Masan allowed to invest $105 mln in Singapore’s Trust IQ

Vietnamese conglomerate Masan Group’s subsidiary The Sherpa on Friday received an offshore investment registration certificate to place $105 million in Singapore-based tech firm Trust IQ Pte. Ltd.

The certificate was awarded to Masan at the Vietnam-Singapore Business Forum attended by Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh who is on a three-day visit to the city-state.

This investment, equal to up to 9.4 million shares of Trust IQ, is part of Masan’s strategic goal by 2025 to create a consumer-retail-technology ecosystem capable of capturing 80% of Vietnamese consumers’ wallets.

Toward the goal, Masan has been gradually optimizing the ecosystem by integrating strategic pieces like financial services, banking, insurance, healthcare, and entertainment into a wide network of points of sale and digital technology and artificial intelligence platform.

Trust IQ operates primarily in software development, technology and applications on a global scale, which includes the development of comprehensive, accurate credit risk assessment methods based on AI technology and computer science.

The investment will accelerate Masan’s application of artificial intelligence in retail, and artificial intelligence in consumption.

The two sides will work together to build a platform in the two areas. They will develop AI and machine learning technologies into the consumer sector, integrating offline to online contributing to an optimal offline-to-offline experience and reducing consumption costs.

They will also build a credit access platform for consumers on the basis of a loyalty program by issuing credit cards for mass consumers without requiring proof of income. Masan’s WinCommerce - operator of the WinMart/WinMart+/WIN retail chain - with a high-tech platform from Trust IQ will cooperate with domestic financial partners to drive new credit card usage.

Founded in 1996 in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam’s economic powerhouse, Masan is among the top three largest private sector companies in Vietnam in terms of market capitalization.

The group’s member companies and associates are industry leaders in branded fast-moving consumer goods, branded meat, modern retail, food and beverage retail, financial services, telecommunications, and value-add chemical processing.