Surge, YC back $6m seed round of Vietnamese investment app

Infina, a Vietnam-focused retail investing app, has secured US$6 million in a seed round participated by Sequoia Capital India’s Surge, Y Combinator, and Alpha JWC, among others.

Infina founder and CEO James Vuong / Photo credit: Infina

Infina helps make investments easier to access for young and first-time investors, joining the likes of Ajaib in Indonesia, Groww in India, and Tiger in China. Through the Infina app, users can choose to invest in a wide range of products such as fixed-income instruments, mutual funds, and stocks.

The fundraise comes as Vietnam saw its benchmark stock market index rise 28.1% in 2021 to hit a record high. The country also saw 1.3 million new stock trading accounts last year, almost tripling the 2020 figure.

James Vuong, CEO and founder of Infina, said the company will use the fresh capital to further develop its tech to keep up with the rising amount of new investors. Before Infina, Vuong led Lana Group, which was acquired by Line Corp.

See also: Meet the 15 top-funded startups and tech companies in Vietnam

Infina was part of Surge’s sixth cohort, which was announced last month.

Other investors in the round include:

• Saison Capital
• Starling Ventures
• AppWorks
• Investors in Robinhood, Coinbase, and other similar firms