Tag: vietnam

Vietnam – GroupM’s influencer marketing solution INCA has appointed Loan Menuge, senior digital planning and integration manager at Japanese advertising and public relations company Hakuhodo Inc., to lead its expansion in Vietnam. 

In his new appointment, Menuge will be responsible for INCA’s overall business growth and customer success. He will also be overseeing a strategic go-to-market plan that fosters deep customer engagement, strengthens partnerships, and builds a powerful network of alliances

Menuge has over eight years of experience in orchestrating and optimising multiple full-fledged projects. His expertise ranges from implementing innovative initiatives for digital transformation, to conceiving omni-channel communication directions for the world’s top brands. During his stint at Hakuhodo, Menuge was tasked with establishing and growing the group’s digital capability from the ground up.

Commenting on his appointment, Menuge said, “I am thrilled to be joining the GroupM family as INCA’s Lead in Vietnam, where I will work closely with brands to maximise the returns on their digital investments. Influencer marketing is exploding in Vietnam, and I’m excited to collaborate with GroupM to implement INCA’s influencer marketing solutions to the country.”

Tomasz Kuisz, GroupM’s chief product officer for Vietnam, commented they are happy to welcome Menuge on board to lead the growth of INCA in Vietnam, and his experience and insights are invaluable in helping Vietnamese brands scale up their digital campaigns through their best in class AI-enabled influencer marketing technology.

“Thanks to experts like Loan we can maximise the potential of our unique technology to guarantee not only effective marketing but also connect brands with relevant, authentic influencers and publishers. I am confident that Loan will be influential in driving INCA Vietnam’s next chapter of growth,” said Kuisz.

Singapore – Small-and-medium enterprise (SME) digital financing platform Funding Societies has announced their latest market expansion in Vietnam, marking the company’s fifth market expansion. Said expansion aims to tap into the country’s growing yet financially underserved SME landscape.

Kelvin Teo, co-founder and group CEO at Funding Societies, said, “Since our inception in 2015, our vision is to uplift societies in Southeast Asia. Hence, Vietnam has always been part of our roadmap. This is an opportune time as we ride out of COVID-19, build a solid team with local finTech veteran Ryan Galloway, and secure investment from tech giant VNG. We believe that Vietnam will be one of our largest markets given its enormous potential.”

Earlier this year, Vietnamese tech giant VNG Corporation invested US$22.5m in Funding Societies as part of the fintech company’s US$294m series C+ fundraise, of which US$144m was raised in equity and US$150m in debt lines. Funding Societies also received the support of other notable investors in the funding round, including SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Rapyd Ventures, EDBI, Indies Capital, Ascend Vietnam Ventures, and K3 Ventures, among others. 

Through the aforementioned funding, VNG will help Funding Societies to quickly adapt to the local market so it can provide solutions tailored to the unique needs of Vietnamese businesses.

Meanwhile, Ryan Galloway, country director of Funding Societies Vietnam, commented, “Vietnam SMEs don’t have the same access to venture and early-stage capital markets as other Southeast Asian markets, but the Vietnam market is equally as competitive, so Vietnamese entrepreneurs are trained to do more with less. We see lots of opportunity in Vietnam and we’re excited to support the country’s burgeoning SME landscape as we continue to serve the needs of millions of SMEs across Southeast Asia.”

Recently, Funding Societies have invested alongside automotive car marketplace platform CARRO at Bank Index, an Indonesian national Bank. The move serves as a significant milestone in Funding Societies’ entry into the neobanking space.

Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam – AI-powered fintech Trusting Social has raised US$65m funding from The Sherpa Company, a subsidiary of Masan Group Corporation, to offer customised retail and consumer financial products to serve 27 million families in Vietnam.

In addition, the strategic collaboration between the two entities will provide access to personalised fintech solutions for Masan’s consumers by combining Masan’s offline-to-online vision with Trusting Social’s ability to democratise financial services. 

It will also enable Masan to drive efficiencies in its core business by leveraging Trusting Social’s AI capabilities in areas as diverse as retail store selection, demand and supply planning, as well as product assortment and development.

Nguyen Nguyen, founder and CEO at Trusting Social, said, “I am proud that a Vietnamese team has created an innovative credit scoring artificial intelligence and machine learning platform that financial institutions across Asia are utilising to serve their consumers better. Our partnership with Masan is exciting since we broaden our platform from credit access to a total consumer life solution. Masan and Trusting Social have the same belief that Vietnam can create transformation and disruption on par with global peers.”

