Meet the Founder building Infina — the ‘Robinhood of Vietnam’
A Q&A with James Vuong
With lockdowns in place driving high digital adoption, a gap in Vietnam’s market remains underserved. The majority of Vietnam’s population lacks unparalleled access to financial services which are often overlooked by the banks. With 55.5% of the population under 35 years of age and a high savings rate of 69%, translating into higher disposable incomes than ever before, the younger generation is driven to invest and grow their savings for the future. Digital investing is one of the main avenues for them to manage their personal financial plans.
Large Opportunity for Disruption in Digital Investment Space
According to Funds Global Asia 2019, Vietnam’s wealth management market size is estimated to be $17B AUM growing at 20%. In comparison, that of Indonesia is estimated at $40B growing at 6%. In terms of savings/time deposit, Vietnam is estimated at $380B; while Indonesia is $430B. For the brokerage business, the annual revenue records more than $1.1B.
Capturing the Retail Investment Market Opportunity in Vietnam
As a veteran operator and investor (having operated as CEO of Lana Group, which was acquired by LINE Corp., and VP of Investment at IDG Vietnam — the first venture capital firm in Vietnam with $100M in AUM), James Vuong founded Infina to capture this large yet untapped space.
Infina is a digital investment platform designed for young, tech-savvy retail investors. The company aims to make investing accessible for everyone, regardless of income groups, and cater to the underserved people whose needs have not yet been well-addressed by larger Financial Institutions. Infina offers a “one-stop shop” mobile app for all available investment products as well as embedded investment solutions to bring its offerings inside other apps such as those of e-wallets and e-commerce. It fractionalizes high-minimum investment products to smaller amounts to the equivalent of $25. Infina also aims to make the app engaging with social and gamification elements.
The company aims to make investing accessible for everyone, regardless of income groups, and cater to the underserved people whose needs have not yet been well-addressed by larger Financial Institutions.
They are currently providing tens of thousands of users with access to quality products due to Infina’s partnerships with some of the country’s largest financial institutions, including Dragon Capital Vietnam, Mirae Asset Fund Management, Asia Commercial Bank Capital, and Viet Capital Asset Management. Infina plans to offer trading activities thereafter and ultimately, aims to become the ‘Robinhood of Vietnam’.
Behind such a product is a capable and experienced team at Infina. We sat down with the founder, James Vuong, for a short Q&A to discuss the digital investment trend and their motivation and vision to disrupt the investment space.
SC: What do you see as the change in the young consumer’s behavior during the pandemic?
JV: Vietnamese consumers turned to the internet during various stages of lockdowns. They were spending 4.2 hours per day online at the height of the pandemic, compared to 1.0+ hours of average SEA consumers (per Google, Temasek, and Bain). With most of the time indoors with their smartphones, millennial consumers have switched to digital services including education, healthcare, and financial services.
As increased digital adoption compounded with a drop in interest rates which shies away from people from bank deposits, retail investors’ participation in the capital market has increased many folds. As a result, we’ve seen an unprecedented surge in investing in general and digital investing in particular in Vietnam.
Add that there is nowhere for these millennials whose M.O. (modus operandi) is Y.O.L.O. (you only live once) — focusing on gaining experience instead of saving for rainy days (or pandemic days in this context). Covid limits options to spend so there are more to invest.
SC: What is Infina’s differentiation from other players in the market? How many investment products are on your platform?
JV: Our edge, firstly, lies in offering a broad range of asset classes including fixed income instruments, savings, and mutual funds to serve customers with diverse risk and return profiles. We offer these investment instruments for as low as US$25 which is affordable for the majority of Vietnam’s retail investors.
Our edge, firstly, lies in offering a broad range of asset classes including fixed income instruments, savings, and mutual funds to serve customers with diverse risk and return profiles.
Secondly, we are very transparent in communications on risks & returns, profits & fees. When users invest on Infina, they know of and learn about what they are investing in, instead of bundling those all into a package with limited information of the underlying assets.
Lastly, we are not majorly owned or tied to a particular player in the market, which allows us to be neutral and work with all high-quality fund managers.
SC: Securities firms and banks are also actively competing with fintech companies in this sector. Do you think this is a big challenge for nascent startups?
JV: I don’t see it as a challenge. Securities firms mostly focus on serving institutional investors and affluent high net worth individuals (HNWIs) because they are more profitable. Banks serve retail investors but prefer to distribute their own products or insurance as those are more profitable. Having said that, there are meaningful opportunities for startups to make investing mainstream for first-time millennial investors.
SC: Do you see a significant surge in terms of investment in the sector in the years to come. Why? Shortly, is there any potential that wealth management will get such big investment deals as the e-logistic and e-payment sector?
JV: I believe that investing apps are attracting investors’ attention as democratizing wealth management shows the scalability of a market that was previously constrained to a limited segment of HNWIs and institutions. In the US, capital is pouring into Robinhood. In Asia, China’s Futu, India’s Groww, and Indonesia’s Ajaib have done very well and raised massive amounts of capital. The potential is enormous and I’m bullish that VC investments in this space will only accelerate.
In the US, capital is pouring into Robinhood. In Asia, China’s Futu, India’s Groww, and Indonesia’s Ajaib have done very well and raised massive amounts of capital.
SC: What important lesson have you learned from any failures since starting your businesses or in investments? Given your experience at building Lana, what lessons do you think you can apply while operating Infina?
JV: Startups have to experiment a lot to find the right solution for the market. When you build a business to deliver something but only a few people want it, it is often considered to be a failure, or you can consider it as having not found the right product-market fit. I believe that if you keep trying, keep talking to your customers for feedback, and keep changing, you’ll find something that works. Lana Group is a technology company in the digital media space. During its early operations, Lana Group acquired Webtretho which was the largest mother and child community in Vietnam, where it launched a mini-app & an e-commerce website. Lana business grew very well & was acquired by Japan’s multi-billion-dollar LINE Corp. a few years later. These are the lessons I learned from building Lana: 1) focus on building products & solutions that users really need; 2) build teams that have leadership qualities as well as a mindset of never-ending, learning & innovation; and 3) always experiment to find what works better with customers while allowing for faster growth and capital efficiency.
— — — — — — — — — — — —
Saison Capital is committed to supporting Infina in their journey of providing unparalleled access to financial services and investment products to the underserved in Vietnam and across Southeast Asia. Read more about our investment mandate, our investment thesis, and check out our other portfolio companies here (https://saisoncapital.com/).
