SAMO Holdings, a Vietnamese fintech startup raised UOB’s venture arm led $5 M in Series A
SAMO Holding, the business behind thebank.vn, a financial comparison website in Vietnam, has raised $5 million in a Series A round-headed by UOB Venture Management, Singapore’s investing arm (UOB).
SAMO intends to use the new funds to grow its company in Vietnam, which includes financial advisers’ website momi.vn and insurance distribution provider TheBank Assurance.
In addition, the company will expand its agent network and provide a broader range of financial products, including loans, wealth management, insurance, and loans.
CEO Dat Thanh Nguyen found SAMO in 2014. Its initial product, thebank.vn, is a free financial adviser website that allows customers to evaluate insurance, credit cards, loans, and savings alternatives.
Thebank.vn processes over 1.316 financial items, ranging from home and auto loans to travel and health insurance packages, according to the firm.
It claims to have had over 2.6 million monthly visits and 3.1 million advisor inquiries.
SAMO has previously secured an unknown amount in pre-Series A investment from CyberAgent in Japan and NCore Ventures in South Korea.
In Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand, UOB has been actively promoting its fintech accelerator programmes The FinLab from 2019.
According to the firm’s website, the UOB fund has helped Vietnam attract more than US $2 billion in investment and generated 17,000 employments.
Fintech firms in Vietnam grew 173 percent in three years, according to the Vietnam Fintech Report 2020. The five most flourishing fintech industries are payments, peer-to-peer lending, blockchain, wealth management, and point-of-sale.
