Peter Thiel-Backed Philippine Fintech Startup Raises $31 Million, Aims To Be A One-Stop Shop For Southeast Asia’s Financial Needs

Manila-based fintech startup PayMongo—backed by the likes of PayPal cofounder Peter Thiel, payments giant Stripe and famed Silicon Valley accelerator Y Combinator—has raised a $31 million Series B funding round, bringing the total investment in the three-year-old startup to nearly $46 million.

“This investment is a testament to our growth and the continued growth of our merchants,” said PayMongo cofounder and CEO Francis Plaza, a Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia alum from 2020, in a statement. “With this Series B, we will invest further in our merchants’ successes by giving them more means to move money seamlessly online.”

Investors in the Series B funding round include Tinder cofounder Justin Mateen’s JAM Fund and Philippine venture capital firms ICCP SBI Venture Partners and Kaya Founders, which is led by Lisa Gokongwei, a member of the billionaire family that controls the JG Summit conglomerate. Existing investors Global Founders Capital and SOMA Capital, both based in San Francisco, also participated in the round.

“As one of PayMongo’s first investors, I’ve seen their path from simplifying payments for a handful of businesses to now being a company that thousands of merchants depend on for their day-to-day operations,” Mateen said in the statement. “I’m excited by their progress and thrilled to support the team once again as they generate greater economic opportunities through the digital economy.”

The latest round comes less than a year after PayMongo raised $12 million in a Series A funding round. In 2019, the startup raised $2.7 million in seed funding.

PayMongo, an honoree of last year’s Forbes Asia 100 to Watch, offers integration tools for businesses to accept a range of digital payment options, including credit cards and e-wallets, as a platform that Plaza has described as “Stripe for the Philippines.”

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The startup says that since its Series A funding round in 2020, it tripled growth in merchant base and quadrupled growth in monthly transaction volumes. Going forward, PayMongo will target small- and medium-sized enterprises, which along with micro enterprises account for 99% of businesses in the Philippines, but are historically underserved by traditional payment providers. PayMongo also stated it aims to lower the barriers to entry for Filipino businesses to the digital economy. 

“While payment acceptance is crucial, it is just one of the many services that entrepreneurs need to build a successful online business,” said Plaza. “Our goal is to create a one-stop shop for all these financial needs in the broader Southeast Asian region, starting with the Philippines.”

The Philippines was Southeast Asia’s fastest growing digital market in 2021, according to a report by Google, Singaporean state investment company Temasek and consulting firm Bain & Company. The country’s internet economy is expected to grow from $17 billion in 2021 to $40 billion by 2025, according to the report, driven by a steep increase in the adoption of digital services.

As consumers and merchants in the Philippines embrace digital platforms, spurred by the Covid-19 pandemic, the report also suggested that deal activity is on track to hit the highest record in recent years, as investors become accustomed to the “new normal” in dealmaking and fund digital services.