HÀ NỘI — Grab Company Ltd and MOCA Technology and Service Joint Stock Company (Moca) on Tuesday in Hà Nội announced a strategic partnership to promote cashless payments on the Grab platform in Việt Nam.

Moca and Grab will leverage each others’ technology expertise and partner networks to roll out payment services to millions of Vietnamese consumers and SMEs.

Moca was granted a license for payment services by the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) in 2016 and has a network of 11 local banks as partners for their service.

“This strategic collaboration with Moca marks an important milestone for Grab in Việt Nam as we seek to accelerate our growth in one of the fastest growing economies in Southeast Asia,” said Nguyễn Tuấn Anh, head of Grab Financial Group Việt Nam​.

The companies did not give further details on the partnership, but said they expect to launch their joint service in October.

“Consumers are leading increasingly digital lifestyles. The strategic partnership helps promote this digital lifestyle, and we expect exponential growth of mobile payments driven by Moca and Grab across Việt Nam,” said Trần Thanh Nam​, co-founder and CEO of Moca​.

In March 2017, Grab established an R&D centre in HCM City and officially launched the centre a few weeks ago, which is part of a global R&D network of six centres that includes Bangalore, Beijing, Jakarta, Seattle and Singapore.

Grab and Moca will collaborate to offer consumers and SMEs in Việt Nam more mobile payment facilities starting from the last quarter of the year.

Tan Hooi Ling, co-Founder of Grab, said they would continue their investment into Việt Nam through technology, human resources and partnerships with local companies to increase the firm’s presence in the country.

“Việt Nam’s growth is so fast that we speak about the numbers on a month-on-month not year-on-year basis,” she said.

Over the past month, Grab’s food delivery grew by 2.2 times from the previous month, delivery 22 per cent and use of non-cash payments for transport increased by 21 per cent.

She said the figures were expected to continue rising. They targeted to have a half of the Vietnamese population using Grab services by 2020.

Grab said it has 175,000 drivers and bikers across the country. — VNS