Startup Paylater Vietnam "Fundiin" Receives Series A Funding, Plans Expansion to Indonesia

Platform fintech Vietnamese origin"Fundiin", which claims to be the first BNPL service provider in its home country, has received series A funding of $5 million.

The funding was led by Trihill Capital and ThinkZone Ventures. Other investors involved in this funding round include 1982 Ventures, Genesia Ventures, JAFCO Asia, Zone Startups Ventures, and Do Thu Ngan, former Deputy CEO of Sacombank and former CFO & COO of JP Morgan Chase Vietnam.

As a platform that provides payment options paylater, Fundiin has helped retail and service partners E-commerce increase their sales by up to 30%. Fundiin currently has 3 BNPL sub-products free of charge, including paying in 3 monthly installments, paying 30 days, and recurring payments.

In Vietnam, Fundiin has worked with more than 300 partners, has more than 4000 physical stores, including top brands and leading retail companies such as Mobile World, Dien May Xanh, Unilever, Galaxy Play, Reebok, Paula's Choice, Pigeon, Vua Nem, Giant International, and others.

The fresh funds are planned to be used by the company to develop faster, invest in new product development, and recruit talent, before expanding to Indonesia which will be carried out during the upcoming series B round.

"Fundiin is very proud to receive the partnership and support from strong investors, especially from ThinkZone Ventures which is Vietnam's leading conglomerate as an LP, and from Trihill Capital for its future expansion plans to Indonesia," said Fundiin Co-Founder & CEO Nguyen Anh Cuong.

Similar to Indonesia, the demand for BNPL services in Vietnam continues to increase. It was noted that when credit card penetration rates in developed countries ranged from 50% to more than 70%, in Vietnam this figure was only around 5%. This shows that Vietnam is a high potential market for BNPL services.

"Vietnam, and the wider Southeast Asia region, is largely less penetrated by financial services. We believe that in order to properly assume risk, in addition to technological capacity, it is also necessary to understand local culture and wisdom. And we see understanding and underwriting ability in place. the Fundiin team,” said Valerianus Ian Sulaiman, VP of Investments at Trihill Capital.

Trihill Capital is one of venture capital actively invest in startups in Southeast Asia. In Indonesia, Trihill Capital has also invested in Fit Hub, Wagely, Eden Farm, Sicepat, Hey Kafe, Ruang Guru, Woy Makaroni and BukuWarung.

Targeting the Indonesian market

The similarity of demand in Indonesia and Vietnam has become one of the plans that will be launched by Fundiin for expansion to Indonesia. It is not stated when they will be present, but after completing their Series B funding and recruiting local talent, Fundiin will soon be in Indonesia.

Based on report terbaru Kredivo entitled "Indonesian E-commerce Consumer Behavior" as of June 2022, paylater (17%) became the most used digital payment method after e-wallet (53%) and bank transfer/virtual account (20%).

This report also records users paylater on the platform E-commerce increase to 38% in 2022 compared to last year which was around 28%. This survey was conducted in March 2022 on 3500 respondents throughout Indonesia.

Economist and Director of the Center of Economic and Law Studies (CELIOS) Bhima Yudhistira assesses that e-commerce and digital finance play a significant role in encouraging wider penetration of digital services in Indonesia. If this positive trend continues, he believes that economic equality can be realized faster with the support of the digital ecosystem.