Voyager Innovations Inc., the tech company behind PayMaya, has raised $210 million in fresh funding, bumping up its valuation to “nearly $1.4 billion.”
SIG Venture Capital, an investor in Kumu and RedDoorz, led the funding round. Other investors that pitched in for the amount include Singapore-based global investor EDBI and investment holding company First Pacific Co. Ltd.
Voyager’s existing shareholders, PLDT Inc., KKR, Tencent, International Finance Corp. (IFC), IFC Emerging Asia Fund, and IFC Financial Institutions Growth Fund, also participated in the round.
The company will use the fresh funds to launch neobank Maya Bank services, such as savings and credit, while also expanding PayMaya’s services such as cryptocurrency, micro-investments, and insurance, among others.
“Our strong record of execution and innovation is a testament to our world-class team’s hard work and talent. With this milestone, we are excited to leap forward and bring the best of PayMaya and Maya Bank to help unlock the digital economy for the underserved and unbanked Filipinos,” Voyager and PayMaya CEO-Founder Orlando B. Vea said.
PayMaya and Maya Bank are described to be part of an “integrated ecosystem” that caters to consumers, enterprises, and governments.
“The strong endorsement from our new shareholders and participation of our existing investors in this fundraising validates the Company’s ability to expand into neobanking and add new cutting-edge financial products and services. We are excited to bring more game-changing innovations to millions of consumers and MSMEs with our integrated ecosystem as we address the pent-up demand for financial services,” Voyager and PayMaya President Shailesh Baidwan said.
Akshay Bajaj, a venture capital investor at SIG Group, said the company decided to invest in Voyager because it has “the most complete and unified fintech ecosystem in the market.”
“Leveraging PayMaya’s distribution strength with enterprises and consumers, Maya Bank has the potential to be one of the most successful digital banks not just in the Philippines, but globally. We are thrilled to partner with Voyager and existing shareholders to drive the digital ecosystem to new heights,” he said.
Global investors are now seeing the Philippines as a territory ripe for investments, given its burgeoning startup scene as well as a digital-savvy population.
In 2021, the local internet economy surged by 94 percent, data from Google, Temasek, and Bain & Co. showed, and is projected to grow by $40 billion by 2025. E-commerce and digital payments are expected to drive this forecast.
PayMaya and Maya Bank seek to take a slice of that pie, while plugging the financial inclusion gap in the Philippines, wherein 47 percent of Pinoys have yet to have a savings account.
As of end-March 2022, PayMaya had over 47 million registered users across its consumer platforms— more than two-thirds of the adult population in the Philippines.