GSM invests in Be Group to expand electric car services in Vietnam – TechNode Global

Green and Smart Mobility Joint Stock Company (GSM), a company founded by the owner of Vietnamese electric vehicle (EV) maker VinFast, and Be Group, a Vietnamese technology company, have signed an investment and cooperation agreement to deploy electric cars and motorbikes in transportation services in Vietnam for the first time.

Under the agreement, GSM will invest directly in Be Group to support the partner towards the goals of becoming a multi-service consumer platform and providing the leading technology transportation service in Vietnam, both parties said in a statement on Tuesday.

In addition, through financing partners, GSM will support Be Group’s drivers to switch from internal combustion engine vehicles to electric vehicles by the easiest and most convenient means possible.

With reasonable operating costs and zero noise and emissions, electric cars and motorbikes will help Be Group and its drivers improve service quality and increase business efficiency.

In the first phase, GSM will coordinate with Vietnam Prosperity Joint Stock Bank (VPBank) to provide exclusive preferential policies for Be Group drivers to lease or buy VinFast electric cars and motorbikes via GSM at attractive prices.

In the field of technology taxi services, GSM and Be Group will cooperate to share a booking platform.

Accordingly, customers who book a car through the Be’s application will be able to choose GSM’s electric taxi service, in addition to the existing beCar and beTaxi services.

Through this investment and cooperation agreement, GSM and Be Group will become the pioneering Vietnamese enterprises to promote and drive the green revolution of transportation
services, which is a growing trend in the region and around the world.

The two companies are also committed to jointly communicating and promoting public awareness about the outstanding advantages of zero-emission transport, thus encouraging customers to switch to eco-friendly electric vehicles.

“The investment and cooperation agreement with Be Group is one of the important steps in the strategy of accelerating green public transport in Vietnam that GSM is seriously and vigorously deploying,

“This agreement will allow hundreds of thousands of Be Group drivers to switch to smart, modern, environmentally friendly electric vehicles at a reasonable cost,” Said Nguyen Van Thanh, Chief Executive Officer of GSM.

Vu Hoang Yen, Chief Executive Officer of Be Group, said that with hundreds of thousands of drivers and a platform of nearly 10 million customers widely used throughout Vietnam, Be takes its roles and responsibility seriously in popularizing the habit of using green vehicles to millions of Vietnamese users effectively and quickly.

“‘Greening the roads’ is a challenging mission, but we believe that the pioneering and breakthrough capabilities of VinFast products and deep cooperation with GSM can help Be realize this ambition in a shorter time,

“Users and drivers can experience safe, noise-free transportation at a reasonable price. This cooperation also
demonstrates our contribution to the government’s overall policy in committing and implementing synchronous solutions towards the goal of net zero by 2050,” she added.

With a charter capital of 3,000 billion VND ($125.7 million), GSM was founded by Vingroup Chairman Pham Nhat Vuong who holds a 95 percent stake.

The company will use VinFast electric vehicles and operate in the two sectors of vehicle rentals and electric taxi services with the investment scale of 10,000 cars and 100,000 motorbikes.

Be Group is the owner of the multi- service consumer platform “be”.

With the ambition to become the number 1 consumer platform serving all the daily necessities of 20 million Vietnamese consumers, Be is currently providing many services, including transportation, delivery, food delivery, groceries shopping, insurance, telecommunications services, and leading digital banking Cake by VPBank, as well as continuing to develop and launch new products.

Since its launch in 2019, the Be app has been downloaded more than 20 million times, currently serves over 10 million monthly transactions on the platform, and is growing.

Be has now expanded its operations to 28 provinces and is the most developed application of Vietnam in the field of technology transportation.