The vast majority of Vietnam’s inhabitants reside in rural areas and infrequently lack entry to monetary companies as a result of banks and different establishments open most of their bodily places in cities. MFast needs to alter that with what it says is the main monetary companies distribution community in Vietnam. The corporate introduced at the moment it has raised $6 million in its Sequence A funding spherical, led by Wavemaker Companions. The spherical additionally acquired participation from new traders Finnoventure Fund I (managed by Krungsri Innovate) and Headline Asia, alongside returning backers Do Ventures, JAFCO Asia and Ascend Vietnam Ventures.
This brings MFast’s complete raised within the six years since its launch to $10 million, together with a $1.5 million pre-Sequence A spherical TechCrunch lined in June 2021. MFast’s community presently contains 160,000 energetic brokers who work with clients in tier 2 and tier 3 cities all through Vietnam. It has served greater than one million customers in Vietnam to date. The corporate will use its new funding to broaden its operations in Vietnam, with plans to develop exterior the nation, beginning with the Philippines, by subsequent yr.
MFast helps its clients get entry to monetary companies, together with loans and insurance coverage, and high-ticket gadgets like dwelling home equipment from manufacturers that don’t normally open retail branches in rural areas. Its brokers be part of MFast to make supplementary revenue and are supplied with an agent app that serves as a “mini-CRM” by MFast.
The corporate was launched in 2017 as a model of fintech DigiPay by twin brothers Lengthy Phan and Vinh Phan and presently has partnerships with monetary establishments like UOB, SHBFinance, TPBank.
Lengthy Phan informed TechCrunch that he and Vinh have been born in a tier 3 metropolis close to the Cambodian border, and moved to Ho Chi Minh Metropolis for his or her undergraduate levels. “Having lived in each rural and concrete areas, we witnessed firsthand the difficulties folks with backgrounds like us face in having access to formal monetary companies,” he mentioned. On the similar time, additionally they noticed the challenges folks of their hometown confronted when attempting to get a tertiary schooling and construct a profession.
MFast was created to assist brokers get their begin in monetary advisory and consulting work, whereas enabling customers to realize entry to financial institution accounts, loans, insurance coverage and different monetary merchandise. Brokers, who’re supplied with on-line coaching classes and offline workshops, assist end-customers open CASA financial institution accounts, loans, bank cards, insurance coverage or store for home equipment with zero-interest buy financing choices.
The corporate’s new funding can be used for its proprietary know-how. Phan mentioned MFast plans to roll out new options like its Agent360 profile portal, credit score scoring engine, AI fraud detector and an end-user app. It plans to develop to the Philippines whereas rising its agent community in Vietnam. Most of MFast’s brokers come by means of referrals, or “agent-get-agent,” alongside MFast’s on-line acquisition methods by means of website positioning and efficiency advertising and marketing. Phan says potential brokers can obtain the MFast app and register in 4 minutes.
MFast competes with corporations that work as brokers for monetary establishments, however Phan mentioned most of them don’t have tech integration or apps. It additionally competes with a tech startup known as The Financial institution, however Phan mentioned The Financial institution continues to be comparatively new to the market and makes use of a comparability web site market, letting customers examine monetary merchandise and taking a charge per lead generated on its platform.
MFast differentiates by means of its agent community and established base of monetary establishments, which it continues to develop. It additionally makes use of tech to assist brokers work extra successfully by making certain transparency in each interplay with stakeholders like finish customers and capturing information similar to consumer demographic, preferences and monetary standing. That information is enabling MFast to construct a credit score scoring engine, gross sales engine and product growth technique that features creating unique merchandise.
In an announcement concerning the funding, Wavemaker Companions principal Phuong Tran mentioned, “With its robust agent base and preliminary deal with monetary merchandise, MFast has achieved spectacular outcomes. Wavemaker is proud to strengthen our partnership with the corporate and assist it because it enters its subsequent part of progress.”