Vietnam’s e-wallet Gpay draws funding from S.Korean financial firm in Series A investment
Vietnam’s e-wallet Gpay draws funding from S.Korean financial firm in Series A investment
E-wallet firm Gpay, a member company of G-Group Technology Corporation, announced it had completed its Series A investment with the participation of KB Fina, a joint venture between G-Group and South Korean KB Financial Group, in Hanoi on Tuesday.
According to the announcement, KB Financial Group invested VND425 billion (US$18.4 million) in Gpay through KB Securities, its representative in Vietnam.
With the announcement ceremony on Tuesday, the Gpay e-wallet was officially launched.
Gpay is licensed by the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) to provide intermediary payment services.
Given a supportive ecosystem from G-Group with nearly 30 million users across financial services, financial technology, and social networking platforms, Gpay aims to provide a comprehensive range of payment and financial services to five million users by 2023, according to the Vietnam News Agency.
“The investment will be used to grow users based on the existing ecosystem, develop strategic technology solutions and people investment with the mission to bring convenience, security and happiness for Vietnamese people by providing platforms in financial services on mobile devices,” the Vietnam News Agency quoted Nguyen Thuan Chat, co-founder and CEO of Gpay, as saying.
KB Fina had received an investment of VND300 billion ($12.93 million) from KB Financial Group, which is a leading financial institution specializing in providing a wide range of financial products and services.
With a large customer base accounting for 66 percent of the South Korean population and experience in the market for 12 consecutive years, KB has total assets of up to $520 billion.
G-Group is growing an ecosystem of nearly 30 million users across financial services, financial technology, intermediary payment, e-wallets, social networks, online games, digital media platforms, cybersecurity, and high-tech R&D.
According to the SBV’s statistics, 39 companies in Vietnam that are not banks had been licensed to provide intermediary payment services as of October 15, 2020.
