PayPal invests in Vietnam’s VNLIFE Series B funding round

By Leandra Monteiro

VNLIFE, a technology company revolutionising the development of Vietnam’s digital ecosystem, announced it has raised over $250 million in a Series B funding round led by Dragoneer Investment Group and General Atlantic, with participation by PayPal Ventures and EDBI. Existing investors GIC and SoftBank Vision Fund 1 also participated in the round.

The investment is expected to accelerate the growth of VNLIFE’s existing businesses and support its development of new platforms and technologies to better serve its merchant partners and Vietnamese consumers. The company intends to use the funding to further capitalize on the vast market opportunities in an increasingly digital Vietnam by continuing to expand its sustainable, diversified and multi-disciplinary digital ecosystem.

Niraan De Silva, Managing Director, VNLIFE said, “We are delighted to welcome such high quality names into the company as part of this fundraising.  The global experience and perspective they can bring to further support our growth ambitions is very exciting.  Given a rapidly growing digital consumer base in the country, the additional funding will allow us to accelerate our efforts in technologically enabling our merchant partners to keep up with this change”.

VNLIFE is at the forefront of Vietnam’s rapid adoption of digital banking, with its technology solutions now being offered by its core financial technology subsidiary, Vietnam Payment Solution JSC (“VNPAY”), to over 40 banks across the country. VNLIFE also operates VNPAY-QR, the nation’s largest interoperable cashless payment network, with 22 million users and over 150,000 merchants.

Sandeep Naik, Managing Director and Head of India & Southeast Asia at General Atlantic said, “Vietnam is a rapidly-expanding economy undergoing a significant digital transformation across banking, payments and commerce, and we expect that it will continue to benefit from these sustainable growth tailwinds. VNLIFE has demonstrated its ability to be a market leader in each of these verticals, and is playing an important role in driving digitization and building mission-critical digital infrastructure to support Vietnam’s long-term economic growth. General Atlantic is thrilled to partner with VNLIFE, and we look forward to supporting the company through its next phase of growth.”

Eric Jones, Partner, Dragoneer said, “VNLIFE is in a coveted position at the heart of Vietnamese consumers’ digital journey. By partnering with Vietnam’s leading banks, retailers, airlines, and hotels, VNLIFE’s technology enables customers to make digital purchases across their biggest categories of spend. Paying with VNPAY-QR is fast, secure, and easy. We have incredible faith in this team of technologists, who are ready to capitalize on the tremendous economic backdrop in Vietnam.”

Ms Chu Swee Yeok, CEO and President of EDBI said “Having played a formative role in enabling Vietnam’s digital banking and payments sector, VN Life has built an expansive ecosystem of banks, merchants, and consumers, and leveraged its unique model and market leadership position to address new sectors in retail and travel. EDBI’s investment and partnership will propel the company in its next phase of regional growth, and drive capability development in digital payment and omnichannel commerce technologies at its hub in Singapore.”

Choo Yong Cheen, Chief Investment Officer of Private Equity at GIC said, “We are excited to welcome General Atlantic, Dragoneer, PayPal and EDBI as new shareholders in VNLIFE. Since GIC invested in VNLIFE as its first external shareholder in 2019, the company has grown into an internet ecosystem that facilitates seamless offline and online payments for Vietnamese consumers and merchants across segments such as telecommunications, retail, e-commerce and travel. We look forward to working closely with the management team, as well as existing and new shareholders to drive the company’s next stage of growth.”

Greg Moon, Managing Partner at SoftBank Investment Advisers added, “Through its leading technology stack, VNLIFE has not only enabled more banking customers to embrace mobile banking throughout the pandemic, but has also used its mobile payments platform to successfully build new business opportunities in omnichannel retail and online travel. We are pleased to continue our support of VNLIFE as they scale and innovate across Vietnam.”