Nguyen Phuong Thao

Vietnamese fintech innovator democratizing financial services for Southeast Asia's unbanked populations

Nguyen Phuong Thao is the founder and CEO of Tiniyo, a Philippine-based tech company providing cloud communications and financial services to over 5 million unbanked users across Southeast Asia. Launching in 2017, her platform enables micro-merchants to accept digital payments and access working capital through AI-driven credit scoring systems that bypass traditional banking requirements. This has unlocked $2.3 billion in economic activity for informal sector workers. Thao's approach combines mobile money innovations with blockchain technology to create tamper-proof transaction records, reducing fraud while expanding financial inclusion. A graduate of MIT's Media Lab, she pioneered the 'pay-as-you-go' solar home system model now adopted across Asia. Her work has been featured in MIT Technology Review's 'Innovators Under 35' and received $15 million in venture funding from Y Combinator. Thao's TEDx talk How we can end cash poverty highlights the intersection of technology and human rights. She's also instrumental in developing the ASEAN Digital Payment Framework, advocating for interoperability between national financial systems. Recent partnerships with the Asian Development Bank aim to scale her model to 100 million users by 2030.