Voyager Becomes Second Philippine Unicorn After Raising $210 Million From SIG-Led Funding Round

Voyager Innovations—owner of e-wallet PayMaya and digital bank Maya Bank—has become the Philippines’ second unicorn after raising $210 million from new investors led by SIG Venture Capital, the Asian venture capital arm of U.S. investment firm Susquehanna International Group.

“With this milestone, we are excited to leap forward and bring the best of PayMaya and Maya Bank to help unlock the digital economy for the underserved and unbanked Filipinos,” Orlando Vea, founder and CEO of Voyager and PayMaya, said in a statement.

Other new investors in this funding round—which propelled Voyager’s valuation to $1.4 billion—include EDBI, the investment arm of Singapore’s Economic Development Board, as well as Hong Kong-listed First Pacific Co., which is controlled by Indonesian billionaire Anthony Salim. Existing investors such as Philippine telecom giant PLDT, U.S. buyout firm KKR and the investment units of the International Finance Corp. also participated.

With the backing of new and existing shareholders, Voyager aims to scale up Maya Bank’s operations after securing one of the six digital banking licenses from the Philippine Central Bank in September.

Voyager said it will use the fresh funding to launch Maya Bank’s savings and lending services, that will be made available across PayMaya’s consumer and enterprise platforms. It also plans to continue expanding PayMaya’s offerings with new products like cryptocurrency, micro-investments and insurance, in line with its goal to make it an all-in-one money app.

“Leveraging PayMaya’s distribution strength with enterprises and consumers, Maya Bank has the potential to be one of the most successful digital banks not just in the Philippines, but globally,” Akshay Bajaj, founding member of SIG Southeast Asia, said.

PayMaya had more than 47 million registered users as of March 31, 2022, more than two-thirds of the adult population in the Philippines. Its rival Mynt, whose e-wallet GCash claims to have more than 48 million users in the country, is the only other unicorn among Philippine startups. Mynt is backed by Ayala Corp.’s Globe Telecom and U.S. private equity firm Warburg Pincus.

The Philippines is among the fastest-growing digital economies in Southeast Asia, with the country’s digital transactions expected to more than double to $40 billion by 2025 from $17 billion last year, bolstered by the growth in e-commerce and growing popularity of e-wallets, according to the 2021 e-Conomy Southeast Asia report by Google, Temasek and Bain & Co.