Vietnam’s stock trading app ‘Anfin’ raised US $1.2 M in seed funding round
Anfin, a Vietnamese stock trading app for retail investors, has raised US $1.2 million in a seed funding round led by Global Founders Capital (GFC) and First Check Ventures.
The Goodwater Capital, based in the United States, was one of the new investors.
The CEOs of Gojek, Zalora, Stripe, Google, and Grab, according to the business, also participated in the round through XA Network.
Anfin plans to utilize the funds to strengthen its “fractional share” technology, which will aid customers in real-time trading, as well as expand its reach through substantial marketing efforts.
Viet Tin Securities Company, a brokerage firm licensed by the State Securities Commission of Vietnam, will also be directly integrated into the fintech firm’s system (SSC).
This seed round comes after Anfin received $510,000 in investment in October. Anfin earned US $125,000 from Y Combinator a month later, along with angel investments from undisclosed Temasek and Coinbase directors. From January to March of this year, the business will be a part of the Y Combinator Winter 2022 Batch.
Anfin was launched in June 2021 by CEO Phuoc Tran, a co-founder of the Vietnamese on-demand delivery platform Ahamove, and CPO Michael Do, who previously worked in the investment teams of BEENEXT and R2 Venture Partners.
Through the Anfin app, the pair exploits the notion of fractional share trading, allowing users to purchase and sell equities actively and rapidly with minimal money starting at VND 50,000 (about $2).
“The complicated process, risk aversion, and large initial capital are common barriers that hinder Vietnamese people from investing in securities,” said Anfin CEO Phuoc Tran in a statement. “We strive to inspire and support Vietnamese people, especially the young, to help them confidently start investing to achieve their financial goals.”
The company also assists consumers in making decisions by giving investing information ranging from basic to complex, as well as delivering financial news in an easy-to-understand format.
More than 1.3 million new domestic trading accounts were registered in Vietnam in the first 11 months of 2021, far more than the total number of over 1 million recorded between 2017 and 2020. According to investing firm VinaCapital, just 3% of Vietnam’s 100 million people have a stock brokerage account.
The Vietnamese government also intends to raise the country’s stock brokerage penetration rate to 5% by 2025 and 10% by 2030.
