PayMaya’s Parent Company Voyager Raises US$210 Million, Vaulting It to Unicorn Status
by Fintech News Philippines April 12, 2022Voyager Innovations, the company behind the Philippines digital wallet PayMaya and neobank Maya Bank, has raised US$210 million in new funds, vaulting it to unicorn status with a valuation of approximately US$1.4 billion.
The round was led by Voyager’s first time investor SIG Venture Capital, the Asian venture capital arm of SIG.
Other new investors include Singapore-based global investor EDBI and investment holding company First Pacific Company.
Also participating in the round are Voyager’s existing shareholders telecoms company PLDT, global investment firm KKR, tech company Tencent, International Finance Corporation (IFC) as well as IFC Emerging Asia Fund and IFC Financial Institutions Growth Fund – two funds managed by the IFC Asset Management Company (IFC AMC), a division of IFC.
Voyager said that it will use the new funds to launch Maya Bank services, such as savings and credit, which will be offered seamlessly across PayMaya’s platforms for consumers and enterprises, including micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs).
It will also continue to expand PayMaya’s offering with new products like cryptocurrency, micro-investments, insurance, and more, as the all-in-one money app of the Philippines.
As of end-March 2022, PayMaya had over 47 million registered users across its consumer platforms.
PayMaya recently introduced cryptocurrency through its e-wallet app after securing a Virtual Asset Services Provider (VASP) license from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).
As a non-bank enterprise payments processor in the Philippines, PayMaya enables over 630,000 online and face-to-face touchpoints to accept digital payments from e-wallets and QR to any credit, debit, and prepaid card.
Voyager entered the digital banking space with Maya Bank, securing one of the six digital banking licenses from the BSP in September 2021 and had commenced pilot testing in March 2022.
Orlando B. Vea
Orlando B. Vea, Voyager and PayMaya CEO and Founder said,
“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.”
Shailesh Baidwan
Shailesh Baidwan, Voyager and PayMaya President said,
“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.”
