5 FinTech startups in Vietnam to watch out for in 2021

Vietnam’s fast-growing FinTech market holds great potential for tech companies that support digital payments, digital banking, and blockchain. The FinTech startup scene of Vietnam has almost tripled between 2017 and 2020. The country is presently home to 130 FinTech startups that cover a wide range of services to numerous clients.

The support of Vietnam’s government has been a key factor in the growth of FinTech space in the country. Government agencies such as The FinTech Steering Committee and National Technology Innovation have made efforts to create a favorable environment for FinTech startups in the country. Various incubators and accelerators have also pitched in to grant capital, professional expertise, and R&D to the FinTech startups.

FinTech startups continues to experience steady growth in the country, the rising population and increasing per capita incomes are making the country a perfect place for investment in the FinTech space. Here are 5 FinTech startups to watch out for in 2021 in no particular order.

MoMo

Vietnam’s e-wallet platform MoMo allows users to make payments and money transfers digitally. MoMo is licensed by the State Bank of Vietnam and allows its users to make small cash-less transactions.

The platform serves a young demographic, however, what makes MoMo popular is not its ability to cater young population in metropolis areas but people in rural regions of the country as well. “Transaction points”, MoMo’s widespread network allows payments from both cities and rural regions where the use of smartphones may not be as predominant.

The startup has a direct link with 25 banks and the users can pay for all their daily utilities.

Interloan

FinTech helps the employees and businesses to connect and aid each other’s finances. Interloan ensures that the advance salary activities of employees are streamlined through its online peer-to-peer lending platform.

Businesses that have an advance salary policy, employees can take advance salary after the 15^th of each month. However, the advance taken should not exceed the time spent in a month or the number of days worked.

With most of the companies being afraid of advance salary policies due to working capital difficulties, complicated accounting procedures, and ineffective management processes, Interloan aims to systematize the payroll by using its peer-to-peer lending technology.

VayMuon

One of the largest peer-to-peer lending platforms in the country, VayMuon allows individuals to take loans from other people without taking the financial services of a bank.

The platform has three more branches besides Vietnam- Thailand, Cambodia, and Myanmar. VayMuon has been working towards promoting high-speed and paperless loan application processing. The startup has also collaborated with Nganluong, one of the largest payment gateway in the country to enter into more FinTech niches including- salary loan management, ecommerce, and supply chain financing.

eMonkey

The startup is a multi-functional e-wallet that provides its users with an intelligent non-cash payment method that can be accessed through mobile phones and can be used anytime and anywhere.

Consumers can check their transaction history, make payments, check account balance, and do various other transactions through e-Monkey app. Users can also transfer money to other eMonkey users for free and can avail discounts and promotional codes while making purchases online through this platform.

Kilimo Finance

Vietnam’s first agricultural FinTech startup provides an online marketplace for farmers to buy farm inputs at favorable prices. Farmers have an option to order and pay later, they can apply online for a credit card from one of the commercial banks in the country. Kilimo founded in 2019 has also developed agri-loan products on its digital platform.

If you think any other company should be included in this list, please drop a note @ [email protected]