Mynt is the company behind Philippine mobile wallet GCash with 48 million users and projected 3 trillion pesos (US$59 billion) in gross transaction value this year. The company said on Tuesday it raised US$300 million in capital from U.S. private equity firms Warburg Pincus and Insight Partners, valuing the financial technology firm at US$2 billion.
The company is partly owned by Globe Telecom, Ayala Corp, Bow Wave, and Ant Financial, the financial technology arm of Alibaba. With the news funds, Mynt will be expanding its digital financial services offerings to support the country’s financial inclusion agenda. The company said that it is currently on track to reach PHP3 trillion of gross transaction value, 3x times more than last year’s figure.
Mynt added that it also recorded peak daily app log-ins and daily active transactions of 19 million and 12 million, respectively.
Following the latest round, Globe and Ant’s stake in Mynt will be diluted to 35% each, while Bow Wave and Ayala will have 14% and 5%, respectively. The new investors will collectively hold 11%, Globe Senior Vice President Yolanda Crisanto told Nikkei Asia.
The fundraising comes as Mynt’s GCash, a widely used mobile app for merchant payments and money transfers, makes inroads into financial services such as credit and insurance. The company plans to launch “buy now, pay later” products within the year.
GCash currently has 48 million users — nearly half the country’s population — up from 33 million last year, and is on track to triple transaction volume to 3 trillion pesos ($60 billion) this year. At its peak, the number of daily active transactions reaches 12 million, while 3 million merchants use the app, Mynt said.
GCash’s growth has been underpinned by migration to mobile payments in the face of prolonged coronavirus lockdowns. The share of digital payments volume in the Philippines doubled to around 20% last year from 2018, according to the country’s central bank.
The latest funding round raises the profile of Mynt and could help shift the spotlight to the Philippines as a possible destination for such financing in Southeast Asia, a region home to unicorns such as Grab and Gojek.
“Together with the continued support of Mynt’s existing shareholders, we are confident of furthering Mynt’s market leadership and creating positive and transformative disruption in the Philippine financial services sector,” said Mynt chair and Globe CEO Ernest Cu.
Saurabh Agarwal, managing director of Warburg Pincus, said: “The investment into Mynt marks our continued commitment and strong belief in the long-term prospects of the Philippines as one of the fastest-growing digital economies in the region.”
Read more: AsiaNikkei, FintechNewsPH
Trade Stocks: https://gtrade.ph/
Trade Crypto: https://www.binance.com/en/futures/ref/stockbytesph
Get a 10% discount on Binance trading fees: BNWCMBAU
*The owner of StockBytes PH is a licensed Stockbroker and Financial Advisor, contact us if you want to open an account and start investing in stocks.
Ready to start your financial journey? email us at [email protected] or follow our social media account and join our groups, Cheers!
