Although still nascent, Vietnam’s fintech sector is growing steadily. A report released in May by Global Information, highlighted the sector’s huge potential in Vietnam.
Startups that are leveraging technology, digital platforms and peer-to-peer business models are creating competitive pressures on the industry. Some new mobile wallet and payments companies aim at leveraging existing infrastructure by cooperating with financial institutions.
Ho Chi Minh City has got a number of promising startups such as M_Service, one of the country’s first fintech startups to gain international recognition; Timo, Vietnam’s first and only digital “bank” powered by VP Bank; and LoanVi, Vietnam’s first peer-to-peer lending online marketplace for personal loans.
Today, we take a look at Hanoi’s fintech startup community with a focus on some of the city’s most promising ventures.
Money Lover (ZooStudio)
Money Lover
, a product of Hanoi-based startup ZooStudio, is a personal finance app that lets users track and manage their finances easily. It allows for budget planning, expense tracking, in-depth reporting, and aims at delivering comprehensive and accurate overview of users’ financial situation.
Money Lover lets you link accounts from 15 of the country’s largest banks and integrates with popular online services including Uber and PayPal.
ZooStudio is working on other fintech projects as well including a new credit scoring system, the company’s business developer Thanh Cong To told Fintechnews in July.
BankGo
Launched in closed beta earlier this year, BankGo is a financial comparison platform for personal loans such as housing, car, consumer loans, but also credit cards, savings accounts and SME loans.
Aimed at helping users get relevant information and the best deals, BankGo was founded by Vu Viet Hung, a former banker and the founder of U&Bank, the largest bankers forum and community in Vietnam with over 300,000 professionals and 40 bank partners.
ibox
ibox is a cloud/mobile payments services provider with offices in Vietnam, Hong Kong, Thailand, Indonesia and Russia.
Founded in 2013, the company offers a comprehensive product set covering needs for both commercial retail and mobile merchants (mPOS, EPOS, pre-order for HoReCa). Its mPOS enables debit and credit card payments through smartphones and tablets, working as a mobile acquiring and payments platform.
Headquartered in Hong Kong, ibox expanded to Vietnam in 2014 and has signed deals with BIDV, MB and Techcombank. The startup has raised US$12.1 million in venture capital so far, according to Tech in Asia.
NganLuong.vn
Founded in 2009, NganLuong.vn is an e-wallet and Online Payment Gateway provider for e-commerce with features that include online and offline fund deposit, withdrawal and payment.
The platform links to many renowned e-commerce websites such as ebay.vn and chodientu.vn. The platform is integrated with a number of banks and financial institutions including Vietcombank, Techcombank, Vietinbank, East Asia, VIB, SHB, the Visa and MasterCard payments networks, as well as popular domestic mobile network operators VinaPhone and MobiFone.
The company claims to be serving “millions of users, hundreds of thousands of accounts for billing” and is said to be dominating Vietnam’s online payments sector with over 50% market share.
OnOnPay
Hanoi-based OnOnPay provides an app that lets users easily topup via mobile. OnOnPay works with all major mobile network operators in Vietnam for both prepaid and postpaid subscribers. The app also offers rewards, extra credit, coupons and gift certificates to loyal customers.
In August 2015, the startup announced a six-digit seed funding round from Captii Ventures to fuel its expansion plans, notably to Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines.
Bao Kim
Founded in 2010, Bao Kim is an online payments gateway “built on the model of PayPal” that aims at acting as a bridge between buyers and sellers for online payments and mobile money transfers.
The platform is integrated with 16 different banks in Vietnam and powers payments for more than 8,000 brick-and-mortar outlets and online businesses including Forbes, MyTour.vn, FTP Shop and TaiLieu.vn. Bao Kim serves over 1,000,000 customers.
