The funding will enable the rollout of new features and products as part of PayMongo’s aggressive growth strategy
Philippines-based B2B online payment platform PayMongo has raised US$12 million in its Series A round of financing, the company announced in a statement yesterday.
The funding was led by American fintech unicorn Stripe, with participation from its existing investors Y Combinator and Global Founders Capital, who were joined by new investor New York-based early-stage venture firm Bedrock Capital, the statement said.
It added that the fresh capital grows PayMongo’s total funding pool to nearly $15 million a year since the company was launched in June 2019 with $2.7 million in seed funding.
The Series A round will enable the company to roll out new features and products as part of its ‘aggressive product roadmap’, and bolster its product, design, and engineering teams, the statement further said.
“The Series A funding builds on an exceptional first year for PayMongo. We’re thrilled to have amazing investors to support our mission of building the digital economic infrastructure in the Philippines,” CEO and Co-founder of PayMongo Francis Plaza said in the statement.
“We are committed to build the best payment experience for Filipino businesses,” Plaza added.
PayMongo receives a boost amid the growing fintech landscape in the Philippines
PayMongo offers an enterprise-level payments solution for online businesses, allowing companies to receive payments from customers via cards, e-wallets, OTC or from Coins.ph. The company charges a fee of 1.5% to 3.5% plus an additional flat fee of PHP10-PHP15 depending on the mode of payment.
Plaza, along with Co-founders Edwin Lacierda, Jaime Hing, and Luis Sia, envisioned the company as the Philippines’ version of Stripe.
The startup is incubated by Y Combinator as part of its 2019 summer batch. Y Combinator also counts as PayMongo’s seed investors, joining Stripe, Founders Fund, Global Founders Capital, and angels including Peter Thiel.
The statement noted that the volume of PayMongo’s transactions has spiked 15 times this year, and the company had on boarded thousands of Filipino businesses within a month of the Philippines lockdown in March.
“Given the disruption caused by COVID-19, a service like theirs is simply vital for the country’s businesses and economic future,” APAC Business Lead at Stripe Noah Pepper said in the statement.
“We’ve been impressed with the PayMongo team and the speed at which they’ve made digital payments more accessible for so many businesses across the Philippines. We fully support their vision to bring many more Filipino businesses online,” Pepper added.
The Philippines is one of Southeast Asia’s biggest Internet economies. Digital products and services are expected to drive 40% of the country’s GDP by 2021, driven by the growth in fintech and digital commerce solutions.
Digital payments solutions in the Southeast Asian region are expected to cross $1 trillion by 2025, with the Philippines recording the highest expected annual growth rate between 2019 and 2025 at 13%, according to a Bain report.
Moreover, 95% of SMEs in the Philippines surveyed by the report expressed interest in consolidated fintech solutions, the most receptive response across all surveyed Southeast Asian regions in the report.
PayMongo noted in the statement that the value of digital transactions in the island nation had surged by 42% percent between January and April 2020, and is expected to meet targets set by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, the central bank of the Philippines.
“PayMongo is enabling businesses to meet rapidly growing online demand with intuitive, easy to use products,” Principal at Bedrock Capital Spencer Peterson, said in the statement. “We’re impressed by the pace at which this team executes and thrilled to support their vision for the future of digital payments and commerce.”
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