Vietnamese FinTech firm Trusting Social announced Thursday an investment of $65 million in the group from The Sherpa Company Limited (Sherpa), a subsidiary of Masan Group Corporation, for the initial close of its Series C round.

Trusting Social also announced a strategic collaboration between Trusting Social and Masan intends to develop an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered consumer tech platform that will offer customized retail and consumer financial products to serve 27 million families in Vietnam.

Trusting Social said in a statement that the platform will provide convenient access to personalized fintech solutions for Masan’s consumers by combining Masan’s offline-to-online vision with Trusting Social’s ability to democratize financial services.

In addition, it said the partnership will enable Masan to drive efficiencies in its core business by leveraging Trusting Social’s AI capabilities in areas as diverse as retail store selection, demand and supply planning, and product assortment and development.

With this strategic collaboration with Masan, Trusting Social is a big step closer to achieving its goal of stamping one hundred million lines of credit to underserved borrowers in its high-growth markets across Asia.

“I am proud that a Vietnamese team has created an innovative credit scoring AI and machine learning (ML) platform that financial institutions across Asia are utilizing to serve their consumers better,

“Our partnership with Masan is exciting since we broaden our platform from credit access to a total consumer life solution. Masan and Trusting Social have the same belief that Vietnam can create transformation and disruption on par with global peers,” said Trusting Social’s Founder and Chief Executive Officer Nguyen Nguyen.

Its Co-Founder and Chief Data Scientist also said the group remain committed to its mission of enabling underserved consumers access world-class financial services and this partnership will significantly accelerate its journey.

Trusting Social is an AI TechFin company aspiring to democratize financial services through AI-based consumer insights and embedded finance. It drives financial inclusion by providing credit insights covering over a billion consumers to over 170 financial institutions across Vietnam, Indonesia, India, and the Philippines.

The company has reinvented co-lending into a profitable, win-win model, partnering with pioneering banks and consumer brands to deliver disruptive financial products to underserved consumers wherever they shop. It is backed by Sequoia Capital, BEENEXT, Tanglin Ventures, 500 Startups, Kima Ventures and Genesis Alternative Ventures, amongst others.

“Walmart has invested heavily to develop an AI and ML platform and has leveraged it to become the leading offline and online daily, consumer life platform. The Trusting Social partnership provides Masan a similar cutting edge AI and ML platform but tailored for 100 million Vietnamese consumers. Our job together now is to develop it from a pure credit scoring use case to a holistic Consumer engine,” said Masan Group Chief Executive Officer Danny Le.

Founded in 1996 in Ho Chi Minh City, Masan is among the top three largest private sector companies in Vietnam in terms of market capitalization. The group’s member companies and associates are industry leaders in branded fast-moving consumer goods, branded meat, modern retail, food and beverage (F&B) retail, financial services, telecommunications, and value-add chemical processing.

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