Digital Banks to Be Driving Fintech Race in Vietnam

The Fintech industry has kicked off 2022 with many excited finance transactions and M&A. This signals a promising year for the fintech industry to thrive even stronger in the coming year. As part of the exciting movement, Timo has publicly shared its most recent funding round led by Square Peg right at the beginning of the new year – 2022.

Established in 2015, Timo is Vietnam's first digital bank and has steadily evolved to become the country's leader in digital banking. Timo – which stands for Time and Money – has consistently emphasized customer-centricity at its core. The company is widely recognized as being one of the first banks in Vietnam to offer eKYC services. More recently, the company has been accelerating its vision of social banking, recognizing that banking and financial services always are embedded in a broader context.

Regarding the good news, Henry Nguyen – CEO of Timo Digital Bank has had a sharing about the company’s strategy to further accelerated its service in use of the new funding.

COVID-19 has taken a serious toll on the economy and businesses. How has it shifted cconsumer behavior regarding contactless payment?

By necessity and then by force of habit created by four months of lockdown, consumer behaviour has evolved and changed rapidly. The pandemic forced people to interact and transact virtually, greatly accelerating online transactions and electronic payments. Avoiding face-to-face interactions has driven more rapid adoption of cashless and contactless payments among consumers – and these newly acquired behaviours will remain even after the pandemic.

Along with adapting to the new normal of life with the pandemic, electronic transactions are reaching the tipping point. Consumers are demanding that their banking and financial services respond to their needs and keep up with the rapid changes in how they manage the transactions in their lives. At Timo, we are building a modern banking service that is responsive to this consumer demand – one that is accessible, relevant, and valuable to our customers.

We know that banking does not exist in isolation and believe in the concept of social banking. For us, this begins with small shifts in mindsets, thinking about connecting people instead of just bank accounts. This extends all the way to big questions like how banking can be made more valuable and relevant to customers. Most of all, our team at Timo is driven by making the lives of our customers better and more prosperous.

How is Timo partnering up with other financial institutions, such as banks and e-wallets in Vietnam?

Like a lot of tech startups, we are always moving as fast as we can to develop the best possible products for our customers. However, we also know the power and value of partnerships and are nourishing an ever-growing network of partners. We want to create synergistic values for Timo, our partners, and our entire universe of users. Of course, building these networks takes tremendous time and effort. It is not just technology; it is a lot of product work and interfacing between the two companies.

In addition to developing more products and constantly improving quality and accessibility, Timo and our strategic partners will continue building our ecosystem to offer a range of convenient services while ensuring the customer needs and experience are at the centre of it all.

Thank you very much!

By Vietnam Business Forum