VNG Cloud eyes new fintech solution partners at SWITCH 2020

SWITCH 2020 will be held in Singapore

This is to co-innovate complementary technologies to support its eKnow Your Customer (eKYC) solution which enables digital banking for banks and financial institutions. Powered by AI, facial and optical character recognition technologies, eKYC is a digital tool to facilitate the mandatory process of identifying and verifying the identity of clients when opening or closing accounts and when carrying out banking transactions.

Corporates from Thailand and Malaysia will also be unveiling problem statements at the Open Innovation Challenge dedicated to the region, with the aim of leveraging Singapore’s business-friendly environment, strong infrastructure and proximity to Southeast Asia to co-develop and scale new innovative solutions.

Deepening innovation partnerships

VNG Cloud’s participation at SWITCH 2020 caps a series of initiatives to deepen innovation partnerships in a two-year MoU that was signed in 2018 between the National Agency for Technology Entrepreneurship and Commercialization Development (NATEC) under the Vietnamese Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST) and ESG. The MoU aimed to facilitate collaborations for startups, ecosystem builders, and tertiary institutions between both countries.

NATEC and ESG will renew the MoU for another two years at SWITCH 2020. The renewal will build on existing collaborations between Vietnam and Singapore, with an additional focus on leveraging existing open innovation initiatives such as the Singapore Open Innovation Network to crowdsource solutions for corporations in Vietnam. ESG will also share best practices with NATEC to develop similar open innovation platforms for Vietnam, among other initiatives. More details will be shared at SWITCH 2020.

Tan Soon Kim, assistant chief executive officer of Enterprise Singapore said, “Innovation can catalyse business transformation and is important for economies to grow. By working together, we build a vibrant ecosystem with the strengths of different innovation players from both countries to create an environment that enables test-bedding and tie-ups between startups and corporates. We look forward to enabling more of such business partnerships, leveraging technology and innovation to meet Vietnam’s fast-growing innovation landscape.”

Vu Minh Tri, CEO of VNG Cloud, said, "Like Singapore, Vietnam is committed to supporting innovation and has made it easy for local businesses to access technology from overseas, and startup funding, and invest in human capital development. The relevance of technology has been made clear to businesses after COVID-19 and there is a growing interest among corporations and SMEs in Vietnam to co-innovate new solutions for the growing fintech, retail, and manufacturing industries.”

“Singapore’s market-led approach and its role as the technology hub for ASEAN is a potential source for technology and solutions to better service our business partners and consumers. We will continue to seek collaborations with promising technology companies to strengthen our offerings and support our government in growing the fintech industry,” he added.

Over the past two years, the MoU has supported these ongoing initiatives:

a. Strengthening the global innovation communities’ access to Vietnam’s startup landscape. NUS Enterprise, the entrepreneurial arm of the National University of Singapore (NUS), partnered up with Becamex IDC Corporation to launch ecosystem builder BLOCK71 Saigon. The doors to the facility opened in October this year. As an entrepreneur enclave of startups, venture capitalists, and incubators, BLOCK71 Saigon connects Vietnam’s innovation players with a network of mentors, global tech talents, and resources from corporates and government agencies;

b. Connecting startups from Vietnam to major technology hubs. BLOCK 71 augments the efforts of Enterprise Singapore’s Global Innovation Alliance (GIA) in Ho Chi Minh City, a partnership with Saigon Innovation Hub (SIHUB) and Singapore-based venture fund, Quest Ventures that was launched in 2019. The GIA is a network of global innovation hubs which Vietnam’s ecosystem players can tap on to access the latest research and development efforts, whilst familiarising the global startup community with market demands unique to Vietnam. More than 10 Singapore based startups from various sectors participated in the first run of the GIA Ho Chi Minh City market immersion programme which concluded recently; and

c. Venture Capital activities. Singapore-based venture capital firm Vertex Holdings invested in the recently launched Do Ventures fund. Other noteworthy fund-raising activities include Singaporean companies, Insignia Ventures Partners, and TRIVE investments into Vietnamese technology companies Logivan and CoderSchool, respectively.

SWITCH 2020

SWITCH 2020 will be the world’s first week-long, round-the-clock, hybrid digital and physical event for the deep tech community.

Over 6,000 investors, corporates, industry leaders and mentors are expected to participate in the hybrid digital and physical technology festival. Speakers from the global startup community include Draper Associates, Koch Disruptive Technologies, 500 Startups, Baidu, WeBank, Google, Vodafone, Hyundai Motor Group, Zalora, Shopback, Apollo Hospitals Enterprise, Twitter, Facebook, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and Spotify, to name a few.

SWITCH 2020 will have two channels broadcasting for five days – December 7 to 11. Channel 1, the main channel, will feature a different innovation theme each day whereas Channel 2 will focus on a region.

Southeast Asia will be the first region showcase for Channel 2 on December 7, the first day of SWITCH 2020.

For global businesses looking to set up in Asia, the programme on Southeast Asia will cover the step-by-step technicalities in establishing a presence in the various countries.

The inaugural Southeast Asia Open Innovation Challenge will also be launched on Channel 2 on December 7. Participating corporates from Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam will be sharing about their corporate innovation journey.