MANILA, Philippines — Local fintech startup NextPay is accelerating its growth by expanding the company’s digital financial solutions after it successfully raised nearly $2 million in fresh funding.
NextPay has introduced various digital financial solutions since it secured fresh funding in the first half, including offline remittance, payment links, and the beta testing of corporate cards.
“Since we have successfully raised fresh funding from our investors in the first half of 2021, we have been working to accelerate our growth and introduce more digital banking solutions to support the needs of growing business, freelancers, entrepreneurs and even startups,” NextPay chief experience officer and co-founder Aldrich Tan said.
NextPay was able to raise $1.9 million in an oversubscribed seed funding round led by Singapore-based venture capitalist Golden Gate Ventures and Gentree Fund, a private investment vehicle of the Sy Family, which owns conglomerate SM Group.
An all-in-one digital banking solutions provider, Next-Pay was launched last year with the aim of empowering growing companies, entrepreneurs, and freelancers, with a spectrum of digital financial services.
As part of its continuing growth, the company has partnered with local online-to-offline payments provider Ayannah to allow its customers to disburse funds to unbanked recipients.
The partnership enables small businesses to send money to their employees, suppliers and customers through almost 10,000 partner remittance centers nationwide.
NextPay users may send money to a single individual or do batch disbursements to several recipients.
“We understand that a majority of our population are still unbanked, with only three out of 10 Filipinos owning a bank account. Even with the pervasiveness of e-wallets, a huge part of the population still does not have access to basic financial services,” NextPay chief executive officer and co-founder Don Pansacola said.
“NextPay aims to serve them by allowing unbanked recipients to receive funds through the nearest remittance centers in their area,” Pansacola said.
To use the NextPay platform in disbursing funds to their recipients, senders simply have to click on the “disbursements” tile on the NextPay dashboard and input the personal details of the recipient.
They can then choose “remittance center” as their receiving option and confirm the transaction.
NextPay said recipients could claim the funds through the almost 10,000 branches of remittance centers nationwide.
It said disbursement through remittance centers cost as low as P5 per transaction.
“This online-to-offline service enables us to strengthen our shared goal of providing basic financial services to more Filipinos – especially the unbanked. By partnering with NextPay, we are also simplifying the process of disbursements for growing businesses and even individuals,” Ayannah founder Mikko Perez said.
Aside from offline remittance, NextPay has also introduced payment links, a new feature that is useful for online sellers, as they only have to attach the payment link on their product description.
Payment links are easily generated and can be single-use or reusable. They allow businesses to collect customer payments easily by letting them click on a link that allows them to settle with the payment method they prefer.
Another digital financial solution introduced by the company is corporate cards, which allow business owners to monitor their transactions easily by having a virtual debit card where bills, subscriptions and company payments may be charged.
NextPay said this removes the need to use their personal cards for business expenses.
“We aim to be at the forefront of innovation for digital banking solutions in the Philippines in order to enable more small businesses to make big banking transactions with ease and convenience at very minimal costs. These new solutions are aimed at providing businesses with flexible options to transact and help them focus more on growing their businesses,” Pansacola said.