VIETNAM FINTECH REPORT

2020
SUPPORTED BY PRODUCED BY
FOREWORD
ANGELA DI ROSA
SENIOR CONSULTANT SOUTH EAST ASIA
Fintech Vietnam Market Map: Missing B2B Fintechs is
a Chance for Swiss SMEs
Over the past year, Vietnam’s fintech industry has grown significantly on the
back of rising adoption of digital transactions, a booming e-commerce
industry and a broader push by the government to boost digital payments,
according to Fintech News’ latest report on the domestic fintech landscape.

Investors continued to be bullish on the potential of fintech in Vietnam this

year, pumping millions into local startups.

In 2019, Vietnam already ranked second in ASEAN in terms of fintech funding,

attracting 36% of all of the region’s fintech investment. The optimism comes
as Vietnam is experiencing a boom in digital payments and e-commerce
activity amid COVID-19 restrictions and fear of contagion.

In Q1 2020, electronic payments increased by 76% with the total value of transactions jumping 124%
compared to Q1’19. Players in the space recorded unprecedented growth, with payments on mobile wallet
MoMo doubling since February.

E-commerce activity also significantly picked up this year, with overall visits to shopping apps reaching 12.7
billion in Q2 2020 and growing 43% quarter-on-quarter.

These new customer behaviors are in part driven by the government’s ongoing push for greater development
and adoption of technology in the banking and financial sector. State Bank of Vietnam governor Le Minh
Hung cited promoting non-cash payments, digital banking and green banking as the three top priorities for
the industry for the 2020-2025 period.

Over the past couple of years, the Vietnamese fintech startup scene has grown from 44 companies in 2017 to
now more than 120 companies.

These companies operate across a broad range of areas, though payments remain the dominant segment
with companies in the space representing 30% of all fintechs in Vietnam.

Though it is apparent that the Vietnamese fintech industry is getting more and more crowded by the day,
there are still gaps to fill. For one, the market is largely dominated by players operating under a
business-to-consumer (B2C) model, leaving plenty of space for B2B players, notably those that leverage
technology to help incumbent banks and financial institutions rapidly digitize, automate, and reduce their
costs.

This represents a major opportunity of mature Swiss fintech companies that are internationally oriented to
expand into the Southeast Asian country and help the local banking industry in their digital transformation.

Vietnamese banks have accelerated their digital push, partnering with fintech companies to ramp up effort.
Vietnam’s Tien Phong Commercial Joint Stock Bank (TPBank), for example, recently partnered with digital-first
banking platform Backbase to provide the bank’s customers with digital-first products and services.

Swiss fintech companies are particularly active in the B2B segment, and Swiss players such as Avaloq,
Temenos and Adnovum have built a global reputation for creating trustworthy, reliable and innovative
solutions for an international audience.

1
SWITZERLAND – WHERE FINTECH
MEETS INNOVATION AND QUALITY.
Its rich heritage of financial security, strong privacy laws and a pragmatic
regulatory approach have made Switzerland a vibrating hub for new business
ideas in the field of fintech, ranging from blockchain to cybersecurity.
The country fosters innovation while offering a secure regulatory framework.
Locate in Switzerland and grow your business.
Learn more about the Blockchain Hub Switzerland: s-ge.com/blockchain
 VIETNAM AT A GLANCE
97.4 MILLION
POPULATION

35.69 M 30.8% 81.19 M

URBAN BANKED INSURED

45% 57% 25.28 ATMS

SMARTPHONE INTERNET PER HUNDRED
PENETRATION PENETRATION THOUSAND
ADULTS

26.74% 4.12% 69%

DEBIT CREDIT HAVE SAVINGS
CARD OWNERSHIP

Source: Global Findex, Statista, Nielsen VIetnam, UNDATA, Hanoi Times

3
THEN & NOW
FINTECH SCENE THROUGHOUT THE YEARS

There were 39 startups on the Vietnamese fintech scene in 2015. It was

followed by an insubstantial increase to 44 startups within the next two
years. Most of them (23 in 2015), like nowadays, belonged to the
payments segment.

The number of fintech companies in Vietnamese market had almost

tripled from 44 to 124 startups in 2 years from 2017 to 2019 with the most
noticeable increase in P2P Lending startups, from 3 to 23 startups. New
startups appeared in every sector of the fintech scene.

However, the current disposition has remained more or less steady since
2019 with new contenders in Payments and Insurtech sectors, as well as
several P2P Lending, Blockchain, and POS startups that had to quit the
market.
4
BREAKDOWN
VIETNAM’S FINTECH PLAYERS IN 2020

There is a total of 123 fintech startups in Vietnam. the representatives of the

top 5 sectors have taken 75% of the total number (Payments, P2P Lending,
Blockchain, POS, Wealth Management), while 36 Payments and 20 P2P
Lending startups together make almost a half (47%) of all market players.

