Vietnamese e-wallet startup Gpay has just received an undisclosed amount for its Series A round of funding from South Korean bank KB Financial Group. With the Series A funding, Gpay is now valued at $18.46 million (VND 425 billion). The company has also announced that the fresh capital will be used to grow its user base by expanding its team and investing in upgrading its tech solutions. 

The Vietnamese tech startup was established in 2018 and announced its plans for its Series A a little less than a year after receiving its 10-year license to run and provide payment services from the State Bank of Vietnam. The e-wallet platform is scheduled to launch this coming Q2 2021. Gpay will be entering a overcrowded digital payment industry with 39 licensed digital payment companies. Co-founder and CEO of G Payment Joint Stock Company, Nguyen Thuan Chat, said that the company plans to use the fund to gain a total of 5 million users by 2023. 

Gpay is part of the G-Group Technology Corporation, which has also recently announced in an event in Hanoi that it will be launching a joint venture worth $13 million with KB Financial called KB Fina. The venture will aim to offer financial services to users who are unbanked or underbanked.

G-Group claims that it has a total of 30 million users on its different digital platforms. These include numerous tech arms such as peer-to-peer lending platform Tima, financial service provider F88, digital media platform Beat.vn, and social networking platform Gapo. The Group plans to use its digital wallet platform to serve these different tech arms.