MAYA Innovations Holdings Pte. Ltd., the Singapore-registered company that operates financial technology app Maya, expects to tread on a growth trajectory in this year and beyond, as it targets to hit breakeven by end-December.
Orlando B. Vea, the company’s founder, said Maya’s breakeven point will set the course for the fintech and digital bank to further growth.
“So we breakeven in 2024, from there we’ll just continue the trajectory of our growth and hopefully make our services more available to more Filipinos. I think as of now, we really have created a big impact in the market,” he said during a news briefing.
According to Vea, Maya Bank Inc. has already clocked three million depositors, which is a 2.1-time surge from the number of depositors last year. These depositors led to the digital bank having a deposit balance of P25 billion, a 1.7-times growth from the year prior, with loans disbursed reaching P22 billion, or a 6.9-times rise from 2023, he added.
Enterprise loan disbursement also ballooned by 4.4 times, with its QR services accounting for 44 percent of the market.
“So we have brought them in by the millions actually and we can see that that development will continue in the next few years. You’ll see bigger numbers this year and next year and we just need to keep bringing in the many Filipinos who are not yet benefited by technology in banking and finance,” Vea said.
He noted that this is just the beginning for Maya’s success. Vea expects faster growth this year compared to last year.
“We’re just starting. We just hit the tipping point. It’s now on the escape velocity and so with the bringing in of more customers, depositors, more borrowers. We can see that happening already as we speak. We’re just on that upward trajectory,” Vea said.
Maya’s majority shareholder, PLDT Inc., actually expects the firm to be “profitable by December.”
“We want to make sure that we stay true to that course,” PLDT President Manuel V. Pangilinan said, adding that Maya has reported a positive Ebitda in the first two months of 2024. “But of course we have eight months ago and so forth and so on but it’s moving in the right direction.”
Pangilinan added that should Maya achieve its targets by yearend and will become profitable by 2025, the reported losses of Maya will be “much lesser” in PLDT’s 2024 income.
While PLDT reported a telco core income of P34.3 billion last year, its share in Maya has pushed it down to P32.3 billion due to continued cash burn. Compared to 2022, Maya’s losses stood at P2.2 billion, P1-billion less than the P3.2-billion loss reported the year prior.
For 2024, Vea said Maya is looking at the “large unserved” market of digital lending.
“Being the leader in the industry, I think we can confidently say that that growth will continue,” he said.