Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) account for almost half of the GDP of most countries in Southeast Asia, and they face a huge unmet financing need of roughly $300 billion due to limited access to financing from banks and financial institutions. In recent years, the rise of Fintech in emerging economies such as Vietnam has led to many innovations aimed at accelerating financial inclusion in the country.
Hailed as one of the dynamic emerging countries in the East Asia region, advancement in Vietnam’s Fintech ecosystem is evident with the market expected to grow to USD 7.8 billion in 2020.
Hear more from our esteemed panelists as they discuss how FinTechs in Vietnam are addressing the financing gap and the investment opportunities that arise within the context.
Panelists
- Swaroop Shah, CEO, Validus Vietnam
- Trung Hoang, Partner, VinaCapital Ventures
About the Speakers
Swaroop Shah, CEO, Validus Vietnam
With over 20 years in global banking in emerging and matured markets like India and Vietnam, Swaroop’s experience covers a spectrum of functions which include consumer lending, sales, credit underwriting, risk management and credit operations.
As one of Validus’ earliest employees, Swaroop has worn various hats and headed multiple teams across the business, and has played a key role in taking Validus from a fintech startup to Singapore’s largest SME financing platform in just a few years. Swaroop will continue to play an instrumental role in helping to pivot Validus in Vietnam, and drive financial inclusion for the many unbanked or underbanked SMEs.
Prior to Validus, Swaroop headed CitiFinancial Consumer Finance as Collections Head for Personal Loans and Prudential as Director of Audit, Groupwide Internal Audit.
Swaroop holds an MBA from Welingkar Institute of Management, Master of Commerce from Sydenham College and graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce from University of Mumbai.
Trung Hoang, Partner, VinaCapital Ventures
Trung Hoang is a Partner at VinaCapital Ventures. He has more than 25 years of experience in business consultancy, corporate operations and venture capital across region in SEA and Silicon Valley. During his career, he has served on multiple boards to technology startups that have successfully expanded across the region and that have achieved successful local IPOs (> 100x multiple).
Additionally, he was the former Head of Business and Management Consulting at PwC Indochina covering Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. Trung holds a MBA from the Maastricht School of Management in Holland.