Daily Newsletter

Hello there ,

Most of my work days begin with a barrage of fintech-related news. I couldn’t avoid it, even if I wanted to. Whether it's funding, mergers, or insolvency, the space is abuzz with interest. This is understandable given the countless consumer-facing apps that offer convenient financial solutions and seem to be appearing from thin air.

Fintech is often seen as a recent marriage of financial services and IT. That's what led me to assume that fintech came to the fore only in the early 2010s (how did I forget about ATMs? 🏧), along with the onset of the smartphone invasion of the world. In fact, fintech has evolved over three distinct time periods, dating all the way back to 1886.

With e-wallets apps across Southeast Asia grabbing most of the headlines, it is easy to forget just how broad and diverse the fintech sector is. Its sheer vastness also helps explain the flood of fintech news. Earned wage access, credit scoring, SME financing, digital lending, insurtech, personal finance, point-of-sale firms, and buy now, pay later all fall under the fintech umbrella.

As the benefits of fintech trickle deep into every Southeast Asian market, in our premium story today, we take a detailed look at the shifting landscape of Vietnam’s fintech sector, which attracted over half a billion dollars in investments last year.

THE BIG STORY

TRENDING NEWS

EVENTS HAPPENING

• *Event* [Workshop] How to protect your business from inflation on February 24th
  With global inflation rates being the highest they have been in decades, keeping profit margins healthy will be a challenge for startups.
  Join us on February 24 as Billy Naveed, the chief strategy officer at Smile Group, explains how startups should approach runway, burn, valuation, and fundraising in these times. Click here to reserve your seat.
• Data-Driven Digital Products on February 25th
  Building digital products and services have become less intuition-based and more data-driven. On Feb 25, join product managers for a virtual webinar on how to create data-driven digital products. Attendance is complimentary, sign up here.
• AWS SaaS Forum on March 8th
  Join the AWS SaaS Forum on March 8 to uncover opportunities and insights on SaaS trends, outlook for 2022 and how to build your business playbook. Attendance is complimentary.

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• Senior Software Engineer (NodeJS, PHP) at NOBI
  Jakarta, Indonesia
• Sales & Partnership at SELLinALL
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• Digital Growth Manager at PT Samala Serasi Unggul
  Jakarta, Indonesia
• Project Manager at Eannovate
  Jakarta, Indonesia
• Network & System Engineer at WIR Global
  Jakarta, Indonesia
• Crypto journalist at Tech in Asia
  Bangalore, India