A recently-launched venture capital fund by Philippine-based VC company Core Capital and Malaysia-based VC Gobi Partners made its first two investments in a healthtech startup MariaHealth and an edutech firm called Edukasyon.ph. The VC fund Gobi-Core Philippine Fund (PH Fund) is a $10 million fund for seed-stage and pre-Series A companies in the Philippines launched last October. Amounts of the two funding rounds in the local startups were undisclosed. Other investors in MariaHealth’s seed round include Wavemaker and Hustle Fund. Founded in 2015, MariaHealth has partnered with insurance practitioners PhilCare, Maxicare, AsianLife, and MediCard. MariaHealth serves as an online portal…

Thanks to Go-Jek’s diversification strategy, it’s pretty easy to get a glimpse about the company’s future direction based on what companies they’ve acquired or shook hands with. This time around, it’s come out that the US$9 billion-worth company gained a majority stake in Philippine blockchain-based platform Coins.ph. Since their entry into Singapore as a ride-hailing contender, it seems like Go-Jek is interested in going toe-to-toe with Grab in conquering a slice of the Southeast Asian market. For our interests, this is clear in the application of both Go-Pay and GrabPay, the fintech arm of both companies, respectively. We think there’s more to…

With a population of over 100 million, just 31% of adults having a bank account, and a mobile penetration of 58%, the Philippines is a fertile ground for fintech innovation. Currently, only 4% of all transactions are made online in the Philippines, leaving considerable growth opportunities, according to our latest Philippines Fintech Startup Report. The Philippines fintech startup map Fintech is growing steadily in the Philippines with payments currently standing as the most crowded segment, representing 33% of all fintech companies in the Philippines. Payments startups in the Philippines include Ayannah, a leading provider of mobile commerce and payment…