A number of unlicensed startups in mobile payment industry was not

considered, see further Payment Suppliers.

5
FINTECH STARTUP MAP

Vietnam is now home to more than 120 fintech startups covering a broad
range of services that include digital payments, alternative finance, wealth
management and blockchain. But with the government working on new
developments, including a regulatory sandbox, and new regulatory
guidelines, notably in the field of P2P lending, among other initiatives, 2020
and the years ahead promise to be exciting for the Vietnamese fintech
sector.

6
FUNDING
FUNDS RAISED BY FINTECH STARTUPS

Jan ‘19 Momo raised $100 million in the Series C funding round
led by Warburg Pincus ($100 million)

Apr ‘19 Utop secured a $3 million investment from FPT and SBI
Holdings

e-wallet VNPAY's parent company raised $300 million

Jul ‘19
from SoftBank's Vision Fund and GIC

Axie Infinity raised $1.5 million from Pangea Blockchain

Nov ‘19
Fund, Hashed, ConsenSys, and 500 Startups

Dec ‘19 Interloan secured $500,000 in investment from Phoenix

Holdings

Apr ‘20 Finhay had secured a funding round led by Acorns

co-founder Jeffrey Cruttenden and Thien Viet Securities

Sep ‘20 Fvndit raised $30 million for its Vietnamese peer-to-peer
(P2P) lending firm.
Kim An Group, which specializes in credit scoring
technology, secured an undisclosed amount of Series A
funding from Patamar Capital, Viet Capital Ventures,
and East Ventures.

7
PAYMENT SUPPLIERS
LICENSED MOBILE PAYMENT PROVIDERS
In December 2014, the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) issued the Circular No.
39/2014/TT-NHNN which sets a series of rules banks and non-bank organizations
in Vietnam must follow in order to be permitted to offer intermediary payment
services such as electronic payment portal, cash collection and payment
services, electronic money transfer services, and e-wallet services.

As of October 2020, there are 39 licensed service providers.

8
M&A DEALS
Grab acquired a stake in a Vietnamese mobile
Sep ‘18 payment startup Moca

VinID acquires payment firm People Care

May ‘19 (MonPay digital wallet app)

Vimo Technology JSC and mPOS Technology

Jun ‘19 JSC are merging into a combined entity named
NextPay Holdings

Ant Financial acquired a substantial stake in

Dec ‘19 e-wallet eMonkey. In November 2019, Lazada
Vietnam integrated eMonkey into its platform.

Vietnam drops proposed 49% foreign ownership

Apr ‘20
cap in e-payment firms

Sep ‘20 Indonesia’s Gojek has acquired controlling

interest in WePay

9
BANKS IN FINTECH
2017 - VIB partnered with Vietnamese fintech Weezi Digital in 2017 to
launch MyVIB Social Keyboard, an app that allows customers to transfer
money on social networks.

2018 - “In Vietnam, 72 percent of financial technology firms choose to

cooperate with banks in their business and service delivery, instead of
entering a direct competition.” - according to an official from the State
Bank of Vietnam (SBV)

2019 - In an interview to Vietnam Economic Times, Marc Djandji,

Entrepreneur in Residence at VIISA's Fintech Lab, shared his belief that more
cooperation is a win-win for banks and fintechs.

2020 - In Vietnam, digital banking development is accelerating on the

back of rapid fintech adoption, a booming e-commerce industry and the
COVID-19 pandemic. Although multiple banks have chosen to partner with
foreign fintechs, for example VietinBank and Opportunity Network (UK),
CIMB Bank Vietnam and Toss (Korea), VPBank and BE Group (Sweden),
OCB and RippleNet (US), and TPBank with Backbase (Netherlands), some
other banks have joined forces with local startups.

After five years of operation, Timo dropped its initial banking partner VP
Bank and switched to Viet Capital Bank. The digital banking platform was
rebranded to Timo Plus and introduced a new website and mobile app.

Shinhan Financial Group announced on October 22, that it had signed a

memorandum of understanding with the Vietnamese subsidiary of
Singapore-based ride-hailing giant Grab to jointly develop new digital
financial services.

“Considering the model of financial inclusion which is needed in Vietnam,

the number of potential customers that are free and untouched is so huge,
the potential is there for Vietnamese start-ups and Vietnamese banks, the
question is who grows and by how much.” - Varun Mittal, EY ASEAN FinTech
Leader1.

Source:
1
Driving growth through innovation in Vietnam - EY 10
COOPERATION IN FINTECH
In 2018 Grab and Moca announced strategic partnership to expand
payments services more quickly and efficiently across Vietnam on Grab
Platform. In November 2020 Grab Vietnam and Lazada Vietnam jointly
announced a partnership that would see integrations of the two
companies’ offerings on their respective platforms.

