Vietnam fintechs seek 5.2m household firms with digital loans

Vietnamese digital banks and fintech firms are expanding loans to the country's 5.2 million household businesses through sales-management platforms, VietnamPlus reported on Nov. 5, citing Ministry of Finance figures.

The push targets a sector that contributes as much as 30% of gross domestic product, while more than 93% of loans in Vietnam still require collateral, according to a 2025 VCCI PCI report cited by VietnamPlus.

Cake by VPBank and KiotViet began offering loans of up to 300 million dong ($11,400) to household businesses in October, according to the report. Applications, electronic know-your-customer checks, credit-limit approval and disbursement are handled inside the KiotViet app, with processing taking a few minutes.

The companies are also adding payment functions, including dynamic QR codes and tools that let a mobile phone accept card payments. The broader aim is to combine inventory, cash-flow monitoring, payments and working-capital access in one merchant interface.

"We want to help household businesses overcome difficulties, maintain stable cash flows and grow every day. When they need capital, they can access formal financing safely and quickly through a tool they are already familiar with," Nguyen Huu Quang, CEO of Cake, told The Leader magazine, according to VietnamPlus.

The market is large but difficult for conventional bank underwriting. VietnamPlus said grocery stores, restaurants and other small operators often lack collateral and formal records, and may use higher-cost informal borrowing when they need stock for peak demand.

The model is a form of embedded finance, where credit is offered through software a business already uses. VietnamPlus reported that Cake previously worked with MISA Group on digital lending through MISA Lending, which connects borrowers and lenders inside accounting, electronic invoicing and sales-management tools.

MISA Lending uses transaction, cash-flow and invoice data that businesses agree to share, then applies artificial intelligence, software that identifies patterns in data, to help assess creditworthiness. After five years, the platform had connected with 16 financial institutions and served more than 400,000 businesses and household businesses, with cumulative disbursements of 40 trillion dong ($1.5 billion), according to the report.

The reported success rate for loan applications through MISA Lending was 36.2%, described by VietnamPlus as 10 times the rate for traditional unsecured channels. Cake was among the platform partners with one of the highest successful disbursement rates, according to information cited in the article.

Nguyen Thi Ngoan, deputy general director of MISA Group, said SMEs and household businesses have recurring credit needs but are highly sensitive to timing. She said fintechs are focused on improving data quality and using AI to analyse operating indicators, rather than asking banks to weaken lending standards.

Cake by VPBank said its broader ecosystem strategy, serving users from young retail customers to household businesses, had helped it reach nearly 8 million customers.