SIG leads $210m round for Philippines fintech player Voyager
Voyager Innovations, a Philippines financial technology company, has raised USD 210m led by SIG Venture Capital at a valuation of USD 1.4 bn.
Singapore-based EDBI and First Pacific joined as new investors. Voyager’s parent, local telecom provider PLDT, also took part, alongside KKR, Tencent Holdings, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), and two funds managed by the IFC’s asset management unit.
The new capital will go towards the launch Maya Bank services such as savings and credit, which will be offered to users of the core PayMaya payments platform. PayMaya is also expanding into areas like cryptocurrency, micro-investments, and insurance.
Voyager obtained a digital banking license for Maya Bank in September 2021 and began pilot tests last March.
The company has raised more than USD 800m in the past four years. KKR and Tencent put in USD 175m in 2018 and then IFC and one of the IFC Asset Management funds contributed USD 40m. A further USD 120m came in April 2020 as part of an ongoing growth round. In June 2021, it secured another USD 167m.
Voyager operates platforms across payments, remittances, lending, and marketing, with a focus on financial inclusion. The Philippines is an archipelagic nation where one-third of cities and towns have no banking presence. Moreover, only one in three residents has a formal bank account – and only 3% of those borrow money from banks – while three in five have no insurance or investments.
PayMaya started from payment services and has now embraced all segments of consumers and enterprises with a consumer e-wallet app, enterprise payment processing business, and an extensive on-ground network with 63,000 agents.
On the consumer side, PayMaya had over 47m registered users as of March. This equates to more than two-thirds of the adult population of The Philippines.
On the enterprise side, PayMaya is the largest domestic digital payments processor for retailers, food and beverage vendors, gas stations, e-commerce merchants, and government agencies. More than 630,000 online and offline touchpoints accept digital payments from e-wallets and QR codes to any credit, debit, and prepaid card.
The company expanded into shopping with an in-app PayMaya mall to book flights and tickets for movies and events, buy online games, pay bills, and stream music.
Last year, PayMaya started making loans to micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) through its dedicated lending arm. MSMEs - now served by Maya Bank as well - account for 62.8% of the national labour force. However, only 24% have access to loans or credit lines from formal financial institutions.
“The PayMaya team is a world-class set of professionals who have built 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, ” said Akshay Bajaj who led the investment for SIG.
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