The existing investors in Filipino financial technology (fintech) player Voyager Innovations Inc. agreed to shore up its war chest with a fresh commitment of $120 million in investments.
Current investors PLDT, KKR, IFC, IFC Emerging Asia Fund, and Tencent will all pitch in to raise the amount, but a company officer could not readily confirm if the total will be shared equally.
Voyager Founder Orlando B. Vea said the new fresh funding will be used to support the “rapid growth” of PayMaya, the company’s mobile digital wallet.
This fundraising activity is also precedent of the plan, as previously announced by PLDT Chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan, to get future investors in PayMaya.
“This funding boosts PayMaya’s ability to reach more Filipinos, especially as access to digital financial services becomes even more important,” Vea said.
Voyager President Shailesh Baidwan said the funding will enable the company to “better support” its thrust for financial inclusion, and allow it to “expand to adjacent services.” Voyager’s main businesses are mobile wallet, payments solution, and loans.
The last time Voyager received a huge boost in funding was in 2018, when all four foreign investors injected $215 million into the Filipino fintech.
Voyager is expected to burn more cash through the next three years before turning a profit, as it continues to shift consumer behavior toward digital payments.
The company said in a statement that PayMaya is the only end-to-end digital payments ecosystem enabler in the Philippines with platforms and services that cuts across consumers, merchants, and government.
Aside from providing the payments acceptance for the largest e-Commerce, food, retail and gas merchants in the Philippines, Voyager said PayMaya is enabling national and social services agencies as well as local government units with digital payments and disbursement services.
PayMaya Philippines is a subsidiary of Voyager Innovations, the digital innovations company of PLDT and Smart.