While thousands of start-ups falling in critical situation, like "oxygen respirating" state, amid the current Covid-19 wave, Fundiin has emerged as one of the startups with stable growth, despite the impact of the pandemic. What made this brand so special?
Two co-founders of Fundiin
Doing business with the "obsession" of bringing the best value and life experience to consumers.
If you had the opportunity to meet Mr. Nguyen Anh Cuong - Co-founder and CEO of Fundiin, it would be easy to see that the stability of Findiin today was built and developed step by step, based on his own painful experiences through many falls and his ponder for years.
“Why are most financial products money-draining traps that leave consumers stuck in a cycle of debt and How could I help change that?”, "How to provide a buy-now-pay-later that is truly free to consumers given limited credit data in Vietnam?", and many other "knots" that the young CEO set for himself, and then decided to be apart from the crowd, choosing his own path. In 2019, with the companion of Vo Hoang Nam (CTO) – the former Head of Technology for Digital Banking Projects at TPBank, Fundiin - Smart consumption platform under the model of “Buy now – Pay later” was officially launched.
Fundiin– Online shopping platform integrating Technology - Finance and E-commerce.
Intergrating and utilizing the “trivet” Technology - Finance - E-commerce
In this digital technology era, the business that recognized and grasped the trend of economic development, understood and satisfied the consumer needs of their target customers well, as well as knowing how to build their own “business style”, which was different, radical and could optimize values for consumers, could be the fastest achieving success. In Vietnam today, e-commerce was no longer a strange concept but was becoming a popular consumption trend. Consumers were also familiar with the model "Pay in installments"; "Buy now, pay later". However, to be able to balance and please both retail partners and consumers, not every App/Platform could do it.
Most consumers were not truely satisfied with application process and policy on interest rates and service fees that they had to pay additionally. Along with that, the percentage of users in the most consumption demand age group in Vietnam (Millennials, Gen Y, Gen Z) was utmost difficult to approach the current installment purchase method.
Understanding this demand as well as seeing new business opportunities, Fundiin was formed as a solution to remove those difficulties to help consumers have better budgeting and shopping experience. Not only being the first startup to do buy-now-pay-later in Vietnam, Fundiin also is one of a few that is truly free to consumers, helping it lead the wave of “Buy now – Pay later” in the Vietnam market.
Fundiin used the same method as banks currently applying which was 0% installment purchase with 45-day interest rate, but much more convenient and faster. No cumbersome documents, no need for too much personal information, with just a scan of the ID card, consumers could register for postpaid with 3 billing cycles without any fees (annual fee, implicit cost, interest) with approval process within 5 seconds.
At the same time, focusing on customer segments that were Millennials, Gen Y, Gen Z and choosing partners who were reputable suppliers in many fields: Fashion, Cosmetics, Education like Paula’s Choice, DHC, MARC Fashion, Sablanca, iBasic, Pigeon, Mat Viet, LUG, Orchard, Vua Nem, Index Living Mall, BEYOURs, Hai Trieu Watch, Elsa Speak, etc…, had helped Fundiin quickly create its own value and continuously increasing growth by 4 times in the past 6 months.
Fundiin has been leading the wave of buy now – pay later with simple, fast and free user support features
Considering risks as leverage for development
In this globally difficult time due to the current pandemic, not only businesses faced troubles in business, but consumers also almost "suspended" their spending. Even so, Fundiin could continuingly and steadily grow for months. This partly showed the true internal strength of this Startup.
Currently, Fundiin has had the desirable customer data and a number of partners providing prestigious and top quality products and services in hand. Within one year, in 2021, this start-up has raised 2 rounds of funding, from venture capital funds like Genesia Ventures, JAFCO Asia, Trihill Capital, Xffirmers, 1982 Ventures, Zone Startups Ventures, and other angel investors. Most recently, Fundiin had "shaked hands" with Sapo and Haravan – two leading omni-channel platforms - to democratize the buy-now-pay-later solution to their 150,000 merchants.
Starting a business was not easy, today's success was not yet the final goal of Fundiin. With the business mission of "accelerating the path to financial freedom, being free from making small financial decision every so that we have more joy and time to do greater things”, this Startup wants not only to democratize this payment method to more merchants and consumers, but also to become the brand that works for consumers, protect their interest, and lead them to better lives.
