JB acquires stake in Vietnam's fintech app Infina

JB Financial Group on Thursday said it will acquire a minority stake in Vietnam’s retail investing app Infina, in a bid to help the group’s securities affiliate expand its customer base in the Southeast Asian country.

In a strategic partnership deal, the group will buy 3.9 percent of Infina's shares and increase its holdings to some 5 percent depending on the results of collaboration between its brokerage unit JB Securities Vietnam and Infina.

JB Securities Vietnam, based in Hanoi, offers various financial services including stock brokerage, corporate bond issuance management and investments. In September 2023, the firm launched the securities trading platform Finavi to enter the mobile stock trading and margin loan markets.

“In the Vietnamese stock market (which has) great growth potential, collaboration with various local partners such as fintech companies can be a desirable way to expand the customer base,” JB Securities Vietnam CEO Kim Doo-yoon said. “We will create a case for building a coexistence ecosystem with fintech companies through close collaboration with Infina,” he said.

Infina, a retail investing app with over 500,000 monthly active users, seeks to diversify its service areas from its current deposit-centered business to a securities business while making inroads into nearby countries such as Cambodia.

“This partnership will not only offer a good opportunity for us to expand business in Vietnam but also to go global,” Infina CEO James Vuong said.

JB has been pursuing joint growth with fintech firms through a series of strategic investment partnership deals including with Korean mobile overseas remittance provider Hanpass and Finda, a Korean fintech startup specializing in loan brokering and management.