financial contributions, Binh joined the founding team as a director and transforming SSVN into a social enterprise model. Since becoming a Social Enterprise, thanks to commercial revenue, SSVN has been developing a variety of conventional and non-conventional educational solutions to help more than 100.000 Vietnamese acquire first aid education.

Both companies Binh is running are in the Top 10 and Top 5 of the Blue Venture Award 2019. His social contribution was also recognised by the Australian government via the Australian Alumni Award 2023. After both models have achieved initial success and proven commercial, Binh is learning ways to expand the business model to make a bigger impact on society. Besides, he is always actively contributing to the startup impact room in Vietnam with the role of support, experience sharing, training, etc. in order to realize the desire to contribute to incubating the next generation of social entrepreneurs.