Filipino fintech startup NextPay, the digital financial solutions platform, has raised US$1.6 million (over P80 million) in seed funding from well-known international and local investors, allowing it to accelerate its goal of putting the power of big banks in the hands of small businesses.
Venture capitalists Golden Gate Ventures (Singapore) and Gentree Fund (Philippines) led the oversubscribed seed financing round. Golden Gate Ventures has interests in digital leaders Omise, Codapay, BukuWarung, Stripe, and Xendit, while Gentree Fund is the private investment vehicle of the Sy Family, owners of the SM Investments Corporation.
Among other foreign investors that participated in the seed funding round are Tribe Capital, Broadhaven Ventures, 1982 Ventures, Saison Capital, and Razorpay, Rohit Mulani of GoTrade, and Abhinay Peddisetty and Chinmay Chauhan of BukuWarung. Goodwater Capital, which has invested in Facebook, Spotify, and Twitter, also supported the funding exercise.
NextPay is a platform that provides underserved customers democratized access to easy and affordable financial services such as digital invoicing, cash management, and batch payments to any bank or e-wallet in the Philippines.
Locally, NextPay’s seed funding was backed by Kickstart Ventures of the Ayala Group, Foxmont Capital, and First Asia Ventures, as well as angel investor Lisa Gokongwei of JG Summit, among many others.
“We believe that business banking will continue to digitally evolve, as the Philippines accelerates its digital transformation initiatives. This investment supports our goal of putting the power of big banks in the hands of small businesses,” according to NextPay Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder Don Pansacola.
Proceeds of the seed funding will be used to grow NextPay’s suite of services, expand its strong customer base, and introduce new digital banking solutions to micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs).
The fundraising marks a milestone for NextPay after graduating from the prestigious Y-Combinator program in April when it received US$125,000 in pre-seed investment.
“NextPay uniquely addresses the local needs of its customers by matching SMEs looking to go digital with mobile and convenient digital financial tools, which scales dynamically with their businesses. As a key infrastructure layer for our budding Philippines startup ecosystem, Gentree believes that NextPay will play a key role in supporting our entrepreneurs and enabling the Philippines digital economy,” said Gentree Fund Vice-President Mark Sng.
Launched amid the pandemic in 2020, NextPay empowers growing companies, entrepreneurs, and freelancers with a spectrum of digital financial services that were previously unavailable to them because of steep requirements and high fees that are typically aimed at larger, more developed companies that can afford them.
“The success of our seed funding exercise will help us accelerate our plans of introducing more meaningful digital banking solutions, including, but not limited to, corporate cards, loans, and integrations with other platforms focused on MSMEs. We will also be hiring more talent to make the NextPay platform more comprehensive, simple, and easier to use and avail of. We aim to provide the best service and experience so that our customers can focus more on growing their businesses,” said NextPay Chief Experience Officer and Co-Founder Aldrich Tan.
NextPay seeks to partner and collaborate with other organizations, businesses, and startups for integrations and partnerships, as it expands its digital banking solutions to create a more seamless financial ecosystem for its clients.
Since its launch in 2020, NextPay has processed over US$9.1M (PHP457.5M) in digital transactions for more than 100 businesses with over 3,500 employees. Through its pay-per-use model, NextPay offers competitive fees that are lower than usual banking rates. Customers of NextPay also enjoy reduced processing times from as much as 3 days to just 30 minutes or less.