VinID acquires e-wallet platform MonPay

VinID has acquired the MonPay e-wallet

VinID – 80 per cent owned by Vingroup – completed procedures for the purchase of MonPay from People Care JSC, according to newswire Vnexpress.

Previously, three members of VinID were appointed to replace three members on the board of directors of People Care.

VinID was established in July 2018 with the charter capital of VND3 trillion ($130.4 million).

Besides Vingroup, VinID has two founding shareholders namely ViCare JSC, holding 19 per cent of the shares, and Nguyen Minh Hong, holding 1 per cent. ViCare is a startup in the field of health information inquiries invested by CyberAgent Fund.

VinID is the name of Vingroup's loyalty programme and issues VinID cards. At the annual general meeting of shareholders in 2018, Vingroup chairman Pham Nhat Vuong said 4 million members had VinID cards.

In early 2018, four months after receiving the operation license, People Care launched the MonPay e-wallet platform, officially marking its foray into Vietnam’s burgeoning e-payment market.

Vingroup’s acquisition of MonPay comes at a time when e-payment applications are popping up like mushrooms after the rain in the country. According to statistics from the State Bank of Vietnam, as of November 2018, 26 non-bank institutions had been licensed to provide intermediary payment services, 20 of which offered e-wallets, including well-known names like MoMo, Bankplus, Vi Viet, VTC Pay, WePay, Vimo, Ngan Luong, and Payoo.

Home to more than 96 million people, Vietnam is on the cusp of a mobile payment revolution, fuelled by an amalgam of factors, including a high smartphone penetration rate and the government’s vision of a cashless society.

The country’s population is young – 70 per cent are under the age of 35 – and tech-savvy, excited about a digital society. In first-tier cities like Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, consumers are increasingly becoming receptive to the idea of a digital society and lifestyle, thanks to the growth of e-commerce and mobile payment services.

E-payment is quite a promising sector, but it seems to “burn” a great deal of money to lure in new clients and launch promotion campaigns to keep up with the competition.