Vietnamese e-wallets attractive to investors

Hanoi (VNA) - Vietnamese e-wallets have lured hefty sums from diverse partners over the past time, turning the segment into one of the investment hotspots.

Since late 2019, vast money flows have made its way to Vietnam, mainly into e-wallets via merger and acquisition deals.

According to the Vietnam Investment Review, Vietnamese online gaming giant VNG Corporation has reduced its stake in wholly-owned e-wallet ZaloPay to 60 percent by issuing shares to other investors.

VNG has earned more than 464 billion VND (20.17 million USD) from the deal.

ZaloPay had later on scaled up its charter capital to 900 billion VND (39.13 million USD).

Last December, China’s Ant Financial, the fintech affiliate of e-commerce giant Alibaba, has quietly acquired a sizeable stake in Vietnamese e-wallet eMonkey of small Vietnamese fintech firm M-Pay Trade.

Although the deal value has not been disclosed, it was reported that after the deal, the foreign partner would have significant influence and provide technical expertise to the e-wallet.

Earlier, VNPAY, a leading Vietnamese digital payments firm, closed a deal with Japan-based SoftBank Vision Fund and Singapore-based sovereign fund GIC.

Accordingly, SoftBank and GIC poured nearly 300 million USD into VNPay, turning this fintech firm into a market leader who currently provides e-payment services to more than 40 banks, five telecom firms, and more than 20,000 local firms.

Another major deal last year involved VinID JSC which is 80 percent owned by Vingroup – the leading private conglomerate in Vietnam – which had completed procedures to acquire e-wallet MonPay. The deal value has not been disclosed.

Last year's line-up of deals continues, including the merger of e-wallets Vimo and mPOS (both under the management of tech startup NextTech Group), or e-wallet Momo receiving a very large, undisclosed investment from US equity firm Warburg Pincus, just to name a few.

Economic experts forecast that the Vietnamese e-wallet market would be a mainstay on investors’ radar this year due to the government’s strong commitment to spurring non-cash payments and e-wallets’ continuous tempting promotion programmes which help draw in users by the droves.

According to the freshly-released report titled “FinTech in ASEAN: From Start-up to Scale-up” by United Overseas Bank (UOB), PwC, and the Singapore FinTech Association (SFA), investment in Vietnamese fintech accounts for 36 percent of total investment flowing into this field in the whole ASEAN region in 2019, attesting to the charm of Vietnamese fintech firms in the eyes of foreign investors.

A recent report by J.P.Morgan also shows that 19 percent of e-commerce transaction value in Vietnam takes place via e-wallets. This figure equals that of cash payments, and is behind card payments that take the lead with 34 percent and bank transfer (22 percent)./.