Interview With Nguyen Tran, Co-Founder And CTO Of mobizCOM
May 22, 2009 by Gwendolyn Regina T
Vietnam-based mobile business tech firm, MOBIZcom was just in Singapore a few days ago at unConference Singapore 2009. We met up with the DFJ Vina Capital-funded company and spoke to Nguyen Tran, one of the founders of mobizCOM and their CTO.
Hi Nguyen Tran, tell us what is mobizCOM.
mobizCOM is a mobile business technology joint stock company which was established in March 2006. mobizCOM’s aspiration is to become the provider to financial service institutions the security infrastructure for mobile-based transactions. We provide value-added services and help build the consumer confidence in using non-cash transactions with our technology.
What is your technology based on?
Our technology is based on the invention of OTAC (One Time Authentication & Certification), an international patent-pending technology. OTAC uses the complex algorithm to authenticate the right persons who has the right to issue the transaction and certify that the SMS message has been sent by the authenticated person and the time it was sent.
The authenticating and certifying message does not contain the sender’s personal and sensitive information. The OTAC code, automatically generated using multiple authentication factor algorithm, is valid only for a single transaction and is useless within seconds, unusable for hackers.
Though highly secured, it is very easy to use with our user-friendly interface, simple actions. There is no point-of-sales (POS) involved, saving the investment cost.
Embedding this technology into a mobile payment system, we have developed various products to serve different financial purposes:
mobizPAY, secured by OTAC, supports payments by using mobile handset to initiate payment, query account, cash withdraw / topup anytime, anywhere easily with the high level of secure and anti- fraud transaction. It is the main tool for payment solutions for retail stores, restaurants, taxi fares, etc.
mobizBANK, also secured by OTAC, supports all banking transactions right at mobile handset. Fund transfers, account query, payments, … all can be done from one’s handset with high security level and user-friendly interface.
Outside the mobizCOM office building.
You seem to have launched many products with more to come. Tell us about your various products and how your portfolio fits together.
mobizSTOCK, the stock application in which customers can trade and query stocks via mobile phone anytime anywhere. Securities floor is now at your mobile phone with all functions of an actual securities floor.
mobizWALLET, our newest and most versatile product, allows our customers to make payments, execute bank transactions or any other monetary transaction without ever touching money. Yet the customer and the merchant don’t need to have their bank accounts in the same bank.
mobizSHOP is a software package that links the back offices of different merchants with the payment system of mobizCOM. Besides managing the customers’ frequency and consumption data, it is a convenient and useful tool to help acquire customers for merchants and merchants for banks. Each business sector has a unique mobisSHOP package, unique for its needs.
mobizGOLD is similar to mobizSTOCK but applicable for the gold trading market, mobizCASINO for casino business, and more mobiz products to come. They are different applications for different business sectors, with the same principle and technology to allow payments without cash handling and anywhere, anytime with your handset, with top level security available today.
Who makes up your team in mobizCOM?
mobizCOM has a dynamic Technical team of some 20 developers, 4 Project Managers, headed by our Vietnamese-origin French CTO who has been working in the security field since 1979. He was also the inventor of the commercics concept that combines the payment technology using IT in commerce, endorsed by President Mitterand while he was in office.
Our main customers are DongA Securities and Techcombank. We’re currently developing our payment solutions for Korean Noodle restaurant chain and in discussion of a partnership with various merchants such as taxi company, coffee shop chain, retail supermarket chain, … We aim to be the partner of choice for all financial institution from banks to stock-brokers to retails merchants.
Where do you see mobizCOM in one year?
Twelve months from now, mobizCOM should be ready to talk to the main players in the field such as Paypal, Google, .. for a possible M&A. Our products use Vietnam as a developing and testing country but should be introduced to the Western, European and other countries by then.
We’ll intergrate with other payment methods and with the NFC payment to cover all required services. In order to seize a large market share in Vietnam and expand to the world, we will seek additional funds, from VinaCapital or other investors.
Hard at work.
Would you have done anything differently for mobizCOM?
Not really. I’m happy with what have been done so far. But I might prefer to get a larger fund at the beginning, to be able to expand faster and stronger in the market, both Vietnam and the world.
Top 3 qualities an entrepreneur must have?
Number one is to know the market demand. The market demand leads, our technology just fulfill the demand.
Number two, one has to be willing to take the calcutaed risks when the time comes. Willingness to suffer at the beginning to achieve bigger results later, be patient, accept being low-key to satisfy the investors.
Number three, one has to be able to predict the demand, so that the product launch will be at the right time. Too early or too late both are not optimally good. This is the key to successes.
What advice do you have for Singapore startups who wish to enter the Vietnamese market?
A local and good partner at the beginning is extremely helpful. A good partner can be charaterized as one that have integrity, know the Vietnam market well, and know how to successfully deal with the Vietnamese officials. Also, a foreign startup should know the customs, habits, local practices and law. That’s essential to a good start.
Thanks, Nguyen Tran!
About The Author
Gwendolyn Regina T - Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief
Apart from SGE, Gwen is also a Partner at Thymos Capital, where she focuses on early stage investments in technology firms. She has had two exits out of her investments via the firm, one of which is iHipo. A frequent judge for business competitions both locally and overseas, she graduated from the National University of Singapore. Gwen also spent some time in Silicon Valley and studied in Stanford University under the NUS Overseas College programme. Gwen is a mentor at Spanish incubator Tetuan Valley, Polish incubator Gamma Rebels, the Singapore Ambassador for the Sandbox network and the Singapore curator for StartupDigest. She enjoys languages, travelling, dance and adventure sports. Gwen can be found on LinkedIn and Twitter.
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