The success of any business, big and small, relies on its ability to collect efficiently while creating value for customers, employees, and investors. This is what Filipino tech startup Lista PH aims to do by helping small businesses (particularly Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises or MSMEs), freelancers, and individuals gain access to free digital tools with the use of their smartphones.
Lista PH, as a financial inclusion app, provides Filipinos a free and secure way of managing finances with features such as tracking debts, recording transactions, and even issuing invoices.
The startup is on an upward trajectory of operations with its mobile app downloaded more than 300,000 times already since September 2021 and has recorded around PHP650M in debt collection with the help of the software system.
This free app has two (02) key features: Cash Flow and Utang (Loan) Management. Under the Cash Flow feature, users can record their money in and out, and automatically see their finances on a daily, weekly, or even monthly basis with an option to generate and download financial statements.
The well-loved feature of Lista PH is the Utang (Loan) Management module with debt collection rather a sensitive issue in the Filipino culture. The mobile app lets users send free payment reminders and based on user testimonials, repayment has been three times faster since they started using the Lista PH app.
“As a business owner, it is hard if you don’t keep track of your finances because you’re going blindly. Most entrepreneurs, those who track money, still use pen and paper and we saw a huge opportunity in helping them grow, essentially by starting to digitize them,” according to Aaron Villegas, Co-Founder of Lista PH.
At the onset of the ongoing pandemic, business processes digitization has proved to be a very impactful tool to ensure the continuity of operations. With the country being under several community quarantine cycles for two (02) years since 2020, MSMEs were the hardest hit in the economy.
Villegas came from a family running a sari-sari store for more than thirty (30) years, allowing him to witness firsthand the daily struggles of small businesses. Khriz Lim, the other co-founder of the startup, was the former Senior Marketing Manager of Grab in Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines. Both Villegas and Lim are eager to help more MSMEs embrace digital technology while improving their financial literacy and eventually replacing pen and paper with easy-to-use technology.
More than just a tech startup, the founders consider Lista PH as financial inclusion advocacy, and with them to support their journey is Brian Cu, the former President and Co-founder of Grab Philippines, as one of their investors.
Lista PH’s roster of local and regional investors includes Monde Nissin Family Ventures Willy Arifin, Jupiter Bank Chief Executive Officer Jitendra Gupta, Pinelabs Chief Executive Officer Amrish Rau, CRED founder Kunal Shah, Google Asia Pacific Senior Execs Aurelien Pichon and Alap Bharadwaj, and other prominent angel investors.
In addition, the startup is also backed by Saison Capital bank in Japan as well as East Ventures and 1982 Ventures, which are venture capital firms that fund promising early fintech startups in Southeast Asia.
Lista PH is currently available as a free download from Google Play.