Anfin, a stock trading app for retail investors based in Vietnam, has raised US$1.2 million in a seed funding round from investors, including Global Founders Capital (GFC) and First Check Ventures.

New investors, including the US-based The Goodwater Capital, also participated. 

According to the company, the CEOs of Gojek, Zalora, Stripe, Google, and Grab also participated in the round through XA Network.

Anfin will utilise the funding to improve its “fractional share” system further to assist users in real-time trading and boost its presence through extensive communications activities.

The fintech firm will also directly integrate its system with Viet Tin Securities Company, a brokerage firm licensed by the State Securities Commission of Viet Nam (SSC).

This seed round follows Anfin’s US$510,000 funding round last October. A month later, Anfin reportedly received US$125,000 from Y Combinator, alongside angel investments from unnamed directors at Temasek and Coinbase. The startup will officially join Y Combinator Winter 2022 Batch from January to March this year.

Also read: Pocket power: 27 personal finance startups in SEA to help you manage money

Anfin was founded in June 2021 by CEO Phuoc Tran, who was the co-founder of Vietnamese on-demand delivery platform Ahamove, and CPO Michael Do, who worked in the investment teams of several venture capital firms, including BEENEXT and R2 Venture Partners. 

The duo leverages the concept of trading in fractional shares through the Anfin app, enabling users to buy and sell stocks actively and quickly with small capital starting at only VND50,000 (around US$2). 

“On normal brokers, you can only buy a round lot of 100 shares, which are worth US$400-US$600 when buying blue-chip stocks of companies like Vingroup, Masan, or Mobile World,” Do told e27 in an interview last November. “Now you can buy and sell those stocks for only US$2 on Anfin app. Plus, we offer considerably better UI/UX for new users.”

He added that Anfin aims to simplify the financial investment process through a user-friendly, transparent and secured platform, generating passive and active income for young Vietnamese.

“Other investment apps are doing on the passive investing side, getting users invested in mutual funds, ETFs, and fixed income. However, our focus is on active investing where users have free will to buy and sell their own portfolio of individual stocks,” noted Do.

The startup also supports users’ decision-making by providing investment knowledge, from basic to advanced, and updating financial news in an easy-to-understand style.

“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.”

In the first 11 months of 2021, more than 1.3 million new domestic trading accounts were opened in Vietnam, much higher than the total number of over 1 million recorded between 2017 and 2020. Around three per cent of Vietnam’s 100 million population has a stock brokerage account, according to investment firm VinaCapital.

Vietnam’s government also aims to increase the country’s stock brokerage penetration rate to 5 per cent by 2025 and 10 per cent by 2030.

In Southeast Asia, investment platforms are ripe for an explosion, with Indonesia’s Aijab and the Philippines’s Myntbecoming the latest unicorns in this sector. In Vietnam, Finhay and Infina are the two other notable startups in the industry that recently secured fundings.

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Image Credit: Anfin

The post Gojek, Google and Grab CEOs back Vietnam’s stock trading app Anfin’s US$1.2M round appeared first on e27.

Data breaches are increasing in frequency and posing serious threats to security. The healthcare industry has been especially affected by the increase in data breaches since healthcare providers store such sensitive and important information. When the internet security of a healthcare organisation is compromised there can be lasting damages to reputation as well as monetary consequences. If the consequences are so severe for data breaches in the healthcare industry, why do they happen so often?

There are many security vulnerabilities in healthcare mostly due to outdated technology. Old medical devices are made by companies that are no longer even in business.  Some of these implanted and inter-connected devices are hackable and old software has gaping security holes. Human errors in using old devices can also increase the risk of security breaches. Many hospitals aren’t even aware of which systems run on the devices that they are using and lack full-time employees to ensure that the systems are running smoothly.

Another reason that security breaches are so common in the healthcare industry is due to the lack of trust between cybersecurity experts and doctors. Providers are often more concerned with protecting patient privacy rather than cybersecurity even though breaches of cybersecurity put patients privacy directly at risk. Providers also lack resources and awareness because they simply do not have the same skills as cybersecurity experts. Oftentimes these experts will create patches to fix old problems, but providers believe they are exaggerating the issues and so they delay installing the fixes causing even more problems to arise.

The rise in data breaches has monetary and reputational consequences for healthcare organisations. On average data breaches cost US$6.5 million, that’s about US$429 per patient record that is affected! Sixty-seven per cent of the costs are incurred during the first year after a breach, but the costs don’t end there. For years after an initial breach healthcare organisations can continue to pay legal, technical, and regulatory fees. Business is also affected since patients lose trust in their healthcare providers and stop coming to them for healthcare services.

Also Read: Breaking the taboo: Meet the Singapore-based startups that are working to provide access to sexual healthcare

It is no secret that the information that is held by healthcare providers is important, and so the security of this information should be a top priority. With the rise in hackers and data breaches, this information is becoming more and more difficult to keep protected. So what is the solution?

Many healthcare providers are making the transition to healthcare on the blockchain. The blockchain is a distributed ledger for recording transactions and tracking assets and has many promising applications in healthcare. One of these applications is wearable remote monitoring devices. These devices can monitor things such as blood pressure, pulse, or seizure activity and can be monitored by healthcare providers remotely. These devices are then attached to a patient hub that contains all of a person’s health records available for easy access by both patient and doctor.  These devices are very simple to use, leading to fewer human errors along with their added security benefits. The fact that patients have access to their files also means there is higher transparency and the audit trail allows for easier ways to track who is viewing information.

