When it comes to corporate social responsibility, Shinhan Bank chooses the rougher path: helping develop new startups for the local economy. Over the past three years, many Vietnamese startups have emerged and gained initial success owing to the support from the South Korean bank.
The initiative to support Vietnamese startups stemmed from the success of Shinhan Future’s Lab (SFL), a subsidiary of Shinhan Financial Group known as the leading start-up acceleration programme in South Korea. SFL Korea was founded in 2015 and has since supported a lot of successful startups. Some 93.4 percent of startups coming out from SFL have not only developed a strong business model but also expanded their scales, according to the bank.
Just one year later, SFL Vietnam was established in 2016, and after nearly three years of operation, SFL Vietnam has introduced highly-potential business models to Vietnamese startups in a wide range of fields with high practical applicability and therefore, contributed to the growth of Vietnam’s economy.
“It can be said that SFL is a prominent activity of corporate social responsibility by Shinhan Bank, that brings significant values to the economy in general and the start-up community in Vietnam in particular,” says the bank’s management.
SFL Vietnam has worked closely with Shinhan Bank to synergise support to startups in the country. The bank gives its support by providing a team of highly competent mentors who bring valuable advice to young businesses in the first step of building their business model.
Besides, Shinhan Bank also sets up connections and supports startups to experiment the idea of developing a business cooperation model on the bank’s system. This support from Shinhan Bank has helped startups to access their potential customers, expand the network of partners and track their actual business results.
“Shinhan Bank is proud to accompany SFL for nearly three years to share our experiences and financial capacity with young businesses, helping them to have a solid start,” says Shin Dong Min, CEO of Shinhan Bank in Vietnam.
The bank’s top executive furthers that through the cooperation and main sponsorship to Shinhan Future’s Lab Open Innovation Acceleration programme, “Shinhan Bank would work with SFL to build a sustainable startup ecosystem and expand support activities to global scale, providing more opportunities for startups.”
One of the most prominent activities of SFL and Shinhan Bank on the journey of nurturing potential Vietnamese startups is “Shinhan Future’s Lab Acceleration Programme”. This is an annual programme hosted by SFL since 2017 and Batch 3 of this programme with “Open Innovation” concept was just kicked off on October 30, 2019.
The programme works toward the aims of looking for potential startups, advising startup experiences and screening for the best startups to accelerate them to create synergy with Shinhan subsidiaries and other corporate partners. “The programme serves as a significant stepping stone in the business development journey of Vietnamese startups,” according to the bank.
In order to attend Shinhan Future’s Lab Open Innovation Acceleration Programme, startups will submit their applications, and once selected they will have the chance to participate in mentoring sessions, including those hosted by internal mentors of Shinhan Bank and mentors from external businesses.
“At these sections, our mentors will have a close look at and give detailed analysis on the initiatives of developing an associated business model and give valuable advices that can be applied by startups right away to their current business model,” says Shin Dong Min.
Since its launch, Shinhan Future’s Lab Acceleration Programme has made a lot of successes in supporting the startups to grow. Some young businesses from Shinhan Future’s Lab Acceleration Programme such as Trustcard, Moneylover, Citipass, Manhthuongquan.vn, Bitcoinvietnam, Upupapp, and Bepos among others have reached the initial break-even goal and are in the process of expanding business.
Upupapp in particular is one of the excellent startups after joining Batch 2 of Shinhan Future’s Lab Acceleration Programme. Currently, Upupapp has been successful with its business model and became a programme partner of Shinhan Future’s Lab Open Innovation Acceleration Batch 3.
Another startup that grew up from SFL and achieved a remarkable achievement is Bepos, which is listed in Vietnam’s Top 13 Startups in 2019, as voted by Fintechnews.sg.
With the motto “Bringing a better world with financial power”, Shinhan Bank is on a journey to bring good values to the community through meaningful activities and SFL is one of them. Support to startups also contributes to practical values and promote economic growth in Vietnam, as the country’s leaders are pinning high hopes on startups.
As of the end of 2018, Vietnam was home to 714.000 enterprises, according to data from the Ministry of Planning and Investment. The government has set the target to have one million enterprises by 2020, and one way to realise the goal is to boost the development of startups.
Shinhan Bank, with its efforts and commitment to the local economy, is a strong advocator of the country’s goal to develop startups.