In April 2018, NganLuong, Vietnam’s largest payment gateway, entered into

a partnership with VeriME, a Singapore-based fintech startup that offers
blockchain-powered digital identity verification service (VaaS —
Verification as a Service) that ensures that user authentication and
verification process are done directly without any third party as a mediator.

In April 2019, Citi enters partnership with Vietnam-based fintech Payoo to

facilitate consumer-to-business collections for corporate clients in the
country.

11
RIDE-HAILING MARKET
CURRENT PARTICIPANTS

Grab Go-Jek Vietnam be

FastGo MyGO Vato

Food Delivery

Foody Vietnammm Now

In March 2018, Uber stopped its operation in several South-East Asian countries
and sold its Vietnam business to Singapore based competitor Grab. Grab
accounted for 73% of ride-share trips in Vietnam in first half of 2019.

In September 2018, Go-Jek announces full launch in Vietnam with partner

Go-Viet

In August 2020, GoViet officially rebrands as Gojek Vietnam.

12
TOP E-WALLETS
5 POPULAR E-WALLETS

According to local
media citing
statistics from the
SBV, in 2019 there
were estimates of
4.2 million e-wallet
users out of the
country’s nearly
100 million people,
leaving plenty of
opportunities for
players.

13
TOP E-WALLETS
4 of the 5 following e-wallets along with a P2P Lending startup Tima have been
recognized as the 5 fastest growing fintech companies in Vietnam within the scope of
IDC’s FinTech Fast 101 research.

MoMo is an e-wallet and mobile payment app developed by Vietnamese company

M_Service. MoMo enables users to pay online, make peer-to-peer transfers, buy games
credit, top ups, as well as pay utility bills. MoMo currently supports payments to nearly 100
services providers and online businesses and is integrated with 24 domestic banks, as well as
international payments networks including Visa, MasterCard and JCB. As of October 2018,
the service had nearly 10 million users on both iOS and Android. MoMo was named one of
the 2018 Fintech 100 Leading Global Fintech Innovators by H2 Ventures and KPMG.

Payoo has more than 10 years experiences in intermediary payment services. Having
connected to more than 40 banks and 12,000 payment accepted points in Vietnam, Payoo
offers multi – payment methods which help customers pay for anything on both offline and
online.

Founded in 2013, Moca provides a free mobile payment application for Vietnamese
consumers. The company was granted a license for payment services by the State Bank of
Vietnam (SBV) in 2016 and has a network of 11 local banks as partners. In September, Moca
signed a partnership with Grab to launch GrabPay by Moca, a mobile wallet integrated
into Grab’s app in Vietnam. The deal seeks to leverage the strengths of both companies:
Grab chose Moca for their local knowhow and access to licenses, while Moca will gain
traction through its integration with Grab. Grab is an investor in Moca.

Zalo Pay, a service that lets users link a payment card to make P2P payments, pay via NFC,
QR codes, as well as purchase products and services online, mobile topups, and pay their
utility bills. Zalo Pay is integrated with Vietnam’s popular messaging platform Zalo and
requires users to log in using their Zalo account.

ViettelPay, a digital banking service launched in June 2018 and developed by the Military
Industry-Telecoms Group (Viettel) has offered various digital payment services. ViettelPay
also offers a free money transfer service to 40 Vietnamese domestic banks via phone
number, bank accounts, or ATM card numbers.
14
B2C VS B2B
A FEW STARTUPS IN THE B2B SECTOR
The market predominantly consists of startups that follow B2C model. There is a
few fintech startups in Vietnam in the B2B sector cause most other startups
overlook the underdeveloped B2B market, which remains that in the whole
region with the exception of Singapore. Some of the Vietnamese B2B companies
include Trusting Social, Kilimo Finance and VN Pay.
Founded in 2013, Trusting Social is a startup headquartered in Singapore but
originally from Vietnam that uses big data technologies, advanced credit
modeling and mobile data to provide alternative credit scoring for emerging
markets. Trusting Social claims it currently covers more than 500 million consumers
across India, Indonesia and Vietnam, and has raised US$44 million in funding so
far, according to Crunchbase, from investors that include Sequoia Capital, 500
Startups, Kima Ventures and BeeNext.

Kilimo Finance has launched in 2018 and developed high potential agri-loan
products on a digital platform in combination with the Kilimo App on the
business-to-business (B2B) front.

VN Pay is a B2B financial services company that provides banking, payment and
mobile phone recharge solutions for banks, telcos and e-commerce businesses. It
recently expanded to provide QR-code payment gateways for e-commerce
and traditional retail stores.

