Is a Unicorn in the hand worth two in the wild?

Last week, I came face to face with a Unicorn, an actual Unicorn in its natural habitat. It was the last thing I had expected to see, but there it was, thriving, growing, and so logical in its formation that it got me thinking.

During an amazing Fintech Trade Mission to Vietnam with the UK's Department for Business and Trade, I was fortunate to visit the headquarters of three of the top Vietnamese Banks and global tech giants' campuses of FPT and VNG (The creators of Zalopay). We spent a day with a National Trade Association, VINASA, focused on technology and IT. I was fortunate to receive briefings at the United Kingdom consulate with the CEO of HSBC and the Digital team from BIDV. I participated in numerous economic briefings with state officials and had networking opportunities with the ambassador himself, HE Iain Frew, and the HM Consular General, Emily Hamblin. I participated in Southeast Asia TechWeek and had a fairytale moment of being a special guest at Ho Chi Minh's most exclusive Member's Club, Rose Villa Saigon (I would think it would have been a dream if I didn't have the photos). ?

Okay, but back on topic to this Unicorn—Zalopay by VNG. This Unicorn has several markings. It is a Fintech, a B2C, a Digital Wallet, and a SuperApp. And it could never exist in a place such as Australia or the United Kingdom for several reasons.

Zalopay has been born of necessity in an economic climate of significant growth, a nation's digital transformation, regulatory reform, and access to products and services previously unavailable to the masses. ?

It hasn't been all plain sailing for this Fintech. After solving the initial needs and use cases, it has struggled to maintain growth rates, facing stiff headwinds from the incumbents and a changing appetite from regulators. ?

Combining Interest-bearing accounts, access to consumer credit, payments, insurance, BNPL, bill management, investing in both the Stock and Gold Markets and several upcoming features that are not public yet, it is unsurprising that the State Bank has struggled to classify and regulate its operations.

Vietnam does not have the same penetration of merchant terminals and POS as Australia and the United Kingdom. Cash is still the King for a significant amount of SMEs across Vietnam. Approximately 63% of Vietnamese are unbanked, and only 4% possess a credit card. Just as cash-alternative M-PESA filled a critical gap in financial inclusion in Kenya, Zalopay is facilitating access to financial services for a growing generation of Vietnamese.

But what good is having somewhere to store your wealth if you can't use it? Enter QR code payments, integration, and partnerships. One of the most impressive elements of Zalopay is its integration with platforms and partners. They have integrated it with Grab if you want to access a ride-share or food delivery service. If you want to shop online, Zalopay is embedded in Shopify. When it is time to pay your utility accounts, they have partnered with national energy and telecommunication companies to not only allow the consumer to pay using Zalopay but also message users in their Digital Wallet to say their bill is due! And it is commonplace to walk around Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City and see Zalopay QR codes in shops and markets.

As a former Technical Chartist on the US stock markets, I could geek out over their cost-averaging investment protocols on both the Stock Market and Gold Exchanges, which allow citizens to invest with a much smaller amount of money than would normally be possible, but I think I'll spare you the brilliance in its simplicity and save that for another blog.

So, why do I believe that a Zalopay equivalent could never rise and exist in a country such as Australia and the United Kingdom in 2024? Our perfect storms never materialized. Digital accounts and internet banking started in Australia and the United Kingdom in the mid-90s. As of 2023, Australia has less than 1% of its citizens unbanked, and the United Kingdom has approximately 4%. Our financial service offerings are still disproportionately biased towards the largest banks. We can withdraw cash and pay using cards across 2.3 million POS terminals in the United Kingdom and just over 1 million in Australia. And despite the growing trend to online shopping and tap and go (supercharged by COVID), the strength of our card schemes means that partnerships between banks and Global giants such as Visa and Mastercard make it all too easy to stick to the status quo and not seek out alternate finance products.

So, can the Unicorn that is Zalopay only exist in Vietnam? I hope not. I hope to see a herd of these Unicorns grazing happily across the Globe. The central tenets of all Financial Service offerings should be the ability to solve Financial Inclusion, Access to Credit, Access to Digital Services, Education of Consumers and Businesses, Wealth Creation, Security, Privacy, and Convenience, all in a single platform or SuperApp. ??

So, if you see me turning over rocks and gazing from the tops of hills as I traverse the Globe, know that I am looking for signs of the next Unicorn Fintech SuperApp being born. I know that Zalopay won't be the last one I stumble upon. And to the team at Zalopay, VNG, keep solving the real-world problems you are solving with a purist technology focus!