Fintech Challenge Vietnam promotes financial inclusion and digital banking

The Fintech Vietnam Forum was held today as the culmination of the 2019 Fintech Challenge Vietnam (FCV), aiming to promotes financial inclusion and digital banking transformation.

Trusting Social (Vietnam) won the first prize at 2019 Fintech Challenge Vietnam.

The FCV is organized by the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) with the support from the Mekong Business Initiative, a program jointly funded by the Australian Government and the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

“The Fintech Challenge Vietnam has been useful input into developing an enabling legal framework for the fintech ecosystem development in Vietnam,” said Nguyen Kim Anh, the SBV’s Deputy Governor cum Chairman of the SBV’s Fintech Steering Committee. “We will continue to gather lessons learned as the winning fintech startups develop and prepare to deploy their solutions.”

Aiming to accelerate financial technology and industry collaboration for financial inclusion and digital banking transformation in Vietnam, the FCV this year attracted 208 applications by early-and growth-stage fintech companies from 28 countries around the world. 

“New technologies have exciting potential to expand access to finance for unbanked and underbanked groups, while enhancing the efficiency and financial security in Vietnam’s fast-growing market,” said Eric Sidgwick, ADB Country Director for Vietnam. “The Fintech Challenge Vietnam bodes well for financial inclusion and digital finance in Vietnam.”

The applications focused on big data and artificial intelligence, financial service outreach, and cybersecurity technology, which are the priorities identified by the SBV. The finalists presented their pitches before a panel of independent judges at the Demo Day on  November 7. Three early-stage and three growth-stage fintech companies have won cash prizes totaling US$55,000, as below.

Mature Startup Track

1^st Prize – Trusting Social (Vietnam) – Trusting Social uses data science and AI to provide financial services for everyone, including the underbanked. Trusting Social has Asia’s largest credit scored pool.

2^nd Prize – Tookitaki (Singapore) – Tookitaki is a cyber security company providing transaction monitoring and machine learning-powered regulatory compliance management for clients in financial services industry.

3^rd Prize – Interloan (Vietnam) – Interloan‘s P2P (Peer to Peer) lending platform provides users with solutions for salary advances and micro-investment opportunities.

Early-Stage Startup Track

1^st Prize – Kilimo (Vietnam) – Kilimo Finance allows banks to finance the agricultural sector by transforming agri-finance knowledge into attractive loan products.

2^nd Prize – Staple (Singapore) – Staple's cognitive technology reads, interprets, and extracts structured data from business documents.

3^rd Prize – Touchless ID (India) –Touchless ID uses touchless biometrics to verify users' identities through fingerprints or photos.