15
P2P Lending
In July 2020, SBV warned domestic credit institutions and
branches of foreign banks in Vietnam to be cautious about
partnering with P2P lenders. According to the bank, some local
P2P lending companies have misled investors and consumers
into assuming that their activities are protected under current
regulations and insured against risks.

The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) is planning to apply on a pilot

basis a regulatory sandbox allowing fintech companies to
provide some banking services from 2021.

Some Platforms on the Local Market

16
REMITTANCES
Value of remittances received in Vietnam from 2001 to 2019 (in
Billion U.S. dollars)

Source: Vietnam; World Bank; 2000 to 2019

Vietnam named among top 10 remittance recipients in 2019 by World Bank.

Top 10 countries by amount of remittances sent to Vietnam in 2017

Source: pewresearch.org
17
STARTUPS TO WATCH
15 FINTECH FIRMS FROM VIETNAM

Tima is a P2P lending Vaymuon.vn (also known as bePOS is a startup founded

platform operating Vietnam Lendmo.asia) is the first and in 2015 specializing in
founded in 2015. In addition largest P2P Lending Platform point-of-sale (POS) systems.
to the basic lending in Vietnam. It has disclosed bePOS provides an
platform, it also provides that it has been profitable all-in-one, cloud-based POS
mortgage loan services and after 2 years of official software solution that allows
financial Advisory services to operation, successfully merchants to easily run their
customers. connected more than 2 daily operations, better
million borrowers to 400,000+ engage with customers,
individual lenders. manage staff and grow
market share.

Finhay is a micro-investment Finsify, formerly ZooStudio, is Growth Wealth is a P2P

platform targeted at the company behind Money lending platform for SMEs in
millennials. The platform Lover, a personal finance Vietnam. The platform allows
allows customers to start management app that them to obtain direct
investing with as little as VND consolidates all user bank financing from individual
50,000, or slightly more than accounts to allow users to and institutional investors.
US$2, in mutual funds in better track their finances. In
Vietnam. It has about 3,000 2018 Money Lover was the Growth Wealth is part of
regular users with a total number one app in personal Fintech Lab, an initiative
capital commitment of VND finance in mobile app formed by FPT and
3.7 billion (US$158,000). stores. VinaCapital.

TheBank.vn claims to be the TrueMoney Vietnam, part of Timo Plus is the first bank in
first online financial advisory Southeast Asian fintech Vietnam without branches
website in Vietnam. The Ascend Money, operates or traditional transaction
platform compares products the TrueMoney Wallet, offices. In partnership with
such as credit cards, loans, which allows users to make Viet Capital Bank, Timo Plus
savings and insurance to online purchases, pay bills promises a private banking
provide free financial and top up their pre-paid experience you’d expect
advice to consumers and mobile and gaming cards, from other banks, but
also connects customers as well as to transfer money without the hassle of
with thousands of experts from their bank accounts to maintaining a huge
and consultants around the the digital wallet and from balance.
country. their wallet to other wallets.
18
STARTUPS TO WATCH
15 FINTECH FIRMS FROM VIETNAM

Trusting Social is a fintech TomoChain is a public Interloan is a P2P lending

and AI company that blockchain promising faster platform for salaried
provides alternative credit and cheaper transactions professionals in Vietnam. The
scoring for emerging designed to support platform connects investors
markets using telecom data decentralized applications. and borrowers who can
and other data sources. The TomoChain relies on a system avail an unsecured loan of
company aims to provide 1 of 150 Masternodes with up to VND 70 million
billion credit scores to the POSV consensus that can (US$3,000) for a 6-month
unbanked consumers support near-zero fees and a period. All transactions get
without access to formal two second transaction done through Interloan’s
credit. confirmation. partner bank’s system.

Founded in 2018, Utop is a Founded in early 2019, Kilimo eMonkey is a

blockchain startup that has Finance is Vietnam’s first multi-functional e-wallet
developed a decentralized agricultural fintech startup. developed by Hanoi-based
gift exchange platform. Built The startup’s mission is to M-Pay that aims to provide
on FPT Corporation’s become the preferred users with a smart non-cash
enterprise blockchain global platform to support payment method that’s
platform akaChain. The financial institutions with easy and safe to use
platform helps improve digital agri-finance solutions anywhere, anytime on their
discount and reward for farmers and mobile phone.
programs and enhances agribusinesses.
customer experience.

19
If we’ve missed you out in our fintech map of if you’d like to speak to us for media enquiries/advertising kindly reach
out to:

CHRISTIAN KOENIG
FOUNDER
FINTECH NEWS NETWORK
chris@fintechnews.sg

/Fintech-Vietnam-Meetup /fintechvn /FintechVN