Why Is Financial Infrastructure The Major Bottleneck In The Global Expansion Of Vietnamese Businesses?

Vietnamese businesses are expanding globally at a historic pace. In 2025, Vietnam's e-commerce market reached US$31 billion, maintaining an impressive year-on-year growth of over 25%. Notably, cross-border online trade hit approximately US$4.45 billion, accounting for 15-16% of the total market scale and marking an 8.5% increase from 2024.

According to Amazon Global Selling Vietnam, in 2023 alone, domestic enterprises exported over 17 million products via Amazon, driving a 50% surge in export revenue and a 40% increase in the number of sellers.

Despite explosive growth, Vietnamese businesses' journey to global markets often hits a barrier rarely prioritized from day one: cross-border financial infrastructure. As business models shift from merely selling goods to operating supply chains, paying international remote teams, and processing multi-currency transactions, vulnerabilities in the payment system begin to surface and directly erode revenue.

To dissect this fault line, host Tu An from Vietnam Innovators sat down with Mr. Nagesh Devata, Senior Vice President, GTM APAC at Payoneer. With nearly 30 years of cross-market experience honed at Mastercard, PayPal, and Payoneer, he brings a sharp, ground-level perspective on how cash flow "frictions" are stalling the ambitions of Vietnamese enterprises, while pointing out strategic decisions to help financial infrastructure truly keep pace with growth.

A ‘Born Global’ Vietnamese business would start with an aspiration and an ambition and a belief that their market is the world.

The "Born Global" Generation and the Chasm Between "Selling" and "Operating"

According to Nagesh Devata, the most significant shift in Vietnam’s current economic landscape does not lie in the numbers, but in the ideology. A "Born Global" generation of businesses is rising. They do not wake up intending to spend the next 25 years solving problems solely for the domestic market. Their ambition from day one is to serve the world.

However, Nagesh Devata highlights a fateful distinction: many businesses confuse international selling with operating at a global scale. “As they start to evolve, that is where they're not just selling; they're operating globally. They're thinking about how they set up their businesses. Maybe I'm going to have tech teams around the world. Maybe I'm going to have developers in Latin America. Maybe I have suppliers and vendors in different countries,” he shared. Take the gaming industry as an example – where Vietnam proudly ranks second globally in total mobile game downloads produced by local studios and developers. To acquire customers worldwide, a game studio cannot just sit in Vietnam.

They need to build infrastructure, incorporate legal entities in other markets, establish global sales teams, and manage multiple currencies. That level of complexity is far higher than a standard e-commerce transaction and requires a business-model maturity that not every founder anticipates.

When you buy a phone, you could buy a basic phone or a Pro. If you buy a smarter, better phone, it's going to let you do more things [like AI]. So prepare for that future complexity. And that's the same thing with entrepreneurs and founders building business infrastructure.

The Blind Spot of Subjectivity

Despite possessing grand ambitions, many Vietnamese founders still fall into a common blind spot: they underestimate the speed of their own success. This delay leads to what Nagesh Devata calls the "it can wait" trap. Entrepreneurs often sprint to perfect products and write the most brilliant lines of code, yet leave their financial infrastructure open-ended, assuming it is a story for the future.

However, when the future arrives with multi-market booms, the patched-together system begins to expose its flaws. “Imagine having 10 wallets to do everything you need to do or 10 bank accounts to do everything you need to do. That's complicated,” Nagesh Devata compared. This friction not only causes managerial fatigue but also leads to the most fatal consequence in business: Lost Sales. Customers will leave if the payment system is complicated or takes too much time.

Nagesh Devata emphasizes that acquiring an international customer is extremely expensive. If you lose them simply because of payment barriers, you will have to pay double or triple to find a new customer. Money is being unreasonably "left on the table" because the business failed to build seamless financial pipes from the start.

If money is the lifeblood of a business, financial infrastructure is the pipeline system. If the pipeline is clogged, the business cannot grow. Everything only truly makes sense when it operates smoothly, instantly, and securely.

The Cross-Continental Handshake: Where AI Must Yield to Human Trust

In an era where every process can be automated, the rise of AI is undeniable. Yet, Nagesh Devata offers a highly grounded perspective on the boundaries of technology in international trade. He acknowledges that AI provides tremendous speed, helping lean SMBs optimize workflows, test new markets, and flawlessly execute language localization to make them "look larger" than their actual scale.

Even so, when it comes to the core of cross-border commerce, especially in B2B transactions, what AI cannot engineer is trust. Nagesh Devata calls this "the hype" when people believe AI can replace every touchpoint. “You're building trust. And I still think that handshake is absolutely critical. I don't think anyone would want to move large sums of money across borders if they feel they are interacting with a lifeless bot,” he stated frankly. Particularly in Asian business cultures, people want to look their partners in the eye, assess their credibility, and feel their commitment. AI can help you communicate in a local language in one second, but only humans can establish a secure "handshake" for cash flow and brand reputation.

Do not let payment barriers, exchange rate risks, or a lack of infrastructural preparation shake your foundation.

Success Lies in Operations

Concluding the conversation, Nagesh Devata’s core advice for Vietnamese founders is highly practical: Build your financial infrastructure and secure your operational tools upfront, even before you actually need to use all of their features. Much like buying a Pro-version phone, you may not use all the capacity immediately, but it gives you the power to remain unconstrained when opportunity strikes.

Amid supply chain shifts, Vietnam is rising as a world-class manufacturing hub and a crucial export hub in Asia. The young business community has abundant opportunities to capitalize on this shift. Therefore, Nagesh Devata believes one key factor for Vietnamese founders on their journey to the global market is keeping their business infrastructure ready to adapt to fluctuations in the global arena.

Build your financial infrastructure and secure your operational tools upfront, even before you actually need to use all of their features.

When a business has poured all its dedication into creating opportunities, it deserves to reap the full rewards. Do not let payment barriers, exchange rate risks, or a lack of infrastructural preparation shake your foundation. Founders need to prepare a steadfast mindset and a professional operating system from day one to adapt to unexpected turns in business. The world out there is vast, and the expert believes that the "Born Global" spirit will take Vietnamese enterprises even further in the future.

Ultimately, the dream of reaching the global market has never solely relied on a grand declaration or vision. It demands that every organization builds a smooth operational system coupled with seamless financial infrastructure, ensuring that once an international business opportunity knocks, the enterprise is resilient enough to maintain quality and bold enough to retain customers amidst the myriad challenges of the big leagues.

Watch the full Vietnam Innovators episode here: