Weezi Digital named as winner of Fintech Challenge Vietnam

Vietnamese fintech Weezi Digital has been granted $25,000 to continue launching biometric solutions to help financial institutions take on mobility and digitalisation in order to shape the future banking and payment landscape in Vietnam.

Weezi Digital’s representative said they collaborate with banks to enhance and bring a level of technological knowledge and the banks’ services to customers at Vietnam National Finteh Day held on May 30.

The first and second runners-up are KIU Global and Wecash. KIU Global, which received $15,000, is known as a cross-border B2B platform supporting SMEs in Southeast Asia, while Wecash ($10,000) is a fintech arranger with a credit scoring engine powered by machine learning and big data from non-traditional sources to facilitate faster and better credit appraisal.

Weezi Digital at Fintech Challenge Vietnam

The Most Inspired Fintech Award went to Enablecode, while the Best Young Local Fintech and Most Innovative Fintech titles were given to Instant.vn and Tradle.

FCV was organised by the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) and Mekong Business Initiative (MBI), funded by the Australian government and the Asian Development Bank (ADB). FCV revolved around the two main themes of collaboration and financial inclusion and focused on five verticals, including e-payments, e-KYC, P2P Lending, open APIs, and Blockchain, to promote the development of the local fintech ecosystem.

Since the official launch in November 2017, over 140 fintech applications were submitted, 45 of which originated from Vietnam and 97 from 30 different countries around the world. Selected FCV applicants presented their business models during the Showcase Pitch Day on March 28, 2018.

Following the Initial Pitch Day, finalists were matched with FCV partners who served as mentors during a six-week incubation phase to refine and sharpen their business models to better fit local market needs. Partners included seven commercial banks—BIDV, Shinhan Bank, TPBank, VIB, Vietcombank, VietinBank, and VPBank—as well as Vietnam Silicon Valley and VIISA.