FROM a plan of expanding to a new market in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations this year, the digital innovations and financial-technology arm of PLDT Inc. now eyes exploiting three territories in Asia in 2018.
Voyager Innovations Inc. President Orlando B. Vea said his group will be expanding to at least two or three markets in Asia next year, a much-anticipated move from the group, which started its Philippine operations in 2015.
“We’ll have two or three new markets by next year. In fact, we have already created an entity for one,” he said. “We should start by the first or second quarter—most likely second quarter—of 2018.”
Vea did not reveal the target markets but said his group has partnered with local companies to establish the holding company for Voyager’s offshore subsidiaries.
“The said entity in the first country is all owned by Voyager, in partnership with a local company,” he said.
His group initially planned to expand to a new market this year.
“We will come in using a multiplatform play,” Vea added, referring to different products and services under the Voyager brand.
Voyager operates PayMaya, mobile wallet that allows users to make digital and physical transactions, including bills payment, among other services.
It also allows users to make loans through their mobile phones through the Mobile Loan Saver and Lendr.
The company also offers digital-marketing products through a company called hatch, an online market place through Tackatack, and a money-remittance service called Smart Padala.
Asked if the group will keep the cited brands when it enters a new market, Vea replied: “It depends on the market. When there is a strong brand that we can use in that market, then we can adopt.”
At home, PayMaya has around 8 million users, while Lendr has disbursed more than P26 billion worth of loans in the last two-and-a-half years.
Besides digital transactions, PayMaya account holders may also use their digital wallet for physical transactions.
Using the quick-response (QR) codes, users without physical cards may pay for their purchases from retail establishments, such as SM Stores, Robinsons Department Store, Robinsons Supermarket and stores under Robinsons Store Specialists Inc., such as Topman, Topshop, G2000, Warehouse and Dorothy Perkins in Robinsons Galleria; Ministop branches in Cyberscape Alpha and Cyberscape Beta in Ortigas; Fairmont Hotel; and The Yard in Timog, among many others.
Account holders paying using the QR tech are entitled to a 10-percent rebate on their purchases during the Christmas holidays.