Vietnam-based financial service app MFast announced that it had raised US$2.5 million in a funding round led by Ascend Vietnam Ventures with participation from Wavemaker and two other existing investors, Do Ventures and JAFCO Asia, bringing its total capital funding to US$4 million.
With the fresh funding, MFast is actively looking to hire talent across various areas (including technology, marketing, and sales), upgrade its platform, expand its agent network, and deploy new business models.
This new capital will also be used to develop technology and data analysis systems to generate consumer credit ratings. The company is also looking to expand to Southeast Asian countries such as the Philippines and Thailand.
In a statement, MFast said it was born after its founders, Phan Thanh Long and Phan Thanh Vinh, observed a huge problem in Vietnam’s rural areas. Nearly 70 per cent of the Vietnamese population in the rural areas have limited or no access to banking, insurance, and credit-related services.
“Due to the lack of financial literacy and credit history, this population faces numerous challenges accessing financial services. It is often victims of predatory services from the grey and black markets. Products such as insurance, despite existing in Vietnam for more than 20 years, are still perceived in rural areas as a waste of money or perceived as catalysts for bad luck,” the company wrote.
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In September 2020, MFast was launched to tackle this pain point by connecting reputable financial and insurance institutions to its nationwide agent network of MFast users. MFast agents serve as the middlemen in introducing, educating, and distributing financial and insurance products to the end customers in rural areas.
Any Mfast users can sign up to become agents and participate in one or several sales stages from customer acquisition, loan and insurance package consultation, customer support in opening bank accounts, e-wallets, and credit cards, to post-sales services. The Mfast app also equipped agents with all the necessary knowledge sources and tools to do their jobs.
MFast also aims to digitalise the entire working process by replacing cumbersome paperwork and procedures associated with banking and shortening the approval and disbursement window.
“With a nationwide agent network, MFast reaches underserved populations, helping them overcome challenges in accessing financial services and breaking down prejudice towards insurance – a crucial aspect of a developed society. At the same time, we create benefits for our agents and partners. MFast provides agents opportunities to earn extra income while helping partners expand the insurance and financial services in the peripheral and rural areas,” said Phan Thanh Long, CEO and Co-founder of MFast.
After two years of operations, MFast said it has helped more than 600,000 people (with nearly 80 per cent living in rural areas) in gaining access to financial and insurance service packages and provided job opportunities for more than 92,000 agents across 63 provinces and cities nationwide.
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Thao Nguyen, Senior Investment Manager at Ascend Vietnam Ventures, said: “The market potential, MFast team’s great execution capabilities, and its significant social impact are the reasons we are keen to support MFast in putting its mission into reality. Throughout its agent banking model, MFast promotes financial inclusion in the peripheral and rural areas of Vietnam, contributing a great part to the sustainable development of the country’s financial system.”
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Image Credit: MFast
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