Mynt, the Philippines-based payments app, has become the country’s first tech unicorn after raising over $300 million in a funding round that valued the company at over $2 billion.
The company, which is the fintech arm of Globe Telecom and the operator of popular mobile wallet GCash, announced that the funding round was co-anchored by global investment giant Warburg Pincus and private equity and venture capital investor Insight Partners.
Existing investors Globe Telecom, Philippine conglomerate Ayala Corp, and US investment firm Bow Wave Capital as well as angel investor Itai Tsiddon and VC firm Amplo Ventures also participated in the funding round.
“This is further proof that our growth and achievements have not gone unnoticed,” said Martha Sazon, President and CEO of Mynt.
Founded in 2004, Mynt was 45% owned by each Ant Group and Globe Telecom, while Philippine conglomerate Ayala Corporation held the remaining 10% prior to the latest funding round.
Mynt offers a full array of financial services, including credit, savings, insurance, loans, and investments. The assets under management of its GSave product have grown to over P9 billion ($178 million), from P5 billion in 2020.
GCash, on the other hand, recorded a gross transaction value of over 1 trillion pesos ($20 billion) last year, spurred by services like online payments, bank cash-in, and money remittance.
In January, Mynt closed a $175 million funding round that valued the company at nearly $1 billion from Bow Wave and existing investors. It claims to have served over 48 million people, or nearly half of the country’s population. The current number of its merchants and social sellers stands at 3 million.
The company has also recorded peak daily app log-ins and daily active transactions of 19 million and 12 million, respectively, according to the announcement.
“We believe that GCash has created the most compelling product to reach the massively underserved market in the Philippines,” said Deven Parekh, Managing Director at Insight Partners.
Ernest Cu, chairman of the board of Mynt and president and CEO of Globe, said the investment from Warburg Pincus, Insight Partners, and the other investors “further validates the strides” that Mynt has made in providing access to financial services to more Filipinos.
“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,” he added.
The company announced looking at launching “Buy Now, Pay Later” products within the year.
“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,” said Warburg Pincus managing director Saurabh Agarwal.
About 70% of the country’s adult population is either unbanked or underbanked with very low penetration of financial products, Agarwal noted. At the same time, the country’s economy is growing at 2-3 times the rate of developed markets. As this demand for financial services continues to grow, Agarwal expects much of it to be served digitally.
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