Fintech startup secures funding from Sy, Ayala groups

MANILA, Philippines — Local fintech startup NextPay has raised $1.6 million or over P80 million in seed funding from international and local investors, including the Sy family and the Ayala group.

Proceeds of the seed funding will allow NextPay, a digital financial solutions platform launched last year, to grow its suite of services, expand customer base, and introduce new digital banking solutions to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).

Leading the oversubscribed seed financing round are Singapore-based venture capitalist Golden Gate Ventures and Gentree Fund.

Golden Gate Ventures has interests in digital leaders Omise, Codapay, BukuWarung, Stripe, and Xendit, while Gentree Fund is a private investment vehicle of the Sy family, which owns conglomerate SM Investments Corp.

NextPay’s seed funding was also backed by local investors that include Kickstart Ventures of the Ayala Group, Foxmont Capital, and First Asia Ventures, as well as angel investor Lisa Gokongwei of JG Summit, among many others.

Meanwhile, among the many foreign investors that supported the funding exercise was Goodwater Capital, which has also invested in Facebook, Spotify and Twitter.

“We believe that business banking will continue to digitally evolve, as the Philippines accelerates its digital transformation initiatives. This investment supports our goal of putting the power of big banks in the hands of small businesses,” NextPay chief executive officer and co-founder Don Pansacola said.

Last  April, NextPay  received $125,000 in pre-seed investment.

It is a platform that provides underserved customers democratized access to easy and affordable financial services such as digital invoicing, cash management, and batch payments to any bank or e-wallet in the Philippines.

Since its launch last year, NextPay has processed over P457.5 million in digital transactions for more than 100 businesses with over 3,500 employees.

Through its pay-per-use model, NextPay offers competitive fees that are lower than usual banking rates.

The company’s customers also enjoy reduced processing times from as much as three days to just 30 minutes or less.

“The success of our seed funding exercise will help us accelerate our plans of introducing more meaningful digital banking solutions, including, but not limited to, corporate cards, loans, and integrations with other platforms focused on MSMEs,” NextPay CEO and co-founder Aldrich Tan said.