Meanwhile, Danny Le, CEO at Masan Group, commented, “Walmart has invested heavily to develop an AI and ML platform and has leveraged it to become the leading offline and online daily, consumer life platform. The Trusting Social partnership provides Masan a similar cutting edge AI and ML platform but tailored for 100 million Vietnamese consumers. Our job together now is to develop it from a pure credit scoring use case to a holistic consumer engine.”

Hanoi, Vietnam – Local bank VPBank in Vietnam has announced that it was permitted to go through with the acquisition of OPES Insurance, aimed at expanding its business lines to non-life and health insurance, paired with its current life insurance business collaborated with AIA Vietnam. This announcement was held during the bank’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Hanoi last 29 April.

Through the meeting, VPBank also shared that it will be contributing VND20t towards its securities arm of ASC – a subsidiary obtained earlier in the year, to tap into the investment banking and wealth management segments.

Moreover, the bank will be lifting its foreign ownership limit to 30% of the chartered capital to accommodate the private placement to the foreign investor accordingly. The proceeds obtained from the share issuance will be utilised to enhance VPBank’s financial and management capabilities, in order to extend the operation scale of the bank to serve growing credit demand.

Vietnam – Digital assets exchange CoinW has announced its expansion to Vietnam. Through this, the company will be bringing more than 10 million USDT rewards to its Vietnamese users, which can be obtained from the activities of doing registrations, friend invitations, and transactions.

CoinW said that it has also launched a Vietnamese language package version to make transactions more convenient for Vietnamese users. Moreover, the Vietnamese Dong (VND) OTC transaction feature will also be opened soon, enabling users to use VND to exchange cryptocurrencies on the platform.

Mingguo Bai, CoinW’s CEO, shared that in recent years, a large number of encrypted projects and technical teams, such as Axie Infinity and Coin98, have emerged in the global encryption industry. 

“It is a great pleasure to bring the products and services to Vietnam. CoinW will provide a safe, stable, and fast cryptocurrency channel for local cryptocurrency users, and ensure the security of user transactions in multiple dimensions,” said Bai.

Singapore – Singapore-based tech company The Parentinc has announced the successful completion of the acquisition of Webtretho and Bé Yêu, a women and parenting communities platform in Vietnam.

Founded in 2002, Webtretho is an online destination for women in Vietnam with millions of visitors every year. Webtretho’s mission to elevate women and enrich their lives has enabled the company to build one of SEA’s prominent user-generated content platforms where members share knowledge and experience in a wide range of topics including parenthood, and pregnancy, childcare, beauty, healthcare, and entertainment.

Webtretho also operates Bé Yêu, a well-known Vietnamese social network aimed to provide a discussion platform for expectant parents and families looking to raise their children better.

Roshni Mahtani-Cheung, group CEO and founder of The Parentinc, said that they are extremely thrilled to welcome the team at Webtretho and Bé Yêu into their family. Cheung added that Webtretho is a household name in Vietnam trusted by almost every young mother over the last two decades.

“Combining that with The Parentinc’s deep technology and commercial capabilities will bring a new era of innovation to help Vietnamese parents have healthier pregnancies and raise healthy families. We are deeply humbled by the opportunity to be able to partner with the Webtretho and Bé Yêu team to further our joint mission in such big strides,” Cheung said.

Meanwhile, Nikki Assavathorn, The Parentinc Cluster Country Head of Thailand and Vietnam, shares, “The Parentinc is the number one parenting community in 11 markets across the world. We are very excited to partner with the Webtretho team to now be the number one parenting community in Vietnam as well.

Assavathom added, “Combining Webtretho’s audience in Vietnam and The Parentinc’s technology will provide our advertising partners an unprecedented way to reach the right audience with the right message at the right time.”

Phan Thanh Huong, CEO of Webtretho, commented, “This is a new phase of growth for Webtretho and our Vietnam team. I am delighted by this new development in the business and I very much look forward to this partnership with Roshni, Nikki, and The Parentinc team.”

Singapore – Thoughtworks, a global technology consultancy that integrates strategy, design and engineering to drive digital innovation, has expanded its business to Vietnam, with the opening of an office in Ho Chi Minh City in mid-2022.

The expansion in Vietnam reflects Thoughtworks’ wider effort to geographically diversify its business and meet service demand from clients in SEA and Australia. It also aims to increase the company’s ability to hire from this skilled, diverse talent base and welcoming business environment.

