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In a round led by Warburg Pincus, Insight Partners, and Bow Wave Capital Management, Philippines-based mobile payment company Mynt has secured $300 million in new funding. The investment, which also featured participation from Itai Tsiddon, Amplo Ventures, Globe Telecom, and Ayala Corporation, gives Mynt a valuation of more than $2 billion and solidifying the company’s status as the biggest technology unicorn based in the Philippines.
“We have been able to continuously expand by introducing game-changing innovations while improving our profitability profile,” Mynt president and CEO Martha Sazon. “We are excited about our new partnership with Warburg, Insight, Itali Tsiddon, and Amplo, as they each bring strategic value to our team in the pursuit of our vision towards finance for all.”
Owned by Philippine mobile operator Globe Telecom, Mynt is the company behind the GCash app. The popular solution enables customers to buy prepaid airtime; pay bills at more than 600 partner billers throughout the Philippines; send and receive money anywhere in the country; as well as access savings, credit, insurance, and investment products and services. GCash currently has more than 48 million users.
Most recently, Mynt has piloted a new cash loan offering, GLoan, that enables qualified borrowers to take out loans of up to PHP25,000 (approximately $500 USD) that can be repaid over 12 months. GLoan joins the company’s GCredit offering, which disburses more than PHP1 billion ($200 million USD) in loans every month and has disbursed PHP15 billion ($3 billion USD) as of June of this year. Mynt notes that its GCredit solution has the best repayment rates with the lowest number of past-due and non-performing loans locally. Unsurprisingly, Mynt is also looking to offer Buy Now Pay Later services “within the year” as well.
Mynt’s GCash is also one of the growing number of financial apps to incorporate pro-environmental functionality into its solution. The app has a feature, GForest, that serves as a gamified environmental stewardship program that enables users to convert points earned from using GCash into a virtual tree. These virtual trees are then planted as actual trees in specific locations in the Philippines. Mynt says that it has 8.7 million users of GForest within the GCash app.
Founded in 2015, Mynt has been recognized as a leader in the digital transformation of payments and other financial services in the Philippines during the COVID-19 pandemic. With nearly half the country’s population using its technology, Mynt is on pace to reach a gross transaction value of PHP3 trillion, more than triple of what was achieved last year. The company has reported peak daily app log-ins of 19 million and daily active transactions of 12 million.
Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.
Central and Eastern Europe
- Grover, a German technology rental platform, partnered with Solarisbank and Visa to launch a new Visa-branded debit card.
- Kazakh fintech giant Kaspi announced plans to acquire the Ukrainian subsidiary of BTA Bank.
- German-based Raisin Bank leveraged cloud banking technology from Mambu to launch its own Banking-as-a-Service offering.
Middle East and Northern Africa
- Egyptian B2B ecommerce company Kuzlo raised an undisclosed amount of pre-seed funding.
- Israeli fintech HoneyBook secured $250 million in Series E funding, earns $2.4 billion valuation.
- Saudi Arabian fintech Neo Leap granted right to manage transactions via Saudi Payments.
Central and Southern Asia
- Indian fintech Paytm inked more than 100 institutional investors for its upcoming IPO.
- Pakistan-based private bank Bank Alfalah collaborated with Adal Fintech to offer digital supply chain financing for SMEs in Pakistan.
- The Express Tribune profiled Pakistani, women-led fintech startup Oraan.
Latin America and the Caribbean
- Argentina-based fintech Ualá acquired Mexican bank ABC Capital.
- Chilean asset manager Fintual raised $39 million in a round led by Sequoia Capital.
- São Paulo, Brazil-based Banking-as-a-Service fintech Swap scored $25 million in Series A funding in a round led by Tiger Global Management.
Asia-Pacific
- Hong Kong based payment infrastructure provider XanPool secured $27 million in Series A funding.
- Singapore-based loyalty platform ShopBack acquired Buy Now Pay Later company hoolah.
- Siam Commercial Bank holding company SCBx Group purchased a 51% stake in Thailand-based cryptocurrency exchange Bitkub.
Sub-Saharan Africa
- Payhippo, a Nigerian fintech that helps small businesses secure financing, closed a $3 million seed funding round this week.
- South African payments company Peach Payments entered the Mauritian market as part of its pan-African expansion.
- African cross-border payments company Chipper Cash raised $150 million in a Series C extension round, earning a valuation of $2 billion.
Photo by Meo Fernando from Pexels