Masan Group invests $65 mln in Vietnam Fintech Startup

Masan Group has injected $65 million to buy 25% stake in Vietnamese fintech startup Trusting Social as the consumer conglomerate accelerates its transition to e-commerce.

With the investment, Masan will tap fintech technology of Trusting Social, the Vietnam subsidiary of Singapore based Trust IQ, as it integrates its offline and online businesses, according to a statement from Masan.

The partnership with Trusting Social will accelerate Masan’s off-to-online vision to provide Retail and Consumer AI and fintech solutions to power its consumer-tech ecosystem.

Trusting Social delivers artificial intelligence and machine learning-led products to leading banks and finance companies, enabling them to provide consumption financing products to under-served consumers at scale.

Trusting Social’s credit insights cover more than a billion consumers and are used by more than 170 financial institutions across Vietnam, Indonesia, India and the Philippines. The startup is backed by Sequoia Capital, Beenext, Tanglin Ventures, 500 Startups, and Genesis Alternative Ventures.

The partnership with Trusting Social further expands Masan’s consumer capabilities with AI and ML consumer solutions to accelerate Masan’s off-to-online transformation to meet consumer’s need for personalization, convenience, and accessibility. This strategic collaboration also signifies the continuous growth of potential investments in Vietnam especially in retail segment.

Walmart has invested heavily to develop an AI and ML platform and has leveraged it to become the leading offline and online daily, consumer life platform. The Trusting Social partnership provides Masan a similar cutting edge AI and ML platform but tailored for 100 million Vietnamese consumers, said Masan Group CEO, Danny Le.

The partnership will drive cost efficiencies and business value across Masan’s core business activities including retail store selection, demand & supply planning, product assortment, commercial sales & marketing and product development.