Voyager raises $210 million, heads for unicorn+ status

MANILA, Philippines — Voyager Innovations Inc. has raised $210 million in fresh funds from existing shareholders and new investors, a development that elevates the company’s valuation to unicorn plus status at nearly $1.4 billion.

The new funds will be used by Voyager to launch Maya Bank services such as savings and credit, which will be offered seamlessly across PayMaya’s platforms for consumers and enterprises.

It will also be utilized for the expansion of PayMaya’s offering, with new products like cryptocurrency, micro-investments, and insurance.

Voyager said new investor SIG Venture Capital, the Asian venture capital arm of SIG, led the latest funding round.

Other new investors include Singapore-based global investor EDBI and investment holding company First Pacific Co. Ltd.

Voyager’s existing shareholders composed of telco giant PLDT Inc., global investment firm KKR, technology company Tencent, International Finance Corp. (IFC), IFC Emerging Asia Fund, and IFC Financial Institutions Growth Fund also participated in the round.

“The strong endorsement from our new shareholders and participation of our existing investors in this fundraising validates the company’s ability to expand into neobanking and add new cutting-edge financial products and services,” Voyager and PayMaya president Shailesh Baidwan said.

Voyager said its integrated ecosystem approach uniquely positions the company among e-wallets, banks, and fintech players in the country.

In June last year, Voyager raised $167 million to accelerate the growth of PayMaya’s digital payments business and expand to new and inclusive products.

PayMaya, which has over 47 million registered users across its consumer platforms as of end-March, is the only fintech serving all segments of consumers and enterprises with a widely used consumer e-wallet app, an enterprise payment processing business, and the most extensive on-ground agent network through Smart Padala.

PayMaya has built the end-to-end rails for this unique ecosystem over the years and now plans to leverage such infrastructure with proprietary applications, especially for launching Maya Bank services such as consumer and merchant credit and savings.

“We are excited to bring more game-changing innovations to millions of consumers and MSMEs with our integrated ecosystem as we address the pent-up demand for financial services,” Baidwan said.

Akshay Bajaj, who led the investment for SIG, said Maya Bank has the potential to be one of the most successful digital banks not just in the Philippines, but globally.