Through this, Thoughtworks will be creating new jobs, developing local talent, and building thought leadership on digital transformation, cloud, platforms, data and artificial intelligence, and customer experience, as well as product and design.

Wen Shun Wong, Thoughtworks’ managing director for SEA, shared that this expansion will provide wider collaboration potential between their clients, partners, and employees, and strengthen the availability and supply of premium services for their clients in APAC. 

“This strategic move will also allow us to leverage a new community of talent who will help us further innovate and deliver extraordinary impact for our clients,” said Wong.

Vietnam – Insurance firm Tokio Marine Insurance Vietnam (TMIV) has partnered with information company OpenText to implement OpenText solutions, aimed at modernising its client communication strategy and enabling rapid delivery of information to customers.

Through the partnership, TMIV will be leveraging OpenText Exstream and accelerating the creation of policy documents by 40%, helping the company to process growing volumes of client requests. Moreover, manual processes will be replaced with streamlined digital authoring and editing tools, cutting production costs and improving customer satisfaction as clients now receive their policy information faster. This solution was also utilised by the company’s Indonesia non-life insurance entity, PT Asuransi Tokio Marine Indonesia (TMI), for policy issuance.

Hideki Maeomote, TMIV’s general director, shared that they needed a solution that would streamline and accelerate their document workflows, which is aligned with their values to ‘Japan Quality’ to their customers. 

“With OpenText Exstream, we have modernised internal processes and cut time spent on preparing insurance documents by almost half,” said Maeomote.

Meanwhile, James McGourlay, OpenText’s executive vice president of international sales, said, “By relying on OpenText, TMIV is transforming standard client communication processes to provide highly effective and efficient client experiences. We’re pleased to continue working with our valued partner Delaware to explore more avenues to help TMIV expand their digital modernisation strategy.”

Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam – Vietnam-based sustainability company EQUO has raised US$1.3m in a seed funding round, which will be used to increase EQUO’s brand awareness and exposure globally, expand the product line, and develop technical capabilities to drive the business.

The funding was led by NextGen Ventures, as well as with participation from Techstars and East Ventures. 

Founded in 2020, EQUO provides 100% plastic-free and compostable solutions made of materials like coffee, coconut, and sugarcane to replace single-use plastics. The company aims to disrupt the industry by offering solutions that are easy and convenient to use, without asking consumers to change their lifestyles or behaviour.

Marina Tran-Vu, EQUO’s founder and CEO, noted that the company will be offering products made from alternative materials – but doing it in a fun and approachable way that gets consumers, businesses and big corporations to pay attention.

“Our vision is to replace all single-use plastic on the planet. This isn’t just about the visible plastic we see in our environment, but also about the downstream effects of microplastics. We are excited about the new products we are delivering this year to show the world all the things we can do WITHOUT single-use plastic and paper,” said Tran-Vu.

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam – TAGO, a UK-registered software business, has launched ‘Tagoverse’ a metaverse that aims to connect people in need of mental health care with the proper support within an application. With a single click, users are able to receive consultation from the most, accessible mental advisors. 

Tago will provide users with double benefits by utilizing blockchain technology. They can use the ‘Talk to Earn’ activities to solve their mental health concerns while also earning tokens.

Mental health issues are becoming more prevalent. This is especially concerning given that the COVID–19 pandemic has increased the need for novel and safe techniques to prevent the spread of mental diseases. 

Tago is currently the major player with an app that connects people in need of mental health assistance with qualified advisors. The revolutionary integration of blockchain into the Tago app offers a cutting-edge Web 3 in mental health for the entire globe. Using Tagoverse, users may find a suitable advisor at a reasonable fee and earn Tago Tokens at the same time.

Tago’s token is a utility token, issued to fund Tago Blockchain project and can be kept and used within Tago Community for Tago’s users and mental advisors. It enables community members to use for their spiritual needs, from meeting with mental advisors, joining the EQ courses, exchanging spiritual items, participating in spiritual events, to joining all the other activities in Tago Metaverse (Tagoverse) such as meditation, yoga, temple, church, tarot and horoscope. In addition, Tago token holders can also join in the staking programme to earn more rewards, and have voting rights and premium access.

In Tagoverse, Tago Tokens can only be obtained through specific activities, such as the NFT Market Place. Since Tago is a mental health platform, the NFTs on the platform will be in the form of antiques and and spiritual objects.