Why Vietnamese People Don't Invest - And How One Fintech Is Fixing It

How Nhi Nguyen did it: Why Vietnamese People Don't Invest - And How One Fintech Is Fixing It

MaiMoney is a fintech platform in Vietnam that gives everyday investors access to wholesale investment products and the technology to grow their wealth. By the time of this conversation it had reached $2 million in investments and was growing 45% month over month. Nhi, the CEO, frames the gap it fills bluntly: in Vietnam the go-to financial products are real estate, gold and bank deposits — real estate is safe but very capital intensive and not accessible for the everyday investor, gold preserves wealth but doesn't generate passive income, and bank deposits are safe but don't give the yield to actually build wealth. The stock market is growing but volatile, and demands financial knowledge and time most retail investors don't have.

The idea was born out of Nhi's own experience navigating personal finance across two markets. She grew up in Vietnam but lived in Australia in her adulthood, and despite studying finance she didn't truly understand how to plan for her long-term financial future. In Australia she was exposed to the superannuation system — which she likens to the US retirement scheme where employers put a portion of an employee's salary into managed funds, so younger people build wealth in the background from a young age, automatically, and it's mandatory. She was shocked that even without actively investing, she was still building her wealth. Vietnam lacks that system — there's nothing in place that encourages people to build wealth long term — and the mindset she saw was short-term, FOMO-driven, or defaulting to bank deposits and missing out on long-term wealth building.

MaiMoney runs two flagship products. My cash is a flexible, high-yield savings alternative offering up to 4.8% with no withdrawal penalty — versus cash savings accounts in Vietnam that generally yield around 0.1%. My green is a longer-term investment option focused on green and sustainable assets, reaching up to 8.5%. The model is partnership-led: MaiMoney partners with licensed fund managers and lets them do what they do best — managing the investments — while MaiMoney provides the tech and infrastructure, handling onboarding, customer servicing, and even sales and marketing for the fund managers' products. That lets fund managers reach the retail market, the smaller clients they don't typically service because it requires a lot of infrastructure, time and resources.

A second, personal thread runs underneath the professional one. When she was younger, Nhi started a charity group and raised $1,500 to build a playroom at a pediatric hospital. Seeing firsthand how families struggled to pay medical bills for kids battling cancer reinforced a belief she carries today: financial security is more than just money — it's about giving the freedom to focus on what truly matters in life. That's why MaiMoney is a personal mission as much as a professional one.

On landing the first major fund manager partnerships — names like King Capital, ADT capital, Viet Capital and IDG — Nhi's lesson is that your network opens doors but execution closes them: relationships can get you that first meeting, but being able to bring value, prove it, and execute matters more than anything. Looking ahead to 2025, MaiMoney launched almost one year ago on the 29th of March, and the plan is to scale the platform with goal-based investing features for life goals like a wedding, buying a house, or retirement, work with more fund managers, and explore integrating AI to make investing more personalized.

What you'll hear

• The lay of the land in Vietnam — why real estate, gold and bank deposits dominate, and why each one falls short for the everyday investor
• The superannuation shock — how Australia's mandatory system builds wealth automatically from a young age, and why Vietnam lacks anything like it
• Two flagship products — My cash at up to 4.8% with no withdrawal penalty, and My green focused on green assets reaching up to 8.5%
• The partnership model — MaiMoney provides the tech, onboarding, servicing and marketing while licensed fund managers manage the investments
• Landing the first big fund manager — why relationships get you the meeting but bringing value and execution seal the deal
• The top game changers Vietnam needs — financial literacy, regulation and trust, and a mindset shift from short-term gains to long-term financial planning
• The personal origin — the charity group, the $1,500 playroom, and the belief that financial security is about freedom, not just money

Key claims from this episode

Quotes from this episode

Themes Nhi returns to

• Make investing as simple as savings — bridge the gap so retail investors get higher returns without the complexity of traditional products
• Financial literacy first — people don't invest because they don't know where to start; educating people young is one of the most important changes Vietnam needs
• Regulation and trust — Vietnamese people are naturally cautious about new financial products; stronger regulations and transparency build the confidence to take the first step
• A mindset shift to long-term planning — moving from short-term, FOMO-driven thinking and reliance on family wealth toward structured long-term financial planning
• Transparency as a moat — being open about which fund managers manage the money and how the model works is what brings trust back to retail customers
• Personal mission, not just professional — financial independence as freedom to focus on what truly matters in life