Huy Vietnam Group, Vietnam's largest operator of self-managed, local Vietnamese food restaurants, has secured a US$15 million equity financing from institutional investors and family offices from Malaysia, Korea and Hong Kong. This funding will be used to support the company's network expansion in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, the company announced in a statement.

Operating since 2007, Huy Vietnam is the country's first international, professionally managed restaurant company, serving traditional Vietnamese food. It currently runs over 40 restaurants under the Mon Hue, Com Express and Pho Ong Hung brands.

With this round of funding, Huy Vietnam plans to continue growing the brand presence and reach of Mon Hue, Com Express and Pho Ong Hung restaurants throughout 2014 and 2015, including expanding its geographical footprint to include Hanoi in the fourth quarter of 2014.

"This financing allows us to leverage our market leading position in Ho Chi Minh City and expand to Vietnam's capital, Hanoi. We believe our multi-restaurant brand strategy fits well with the local Vietnamese market," says KY Huy, co-founder, chairman and CEO of Huy Vietnam . "By providing customers with cuisine choices in central Vietnamese specialty dishes (Mon Hue), southern Vietnamese rice dishes (Com Express) and northern Vietnamese noodle dishes (Pho Ong Hung), we believe that our three restaurant brands will capture significant market share in both Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi."

Dennis Nguyen, vice-chairman of Huy Vietnam and chairman of New Asia Partners, a Minneapolis-based private equity group and one of Huy Vietnam's shareholders comments, adds: "We are pleased to bring on leading Asian investment firms, AIF Capital Asia IV, L.P. and Fortress Capital Asset Management, with the close of this round of equity fundraising. I especially look forward to working with AIF Capital on the Huy Vietnam board as they add value through corporate governance and industry specialization and Fortress Capital in the areas of capital markets intelligence and investor relations."

Vietnam is one of the fastest growing economies in Asia, with a forecast 5.6% GDP growth rate in 2014, and an average GDP growth of over 7% annually in the past decade. The strong GDP growth has fueled the development of the restaurant business in Vietnam due to the local culture of eating out.