Vietnam has a young population of 97 million, which mostly comprises Millenials and Gen Z. As many of these youngsters are earning increased incomes and an appetite for investing. Moreover, Vietnam’s stock market index has hit record highs last year, thereby outperforming many of its Southeast Asian equity markets.
Going with this trend, the number of Vietnamese people participating in crypto and NFT has surged to 6 million. This is where, the ‘Robinhood of Vietnam’ Infina has witnessed hyper growth in its user base.
Who invested in Infina?
The Vietnam-focused retail investing app Infina just closed $6 million in seed funding from investors such as Sequoia Capital India’s Surge, Y Combinator, Saison Capital, Starling Ventures, Alpha JWC, and AppWorks. Also, investors who have backed Robinhood, Coinbase, and similar models in other markets participated in the round.
Why this round?
Infina aims to democratise investing by making investing accessible for everyone irrespective of the income group. It caters to young and first-time investors whose needs have not yet been able to find the existing solutions in the market useful.
“Infina’s mission is to empower the rise of retail investors to participate in existing and emerging asset classes so that everyone has a real stake in the economy and prosperity of the country. We’ll be using the funding to continue to build out a world-class team that can develop great technology, deliver the best experience to our users, and drive even faster growth so that we can serve a large portion of the new investors joining the market in the next three years.” said James Vuong, founder and CEO of Infina.
“We are excited to be a part of Infina’s journey because at YC, we love to back founders who are building something people want. The need for a new generation of retail investing apps like Infina is clear, not just for Vietnam but globally,” said Gustof Alstromer, Group Partner at Y Combinator.
Who’s behind Infina?
Infina was founded by James Vuong, a Silicon Valley engineer turned SE Asia VC investor, turned serial entrepreneur. Prior to Infina, he founded Lana Group that was acquired by LINE Corp. Also, he was VP of Investment and Kauffman Fellow at IDG Ventures.
What does Infina do?
The retail investing app Infina for a young population makes investing more accessible, frictionless and safe. The one-stop shop app offers numerous investment products including stocks, securities and real estate. Its platform fractionalises high-minimum investment products to smaller amounts of $22 to let users invest in a diverse portfolio of assets with low minimum amounts. It lets users invest in their offerings via other e-wallets and e-commerce platforms.
Users can now access Infina’s investing products via the popular e-commerce app Tiki and other third-party super apps as well.
Infina joins the retail investing app revolution with companies like Ajaib in Indonesia, Groww in India, and Tiger in China that have enabled a new wave of avid retail investors worldwide to access financial markets like never before. The Infina app is designed to make young, tech-savvy Vietnamese who are looking to start their investing journey.