Other applications of the blockchain are useful in telehealth– remote healthcare services– which grew in popularity over the course of the pandemic when stay-at-home orders were put in place. Blockchain in telehealth means an easier exchange of data, increased consumer confidence in the system, and copies of data ledgers that are given to both doctor and patient. The use of NFTs (non-fungible tokens) is also useful in telehealth since doctors can have more confidence that they are receiving genuine data from their patients.

Companies are exploring the use of healthcare on the blockchain and are reporting overall better productivity since making the switch. Some companies use blockchain to secure real-time messaging between their clients or patients and hold negotiations and contract discussions without fear of their sensitive information being leaked to third parties. Others use the blockchain to help in data collection and analysis. In fact, blockchain data analysis was used in order to report changing statistics regarding the spread of COVID-19 during the pandemic and the information was crucial in helping healthcare providers prepare for incoming patients.

Also Read: Why Khailee Ng puts mental healthcare support as key to successful founders-investors relationship

Overall, patients want to be able to trust that their medical information is in safe hands when they visit their doctors’ office whether in person or virtually. Seeing the rise in data breaches due to third-party hacking, the switch to healthcare on the blockchain is the solution to healthcare security leaks. Learn more about healthcare on the blockchain in the infographic below:

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China Mobile International (CMI) is hosting its Go mCloud Carnival from November 2021 until 31 January 31, 2022, to help international enterprises embrace and accelerate digital success in the cloud era.

Now in its second year, the much-anticipated event showcases the latest cloud-network solutions and multi-cloud services and supports enterprise transformation through the sharing of industry trends, developments, and best-value offers.

Interest in cloud adoption is surging worldwide as enterprises adapt their business models to take advantage of technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, big data, the Internet of Things (IoT), and 5G.

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Riding on extensive global infrastructure and partnerships with industry-leading cloud service providers, CMI Cloud Network Solutions (CMICN) integrate network capability and cloud services to provide enterprise customers with technical and commercial flexibility.

Fast and seamless cloud connections, as well as application acceleration, are provided to customers via more than 80 Cloud Connect PoPs and more than 160 direct network-to-network interfaces (NNIs)

Expansive partner ecosystem enables efficient multi-cloud models

Recent research suggests that over 92% of enterprises are adopting multi-cloud strategies to save costs, optimise the performance of their mission-critical applications, and enhance their flexibility, resilience, and competitiveness.

However, multi-cloud plans that rely on a variety of cloud platforms and locations are very complex to execute, and as a result, many enterprises see the value of a partner that can provide a one-stop-shop cloud-integration service – such as mCloud Portal.

mCloud Portal is an innovative platform designed for enterprises that use or are planning to use cloud solutions.

It combines an extensive cloud partner ecosystem with advanced managed services and an easy-to-use online portal to create a vendor-neutral, complete cloud deployment solution.

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mCloud Portal has helped more than 17,000 enterprise users accelerate their cloud journey since its launch in May 2019, and this has been supported by CMI’s close collaboration with world-leading cloud service providers.

These include AWS, Alibaba Cloud, Baidu Cloud Engine, Google Cloud, Huawei Cloud, IBM Cloud, Microsoft Azure, Oracle Cloud, Tencent Cloud and UCloud.

With automated and intelligent cloudified products, mCloud can reduce cloud deployment time from as much as two months to as little as 30 seconds, and it also makes ongoing cloud-network management more efficient and effective.

Special offers and free trials provide access to cloud-network solutions

CMI has curated a series of special solution offers and free trials that will be made available during Go mCloud Carnival to help enterprises explore a variety of cloud products and services:

1.       Enterprise customers that sign up on the mCloud Carnival site are entitled to multi-cloud service coupons worth up to USD 1,400:

•         USD 1,400 multi-cloud service coupons are applicable to Alibaba Cloud (International), AWS (Global), Microsoft Azure (Global), HUAWEI CLOUD (International), and Tencent Cloud
•         USD 1,000 multi-cloud service coupons are applicable to Baidu Cloud, Google Cloud, IBM Cloud, and Oracle Cloud

Also read: Here’s how you can earn passive income with cryptocurrency easily and safely

2.       A series of cloud-network solution free trials are available for enterprises to enjoy:

•         Max. 60-day for Cloud Connect, SD-WAN, and Application Acceleration Network

•         Max. 60-day for SaaS Applications, including productivity software, security applications, cloud backup, multi-cloud management, and more
•         Up to 10,000 A2P CloudSMS Free Trials with extensive coverage across Asia, Europe, and the Americas

3.       Customers who verify their business, activate a free trial, or order services on mCloud portal will be eligible to enter a lucky draw for exciting tech prizes:

•         Prizes include smartphones, tablets, action cameras, and game consoles
•         Prizes are worth from HKD 600 – HKD 9,000

In addition, newly registered users can claim a welcome gift such as smartphone app store gift cards and coffee coupons, subject to the selected regions/cities.

Click here to join Go mCloud Carnival

* The information presented here is a general overview, for reference only. For details of special offers, please refer to the mCloud website. For full terms and conditions, please refer to the policy contract.

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