NextPay unveils first email-based payments

MANILA, Philippines — Homegrown fintech startup NextPay has unveiled a first-of-its-kind payment service in the country as part of the expansion of its digital payment solutions.

Called Email Money, the payment service allows users to transfer money to any bank or e-wallet without the need for the recipient’s account details.

Instead, only an email is needed.

NextPay said that with Email Money, it is providing growing businesses with greater convenience when transferring funds, paying suppliers or customers by removing the need to collect and manage their recipient’s bank details.

The new service also adds another layer of privacy, especially for small businesses that use their personal bank accounts for their transactions.

Further, it lessens the incidence of human error, as the sender does not need to input long bank account details, reducing the process of manual verification.

“We are giving our customers more options to transfer funds through Email Money,” NextPay chief executive officer and co-founder Don Pansacola said.

“By introducing the country’s first payment service that enables users to transfer money to any bank or e-wallet via email, we are empowering NextPay customers to streamline their financial needs and allow them to focus on growing their business,” he said.

Email Money is one of the digital banking solutions that the company developed through the $1.9-million financing it raised from its pre-seed and seed funding rounds last year.

The funding rounds were led by Silicon Valley-based startup accelerator Y Combinator, Singapore-based venture capitalist Golden Gate Ventures, and Gentree Fund, a private investment vehicle of the Sy family of the SM Group.

“We constantly pursue new innovations that are relevant to our target market – the micro, small and medium enterprises. Email Money is a solution fit for businesses that need to process refunds or for those who want to settle their obligations early to finalize their book,” NextPay chief experience officer and co-founder Aldrich Tan said.

In 2021, NextPay surpassed P1 billion in total transaction volume as its customer base grew by 20 times.

NextPay plans to introduce more financial tools and services tailored for MSMEs this year, including cryptocurrency services, bills payment, lending and corporate cards.

For sending money via email, NextPay users will have to choose Email Money under the recipient’s receiving option and input the recipient’s email and phone number.

The recipient will receive an email to notify them of the transaction once the transfer has been completed.

Recipients may then choose which bank or e-wallet they would like to receive their funds and confirm their identity with a one-time password.

Both the sender and receiver will receive notifications when the funds have been successfully received.

If the link remains unopened after the availability period, the funds will be transferred back to the sender’s account.