“Along with the development of the 4.0 technology revolution, more and more professions and fields are using digital financial products. However, Vietnam’s digital financial market still has many barriers and challenges that prevent technology from truly accessible to users. The born of InfoPlus was not only to contribute to solving the problem of Fintech but also to act as a firebrand and bridge to help Vietnam’s digital economy reach Southeast Asia” InfoPlus’ CEO Kim Jong Woo shared.
According to InfoPlus’ CEO Kim Jong Woo, Southeast Asia is considered a “fertile land” for the Fintech industry in recent years. After the Covid pandemic, the Fintech market quickly recovered and developed. Among them, Vietnam is considered a young country with much potential:
First: The speed of digitalization in Vietnam is relatively fast.
Second: The financial system in Vietnam is out of date. According to statistics, 70% of Vietnamese people do not have a bank account and do not use Auto-debit, so the application of technology in the financial industry is not yet popular.
Third: In recent years, the Vietnamese government has been proposing strong digital and Fintech promotion policies, establishing and strengthening IT infrastructure.
Besides, factors such as non-cash payment, convenient payment technology, sandbox mode, etc., are also one of the reasons helping Fintech develop rapidly in Vietnam.
Although Fintech has been on the rise in recent years, Vietnam still faces certain barriers when integrating digital technology and the global digital economy: the out of dated financial technology system, the sporadic financial IT network making data exchange difficult to carry out.
To overcome the above problems and solve the problem of digital technology integration and digital finance for Vietnam, in 2018, InfoPlus was established with the goal of connecting all financial systems in Southeast Asia and Vietnam.
CEO Kim Jong Woo and his dream of bringing K-Fintech to Vietnam
Thanks to lucky chances, in 2015, for the first time, CEO Kim Jong Woo – CEO and founder of InfoPlus visited and worked in Vietnam for the first time. At that time, he realized that the Vietnamese Fintech market was similar to the image of Korea 20-30 years ago. Because most Vietnamese people do not have personal bank accounts and only use cash for transactions.
Meanwhile, many financial companies in Korea have established Fintech systems that can compensate for the shortcomings of banks.
Faced with the current state of finance and digital technology in Vietnam, InfoPlus CEO believes that it would be great if there was an intermediary enterprise to transfer data and manifest the Fintech dream. Therefore, he gave up his ideal job at the bank and made his cherished dream called InfoPlus.
Since the early days of its establishment, InfoPlus had times when it encountered “big waves” that caused InfoPlus’ CEO and staffs struggling to find the right direction. The problem that Fintech businesses are facing is that they do not have infrastructure, so they cannot use the automatic deposit method linked to bank accounts.
InfoPlus helps businesses overcome difficulties they are facing with solutions to diversify their portfolio of financial services such as: Auto-debit, virtual accounts, data transfer intermediaries, etc.,
Specifically, InfoPlus has launched ‘InfoCMS’, a service platform that provides necessary financial solutions for businesses and individuals in the form of API, based on a common financial network built by directly connecting local financial companies with underdeveloped platforms. API is a data transfer intermediary service to process financial transactions from different applications or between agencies, businesses and external partners.
Through API technology, a total of 14 financial institutions, including 5 major Korean banks, InfoPlus has established a real-time financial linkage network. Although it does not directly provide services to end consumer, this network is playing an important role in gradually changing Vietnam’s immature financial system to match the rapid speed development of Fintech domestically and internationally.
To recognize this contribution, in 2021, InfoPlus was honored to be voted as the top brand in the “VIETNAM TOP BRANDS” event organized by HTV National Television and was awarded for the first time as an IT business operating in the Vietnamese market.
The breakthrough ‘Wag The Dog’ helps SME businesses successfully transform digitally
From the achievements achieved when launching the InfoCMS project, InfoPlus steadily continues to research and develop a financial API system to help link banks and insurance companies and support insurance payments monthly in the form of automatic debt deduction. With this new connection model, securities and real estate companies can also effectively apply it to their business operations. This new connection model of InfoPlus is a “Wag The Dog” breakthrough for SME banks.
Continuing to provide useful value for Vietnam’s digital economy, in September 2021 CEO Kim Jong Woo had met and worked with experts from the Vietnam Digital Economy Research Institute. In Korea, the delegation had a seminar with InfoPlus and leading Korean Fintech companies such as Kakao Bank, Toss, etc., InfoPlus with the desire to go “overseas” reaching Southeast Asian Fintech market
With the advantages of people and IT infrastructure, Mr. Kim Jong Woo believes that the period 2022 – 2025 is an important milestone to help InfoPlus affirms its position in the Fintech field and help Vietnam reach Southeast Asia.
With the belief that business activities in Vietnam will stabilize and become strong in the coming year, InfoPlus’ BOD has implemented a plan to expand a new headquarters in Cambodia, with the first goal of providing services for Korean financial institutions operating here and then expanding the scope to local banks and businesses. This can be seen as InfoPlus’ first step into Southeast Asian countries based on experience and business know-how gained in Vietnam.
To realize the dream of reaching Southeast Asia, InfoPlus attracted an investment capital of 6 billion won in the Series A capital call last October. Since the establishment of the Korean headquarter in 2020 until now, the accumulated investments that InfoPlus received have reached a figure of up to 7.5 billion won (equivalent to 138 billion VND).
In addition, InfoPlus also aims to grow the number of banking partners and apply for an intermediary PG payment license. Based on that foundation, building the goal of listing shares by 2025. Although somewhat recognized for its position in the Vietnamese market, InfoPlus is still making efforts every day with the spirit of a startup business and is expected to build an even taller and stronger “tower” in the future.
