Fintech fund inflows for Asean hit US$4.3b – What are the opportunities for the Vietnam fintech market?

Will the becoming a “bridge” between big funds and the fintech industry in the region of Singapore bring great benefits to the development of fintech companies in Vietnam?

Singapore, the jungle’s king of Southeast Asia, is the leading country in the fintech industry in the region.

According to a report released on Friday, July 28^th by professional services firm PwC Singapore, the Singapore Fintech Association (SFA) and Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB), the fintech investment in Asean fund reached US$4.3 billion in the first nine months of 2022.

This research states that Singapore is the top nation receiving capital investments from venture capitalists and is followed by Indonesia and the remaining 5 countries in the Asean-6 (Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand).

This once again proves Singapore's leading position in the region in the fintech industry as they continuously lead the trends that shape this industry, which are artificial intelligence (AI), sustainability and digital trust.

What are the opportunities for the Vietnam fintech market?

Capital pouring into the Asean region amounted to US$4.3 billion while the global figure was US$75.2 billion, showing the level of interest of big players in a very young market like this region.

According to some sources, the two industries that continue to capture the highest amount of investment from large funds are payments and NEOBank or digital banking, which are also growing rapidly in Vietnam recently.

Payments

Reagading the nearest statistic of Statista, the total transaction value in digital payments markets is projected to reach US$23.99bn in 2023 is predicted to reach US$41.69bn by 2027.

This figure shows that the payments market's growth is continuous, and there is still many opportunities for Vietnamese stratups in the above field.

In fact, the payments market in Vietnam has also been developing very strongly. From the years 2010-2016, it was an era of online payment gateways through websites.

But as society advances and smartphones provide users with ever-greater assistance, e-wallets has been creating and developing strongly. Since these e-wallets appeared, payments process has been running faster and more conveniently.

According to nearest report of The Connected Consumer, MoMo is currenly the leading e-wallet with more than 33 million users (more than 68% of the market share), followed by Zalo Pay with 53%, Viettelpay with 27%, Shopee Pay (Airpay) with 25% market share, VNPay in the next position with 16% and Moca e-wallet (Grabpay) in the 6^th place.

Digital banking

Digital banking is other segment that has been growing with the high speed.  After the establishment of the first digital bank named Timo, some traditional banks started to transform their system to improve their customer experience for the young generation.

Nowadays, this process is still happening when almost banks in Vietnam are digitalized and their customers can with only simple steps on the app control their transactions.

NEOBanks

This type of banking has recently appeared in Vietnam. Like digital banks, NEOBanks are established in order to digitally transform the banking industry. But rather than coming from any other conventional banks, fintech companies are the ones which founded these banks.

In summary, Vietnam is still regarded as the dragon of this region, but if Singapore is compared to a dominant lion in Southeast Asia, then Vietnam is a youthful, inventive, and dynamic market.

Some companies in this market, like MoMo, VNPay, and Zalo Pay (VNG), have achieved the distinction of being the unicorns of the region due to their exceptionally rapid growth and adoption of technology.