Top 5 most well-funded Fintechs in Vietnam 2023

In recent years, Asia has emerged as one of the world’s leading fintech regions, with the highest fintech revenues worldwide, data from Statista shows. In the region, Vietnam is among the emerging fintech markets.

Vietnam has seen its fintech sector grow steadily amid increased customer adoption and sustained venture capital (VC) funding activity.

The number of new firms grew by over 180% between 2018 and 2022, and fintech funding reached $720 million in 2021, a figure that made fintech one of Vietnam’s largest technology segments that year by accounting for more than half of all secured VC funding .

However, cashless payments continued to see increased use in 2022, rising 85% in volume and 31% in value, data from the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) shows. Looking specifically at card payments, chip card transactions via the National Payment Corporation of Vietnam (NAPAS) almost tripled, a trend that came at the expense of cash usage, where withdrawals processed through the NAPAS system were halved.

In this burgeoning fintech scene, several local companies stand out from the crowd. These companies make headlines for their strong growth and for attracting the interest of reputable investors.

To get a feel for Vietnam’s up-and-coming fintech leaders, today we look at the country’s top five most well-funded fintech companies. For this list, we focused exclusively on equity financing and used data from Tech in Asia, CB Insights and Dealroom.

VNLife – $550 million

Founded in 2017 and headquartered in Hanoi, VNLife is a holding company in Vietnam and the parent company of fintech firm VNPay.

A leading Vietnamese digital payment company, VNPay currently provides electronic payment services to more than 40 banks, five telecommunications companies and 20,000 businesses. The company’s products include VNPay-POS, an “all-in-one” payment solution for merchants, and VNPay-QR, a QR code payment solution integrated into more than 30 mobile banking applications and several e-wallets.

VNLife, which operates an ecosystem that includes a broad portfolio of systems and services ranging from banking and financial services, to e-commerce websites and flight booking services, has secured a total of $550 million in funding so far. The total includes a US$300 million investment from SoftBank Vision Fund and Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC in 2019, and a US$250 million Series B in 2021.

M_Service – $434 million

Founded in 2007 and headquartered in Ho Chi Minh City, M_Service is the operator of MoMo, Vietnam’s leading mobile wallet. Designed for enhanced payment services, the app allows users to make seamless digital payments, make transfers, pay bills and more.

M_Service is one of the fastest growing fintech companies in Vietnam and has set ambitions to become a leading super app. As of the end of June 2022, it claimed more than 31 million users, 50,000 domestic partners and 140,000 payment acceptance points nationwide in cooperation with 70 banks and international cards.

M_Service is the second most valuable private company in Vietnam, having raised $434 million and is worth $2.27 billion, according to CB Insights and Dealroom. It is backed by investors that include Mizuho Bank and Warburg Pincus.

Sky Mavis – $311 million

Founded in 2018, Sky Mavis is a blockchain game developer based in Singapore and Vietnam, known for its blockchain game Axie Infinity, a digital collectible pet game built on the Ethereum blockchain.

In Axie Infinity, players can battle, raise, evolve, and trade fantasy creatures called Axies, which are visual representations of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) owned by players. Each Axie has its own distinct appearance and attributes, and cannot be replicated.

Axie Infinity was launched in early 2018 and it is now one of the highest grossing blockchain games. In February 2022, Axie Infinity NFTs reached $4 billion in all-time sales and averaged 2.7 million monthly active players.

Sky Mavis secured a US$150 million Series C in April 2022, bringing its total funding to around US$311 million, data from Dealroom and CB Insights show. The company is valued at USD 3 billion, making it the most valuable private technology startup in Vietnam.

Trusting Social – USD 214 million

Founded in 2013, Trusting Social is a provider of artificial intelligence (AI)-powered credit risk, identity and underwriting solutions to the lending industry. The company, which seeks to democratize financial services and improve financial inclusion, combines big data technology with social, online and mobile data to enable lenders in emerging markets to serve consumers not covered by traditional credit bureaus.

Headquartered in Singapore and operating across Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines and India, Trusting Social claims to be the largest provider of credit risk profiles in Asia, serving more than 1 billion consumers through partnerships with over 170 financial institutions and service providers, including CIMB , Sacombank , UOB, UnionBank and Grab.

Trusting Social is an award-winning start-up backed by, among others, Sequoia Capital, 500 Startups, Kima Ventures and Genesis Alternative Ventures. The startup has raised around $214 million in funding so far, according to data from CB Insights and Dealroom. The latest round, a US$105 million Series D, was secured earlier this month.

Be Group – “Hundreds of millions of US dollars”

Founded in 2018 and headquartered in Ho Chi Minh City, Be Group is the technology company behind the on-demand multiservice platform Be. Striving to become a super app, Be currently offers a wide range of services including transport, delivery, shopping, insurance, phone packages and financial services.

The company ventured into the banking space through a partnership with VPBank. The deal culminated in the launch of Cake, a digital banking offering, in 2021. Cake offers a range of products and services similar to a traditional bank, including current accounts, money transfer services, savings accounts and payment cards.

The company claims its innovative electronic know-your-customer (eKYC) system allows customers to digitally sign contracts and open an account in about two minutes without having to visit a counter.

Be Group claims its mobile app is installed on 20 million mobile devices and says it had more than 1.5 million monthly active users shopping on the platform in H1 2022.

The company said in December 2018 that it had secured “hundreds of millions of US dollars” in investment. A source told DealStreetAsia in September 2022 that the company was now looking to raise at least $100 million in a new round of equity financing.

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